Release It! 🚀

🚀 Generic CLI tool to automate versioning and package publishing related tasks:

• Execute test & build commands
• Bump version (in e.g.

  package.json

  )
• Git commit, tag, push
• Create release at GitHub or GitLab
• Generate changelog
• Publish to npm
• Manage pre-releases
• Hooks
• Extend with plugins
• Release from any CI/CD environment

Use release-it for version management and publish to anywhere with its versatile configuration, a powerful plugin system, and use hooks to execute any command you need to test, build, and/or publish your project.

Links

• See CHANGELOG.md for major/breaking updates, and releases for a detailed version history.
• To contribute, please read CONTRIBUTING.md first.
• Please open an issue if anything is missing or unclear in this documentation.

Installation

Although release-it is a generic release tool, installation requires npm. A

package.json

npm init release-it

Alternatively, install it manually, and add the

release

package.json

npm install --save-dev release-it

{
  "name": "my-package",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "release": "release-it"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "release-it": "*"
  }
}

Now you can run

npm run release

--

npm run release
npm run release -- minor --ci

Global usage

Use release-it in any (non-npm) project, take it for a test drive, or install it globally:

# Run release-it from anywhere (without installation)
npx release-it

Install globally and run from anywhere
npm install --global release-it
release-it

Usage

Release a new version:

release-it

You will be prompted to select the new version, and more questions will follow based on your setup.

Make sure to run release-it from the root of the project to prevent potential issues.

Dry Run

To show the interactivity and the commands it would execute:

release-it --dry-run

Note: read-only commands are still executed (

$ ...

! ...

$ git rev-parse --git-dir
.git
! git add package.json
! git commit --message="Release 0.8.3"

Configuration

Out of the box, release-it has sane defaults, and plenty of options to configure it. Put (only) the options to override in a configuration file. This is where release-it looks for configuration:

• .release-it.json

• .release-it.js

  (or

  .cjs

  ; export the configuration object:

  module.exports = {}

  )

• .release-it.yaml

  (or

  .yml

  )

• .release-it.toml

• package.json

  (in the

  release-it

  property)

Use

--config

.release-it.json

{
  "git": {
    "commitMessage": "chore: release v${version}"
  },
  "github": {
    "release": true
  }
}

Or in a

release-it

package.json

{
  "name": "my-package",
  "devDependencies": {
    "release-it": "*"
  },
  "release-it": {
    "github": {
      "release": true
    }
  }
}

Or use YAML in

.release-it.yml

git:
  requireCleanWorkingDir: false

Or TOML in

.release-it.toml

[hooks]
"before:init" = "npm test"

Any option can also be set on the command-line, and will have highest priority. Example:

release-it minor --git.requireBranch=master --github.release

Boolean arguments can be negated by using the

no-

release-it --no-npm.publish

Interactive vs. CI mode

By default, release-it is interactive and allows you to confirm each task before execution:

By using the

--ci

Use

--only-version

Latest version

How does release-it determine the latest version?

1. For projects with a

   package.json

   , its

   version

   will be used (see npm to skip this).
2. Otherwise, release-it uses the latest Git tag to determine which version should be released.
3. As a last resort,

   0.0.0

   will be used as the latest version.

Alternatively, a plugin can be used to override this (e.g. to manage a

VERSION

composer.json

• @release-it/bumper to read from or bump the version in any file
• @release-it/conventional-changelog to get a recommended bump based on commit messages
• release-it-calver-plugin to use CalVer (Calendar Versioning)

Git

Git projects are supported well by release-it, automating the tasks to stage, commit, tag and push releases to any Git remote.

→ See Git for more details.

GitHub Releases

The "Releases" tab on GitHub projects links to a page to store the changelog cq. release notes. To add GitHub releases in your release-it flow:

• Configure

  github.release: true

• Obtain a personal access token (release-it only needs "repo" access; no "admin" or other scopes).
• Make sure the token is available as an environment variable.

→ See GitHub Releases for more details.

GitLab Releases

GitLab releases work just like GitHub releases:

• Configure

  gitlab.release: true

• Obtain a personal access token (release-it only needs the "api" scope).
• Make sure the token is available as an environment variable.

