Keep-a-changelog plugin for release-it

This release-it plugin maintains your CHANGELOG.md file according to the Keep A Changelog standards.

It updates the changelog automatically by:

replacing the ## [Unreleased] header with the current version and release date.
[optionally] adding a new ## [Unreleased] header as preparation for future changes.

It does not automatically populate the changelog with commit messages from the git history!

The idea and initial implementation comes from @eMarek.

npm install --save-dev @release-it/keep-a-changelog

In release-it config:

"plugins": {
  "@release-it/keep-a-changelog": {
    "filename": "CHANGELOG.md"
  }
}

Options

option	default value	description
filename	`'CHANGELOG.md'`	File with changelogs.
strictLatest	`true`	Entry of latest version must be present in order to get correct changelog. Set this option to `false` if you expect latest version without logs.
addUnreleased	`false`	It leaves "Unreleased" title row if set to `true`.
keepUnreleased	`false`	It leaves "Unreleased" title row unchanged if set to `true`.
addVersionUrl	`false`	Links the version to the according changeset. Uses GitHub-compatible URLs by default, see other options to configure the URL format.
versionUrlFormats	See below.	Determines the version URL format when `addVersionUrl` is set to `true`. Uses GitHub-compatible URLs by default.
head	`'HEAD'`	The git revision the new version tag is compared to in the Unreleased URL.

versionUrlFormats

The URL formats used when addVersionUrl is set to true. Example configuration for a repository in Azure DevOps:

"plugins": {
  "@release-it/keep-a-changelog": {
    "filename": "CHANGELOG.md",
    "head": "main",
    "addVersionUrl": true,
    "versionUrlFormats": {
      "repositoryUrl": "https://dev.azure.com/...",
      "unreleasedUrl": "{repositoryUrl}/branchCompare?baseVersion=GT{tagName}&targetVersion=GB{head}",
      "versionUrl": "{repositoryUrl}/branchCompare?baseVersion=GT{previousTag}&targetVersion=GT{tagName}",
      "firstVersionUrl": "{repositoryUrl}?version=GT{tagName}"
    }
  }
}

option	default value	description
repositoryUrl	`'https://{host}/{repository}'`	The format of the repository URL.
unreleasedUrl	`'{repositoryUrl}/compare/{tagName}...{head}'`	The format of the `[unreleased]` section URL.
versionUrl	`'{repositoryUrl}/compare/{previousTag}...{tagName}'`	The format of a release version URL.
firstVersionUrl	`'{repositoryUrl}/releases/tag/{tagName}'`	The format of the first release version URL, i.e. when no previous tags have been released.