Auto-Release

Automatically creates releases based on pull requests and labels.

Specifications and practices

Auto-Release follows:

How it works

The workflow will trigger on pull requests to the main branch.

The following labels will inform the action what kind of release to create:

For a major release, and increasing the first number in the version use:
- major
- breaking
For a minor release, and increasing the second number in the version.
- minor
- feature
For a patch release, and increases the third number in the version.
- patch
- fix

When a pull request is closed, the action will create a release based on the labels and clean up any previous prereleases that was created.

Note: The labels can be configured using the MajorLabels, MinorLabels and PatchLabels parameters/settings in the configuration file to trigger on other labels.

Usage

The action can be configured using the following settings:

Name	Description	Default	Required
`AutoCleanup`	Control wether to automatically cleanup prereleases. If disabled, the action will not remove any prereleases.	`true`	false
`AutoPatching`	Control wether to automatically handle patches. If disabled, the action will only create a patch release if the pull request has a 'patch' label.	`true`	false
`ConfigurationFile`	The path to the configuration file. Settings in the configuration file take precedence over the action inputs.	`.github\auto-release.yml`	false
`CreateMajorTag`	Control wether to create a tag for major releases.	`true`	false
`CreateMinorTag`	Control wether to create a tag for minor releases.	`true`	false
`DatePrereleaseFormat`	The format to use for the prerelease number using .NET DateTime format strings.	`''`	false
`IgnoreLabels`	A comma separated list of labels that do not trigger a release.	`NoRelease`	false
`IncrementalPrerelease`	Control wether to automatically increment the prerelease number. If disabled, the action will ensure only one prerelease exists for a given branch.	`true`	false
`MajorLabels`	A comma separated list of labels that trigger a major release.	`major, breaking`	false
`MinorLabels`	A comma separated list of labels that trigger a minor release.	`minor, feature`	false
`PatchLabels`	A comma separated list of labels that trigger a patch release.	`patch, fix`	false
`VersionPrefix`	The prefix to use for the version number.	`v`	false
`WhatIf`	Control wether to simulate the action. If enabled, the action will not create any releases. Used for testing.	`false`	false

Configuration file

The configuration file is a YAML file that can be used to configure the action. By default, the configuration file is expected at .github\auto-release.yml, which can be changed using the ConfigurationFile setting. The actions configuration can be change by altering the settings in the configuration file.

DatePrereleaseFormat: 'yyyyMMddHHmm'
IncrementalPrerelease: false
VersionPrefix: ''

This example uses the date format for the prerelease, disables the incremental prerelease and removes the version prefix.

Example

Add a workflow in you repository using the following example:

name: Auto-Release

on:
  pull_request_target:
    branches:
      - main
    types:
      - closed
      - opened
      - reopened
      - synchronize
      - labeled

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}

jobs:
  Auto-Release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Auto-Release
        uses: PSModule/Auto-Release@v1
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }} # Used for GitHub CLI authentication

Permissions

If running the action in a restrictive mode, the following permissions needs to be granted to the action:

permissions:
  contents: write # Required to create releases
  pull-requests: write # Required to create comments on the PRs