→ See GitLab Releases for more details.

Changelog

By default, release-it generates a changelog, to show and help select a version for the new release. Additionally, this changelog serves as the release notes for the GitHub or GitLab release.

The default command is based on

git log ...

git.changelog

github.releaseNotes

gitlab.releaseNotes

stdout

• GitHub and GitLab Releases
• auto-changelog
• Conventional Changelog
• Keep A Changelog

→ See Changelog for more details.

Publish to npm

With a

package.json

npm

package.json

package-lock.json

→ See Publish to npm for more details.

Manage pre-releases

With release-it, it's easy to create pre-releases: a version of your software that you want to make available, while it's not in the stable semver range yet. Often "alpha", "beta", and "rc" (release candidate) are used as identifier for pre-releases. An example pre-release version is

2.0.0-beta.0

→ See Manage pre-releases for more details.

Hooks

Use script hooks to run shell commands at any moment during the release process (such as

before:init

after:release

The format is

[prefix]:[hook]

[prefix]:[plugin]:[hook]

| part | value | | ------ | ------------------------------------------- | | prefix |

before

after

version

git

npm

github

gitlab

init

bump

release

Use the optional

:plugin

The core plugins include

version

git

npm

github

gitlab

Note that hooks like

after:git:release

git push

git.push: false

All commands can use configuration variables (like template strings). An array of commands can also be provided, they will run one after another. Some example release-it configuration:

{
  "hooks": {
    "before:init": ["npm run lint", "npm test"],
    "after:my-plugin:bump": "./bin/my-script.sh",
    "after:bump": "npm run build",
    "after:git:release": "echo After git push, before github release",
    "after:release": "echo Successfully released ${name} v${version} to ${repo.repository}."
  }
}

The variables can be found in the default configuration. Additionally, the following variables are exposed:

version
latestVersion
changelog
name
repo.remote, repo.protocol, repo.host, repo.owner, repo.repository, repo.project

All variables are available in all hooks. The only exception is that the additional variables listed above are not yet available in the

init

Use

--verbose

For the sake of verbosity, the full list of hooks is actually:

init

beforeBump

bump

beforeRelease

release

afterRelease

before:beforeRelease

Plugins

Since v11, release-it can be extended in many, many ways. Here are some plugins:

| Plugin | Description | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | @release-it/bumper | Read & write the version from/to any file | | @release-it/conventional-changelog | Provides recommended bump, conventional-changelog, and updates

CHANGELOG.md

Internally, release-it uses its own plugin architecture (for Git, GitHub, GitLab, npm).

→ See all release-it plugins on npm.

→ See plugins for documentation to write plugins.

Distribution repository

Some projects use a distribution repository. Generated files (such as compiled assets or documentation) can be distributed to a separate repository. Or to a separate branch, such as a

gh-pages

The

dist.repo

Metrics

Use

--disable-metrics

Troubleshooting & debugging

• With

  release-it --verbose

  (or

  -V

  ), release-it prints every custom script/hook and its output.
• With

  release-it -VV

  , release-it also prints every internal command and its output.
• Prepend

  DEBUG=release-it:* release-it [...]

  to print configuration and more error details.

Use

verbose: 2

-VV

Use release-it programmatically

While mostly used as a CLI tool, release-it can be used as a dependency to integrate in your own scripts. See use release-it programmatically for example code.

Example projects using release-it

• antonmedv/fx
• blockchain/blockchain-wallet-v4-frontend
• callstack/linaria
• ember-cli/ember-cli react-native-paper
• js-cookie/js-cookie
• mirumee/saleor
• mozilla/readability
• satya164/react-native-tab-view
• shipshapecode/shepherd
• swagger-api/swagger-ui + swagger-editor
• StevenBlack/hosts
• tabler + tabler-icons
• youzan/vant
• Repositories that depend on release-it
• GitHub search for filename:.release-it.json

Resources

• semver.org
• GitHub Help (→ About Releases)
• npm Blog: Publishing what you mean to publish
• npm Documentation: package.json
• Prereleases and npm
• Glob Primer (node-glob) (release-it uses globby)