cliff-jumper

A small CLI tool to create a semantic release and git-cliff powered Changelog

Description

When managing a collection of projects you often want to follow a standard CHANGELOG template for all of them, but you also do not want to have to setup the release flow for every package. This is where cliff-jumper comes in.

How this works

cliff-jumper uses a combination of conventional-recommended-bump and git-cliff to bump your package using semantic versioning (following a variation of the Angular preset (seen here)). It will:

1. Perform preflight checks to verify that the tool can run

2. Resolve which bump strategy should be used by using conventional-recommended-bump

   • If the CLI tool is ran inside a mono repo then only commits that affect the nested package will be considered!

3. Bump the version in your package.json using npm version with the resolved strategy

4. Validate that -t, --skip-tag (CLI flags) weren't provided or skipTag wasn't set to true in the config file

5. Update the CHANGELOG.md (or a different file if configured through --changelog-prepend-file) file using git-cliff

6. If --install was provided (or install: true set in the config file) then run the install command of the package manager (npm install, yarn install, or pnpm install) you used to call this CLI.

   • Important: when you install @favware/cliff-jumper globally this will always default to npm because of how NodeJS works. Therefore, if you wish for it to be yarn or npm make sure to add it as dev dependency to your project and call it locally.

7. Stage the package.json and CHANGELOG.md (or a different file if configured through --changelog-prepend-file) files

8. Commit the release

9. Tag the release

Installation

You can use the following command to install this package, or replace npm install -D with your package manager of choice.

npm install -D @favware/cliff-jumper

Or install it globally:

npm install -g @favware/cliff-jumper

Then call the script with cliff-jumper or cj:

cliff-jumper --name "my-package" --package-path "." # Add any other flags or use --help
cj --name "my-package" --package-path "." # Add any other flags or use --help

Alternatively you can call the CLI directly with npx:

npx @favware/cliff-jumper --name "my-package" --package-path "." # Add any other flags or use --help

Usage

You can provide all options through CLI flags:

Usage: cliff-jumper [options]

