Releasing¶

Releases are automated with Release Please. You do not edit version numbers or the changelog by hand.

Commit messages¶

Because the repository squash-merges pull requests, the PR title becomes the commit message on main — so the PR title must be a conventional commit.

A breaking change can also be flagged with a footer instead of the !:

feat: rework the patch definition format

BREAKING CHANGE: patches/*.json now requires a "base" field.

Anything hidden by changelog-sections (chore, ci, test, build) still appears in the commit history but not in the changelog.

What happens automatically¶

1. A push to main triggers .github/workflows/release-please.yml.
2. Release Please opens (or updates) a release PR containing the bumped version.txt, CHANGELOG.md, .release-please-manifest.json and, for a ! commit, a ⚠ BREAKING CHANGES section.
3. Merging that PR creates the git tag (vX.Y.Z), the GitHub Release, and the changelog entry.

Because the branch ruleset allows merge/squash/rebase and requires linear history, the release PR merges normally. The tag is not covered by the branch ruleset.

Approving the release PR's checks¶

The branch ruleset requires the test check before anything merges to main.

There is one wrinkle: a pull request created with the default GITHUB_TOKEN does not trigger workflows automatically, so the release PR's CI run arrives in action_required and sits there. It has to be approved once, then the checks run normally:

• UI: the PR shows a Workflow(s) awaiting approval banner — click Approve and run.
• CLI:

  RUN=$(gh run list --repo KRoperUK/smeg-plus-aux-patch \
      --branch release-please--branches--main --workflow CI \
      --json databaseId,conclusion --jq '[.[]|select(.conclusion=="action_required")][0].databaseId')
  gh api -X POST repos/KRoperUK/smeg-plus-aux-patch/actions/runs/$RUN/approve
  

The alternative is to give Release Please a personal access token (so its PRs trigger workflows like any other) — more setup, and a long-lived secret to hold.

Repository admins also have a pull_request-scoped bypass on the ruleset, so the release PR can be merged directly if you would rather not approve the run.

Configuration¶

• release-please-config.json — release type, changelog sections, version bump rules.
• .release-please-manifest.json — current released version (kept in sync by the bot).
• version.txt — the version file bumped by the simple release type.