Options:
  -V, --version                                    output the version number
  -n, --name <string>                              The package name to release
  -p, --package-path <string>                      The path to the current package. For non-monorepos this is just "."
  --dry-run                                        Whether the package should be bumped or not. When this is set no actions will be taken and only the release strategy will be logged
  -sab, --skip-automatic-bump                      Whether to skip bumping the version (useful if this is the first version, or if you have manually set the version)
  --mono-repo                                      Whether the package to be bumped resides in a mono repo,
                                                   which enables Lerna-like scanning for what kind of version bump should be applied
                                                   Defaults to "true" when "org" is set, false otherwise
  --no-mono-repo                                   Whether the package to be bumped resides in a mono repo,
                                                   which enables Lerna-like scanning for what kind of version bump should be applied
                                                   Defaults to "true" when "org" is set, false otherwise
  -o, --org <string>                               The NPM org scope that should be used WITHOUT "@" sign or trailing "/"
  --preid [string]                                 The "prerelease identifier" to use as a prefix for the "prerelease" part of a semver
  --identifier-base <number>                       The base number (0 or 1) to be used for the prerelease identifier.
  --no-identifier-base                             Do not use a base number for the prerelease identifier.
  -c, --commit-message-template [string]           A custom commit message template to use.
                                                   Defaults to "chore({{name}}): release {{full-name}}@{{new-version}}"
                                                   You can use "{{new-version}}" in your template which will be dynamically replaced with whatever the new version is that will be published.
                                                   You can use "{{name}}" in your template, this will be replaced with the name provided through "-n", "--name" or the same value set in your config file.
                                                   You can use "{{full-name}}" in your template, this will be replaced "{{name}}" (when "org" is not provided), or "@{{org}}/{{name}}" (when "org" is provided).
  --tag-template [string]                          A custom tag template to use.
                                                   When "org" is provided this will default to "@{{org}}/{{name}}@{{new-version}}", for example "@favware/cliff-jumper@1.0.0"
                                                   When "org" is not provided this will default to "v{{new-version}}", for example "v1.0.0"
                                                   You can use "{{new-version}}" in your template which will be dynamically replaced with whatever the new version is that will be published.
                                                   You can use "{{org}}" in your template, this will be replaced with the org provided through "-o", "--org" or the same value set in your config file.
                                                   You can use "{{name}}" in your template, this will be replaced with the name provided through "-n", "--name" or the same value set in your config file.
                                                   You can use "{{full-name}}" in your template, this will be replaced "{{name}}" (when "org" is not provided), or "@{{org}}/{{name}}" (when "org" is provided).
  -i, --install                                    Whether to run npm install after bumping the version but before committing and creating a git tag. This is useful when you have a mono repo where bumping one package would then cause the lockfile to be out of date.
  --skip-changelog                                 Whether to skip updating your changelog file
                                                   default "true" when CI=true, "false" otherwise
  --no-skip-changelog                              Whether to skip updating your changelog file
                                                   default "true" when CI=true, "false" otherwise
  -t, --skip-tag                                   Whether to skip creating a git tag
                                                   default "true" when CI=true, "false" otherwise
  --no-skip-tag                                    Whether to skip creating a git tag
                                                   default "true" when CI=true, "false" otherwise
  -cpf, --changelog-prepend-file [string]          The file that git-cliff should use for the --prepend flag, defaults to ./CHANGELOG.md. This should be relative to the current working directory.
  --skip-commit [skipCommit...]                    Repeatable, each will be treated as a new entry. A list of SHA1 commit hashes that will be skipped in the changelog.
  --git-host-variant                               The git host variant. Git-cliff supports 4 hosting websites, GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, and BitBucket. By setting this option you control which api is used by git-cliff. Defaults to "github" for backwards compatibility.
  --git-repo                                       The git repository to use for linking to issues and PRs in the changelog.
                                                   You can pass the unique string "auto" to automatically set this value as {{org}}/{{name}} as provided from --org and --name
                                                   This should be in the format "owner/repo"
                                                   You can use the "GIT_REPO" environment variable to automatically set this value
  --git-token                                      A token to authenticate requests to the Git host API. This can be a GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, or BitBucket token. Which is used is determined by "--git-host-variant". This is required when using the "--git-repo" option.
                                                   You can also set the one of the following environment variables.
                                                   - GITHUB_TOKEN
                                                   - GITLAB_TOKEN
                                                   - GITEA_TOKEN
                                                   - BITBUCKET_TOKEN
                                                   - GH_TOKEN
  -pt, --push-tag                                  Whether to push the tag to the remote repository.
                                                   This will simply execute "git push && git push --tags" so make sure you have configured git for pushing properly beforehand.
  -npt, --no-push-tag                              Whether to push the tag to the remote repository.
                                                   This will simply execute "git push && git push --tags" so make sure you have configured git for pushing properly beforehand.
  -ghr, --github-release                           Note that this is only supported if "--git-host-variant" is set to "github"
                                                   Whether to create a release on GitHub, requires "--push-tag" to be enabled, otherwise there will be no tag to create a release from
                                                   For the repository the release is created on the value from "--git-repo" will be used
                                                   If the changelog section from git-cliff is empty, the release notes will be auto-generated by GitHub.
  -nghr, --no-github-release                       Note that this is only supported if "--git-host-variant" is set to "github"
                                                   Whether to create a release on GitHub, requires "--push-tag" to be enabled, otherwise there will be no tag to create a release from
                                                   For the repository the release is created on the value from "--git-repo" will be used
                                                   If the changelog section from git-cliff is empty, the release notes will be auto-generated by GitHub.
  -ghrd, --github-release-draft                    Note that this is only supported if "--git-host-variant" is set to "github"
                                                   Whether the release should be a draft
  -ghrpr, --github-release-pre-release             Note that this is only supported if "--git-host-variant" is set to "github"
                                                   Whether the release should be a pre-release
  -ghrl, --github-release-latest                   Note that this is only supported if "--git-host-variant" is set to "github"
                                                   Whether the release should be marked as the latest release, will try to read this value, then the value of --github-release, and then default to false. Please note that when setting --github-release-pre-release to `true` GitHub will prevent the release to
                                                   be marked as latest an this option will essentially be ignored.
  -ghrnt, --github-release-name-template [string]  Note that this is only supported if "--git-host-variant" is set to "github"
                                                   A GitHub release name template to use. Defaults to an empty string, which means GitHub will use the tag name as the release name.
                                                   You can use "{{new-version}}" in your template which will be dynamically replaced with whatever the new version is that will be published.
                                                   You can use "{{org}}" in your template, this will be replaced with the org provided through "-o", "--org" or the same value set in your config file.
                                                   You can use "{{name}}" in your template, this will be replaced with the name provided through "-n", "--name" or the same value set in your config file.
                                                   You can use "{{full-name}}" in your template, this will be replaced "{{name}}" (when "org" is not provided), or "@{{org}}/{{name}}" (when "org" is provided).
  -v, --verbose                                    Whether to print verbose information (default: false)
  -h, --help                                       display help for command

Or, you can set most of these options through a configuration file. This file should be located at your current working directory (where you're calling this package). It should be named .cliff-jumperrc, optionally suffixed with .json, .yaml, or .yml.

Config file fields

• --name maps to name
• --package-path maps to packagePath
• --dry-run maps to dryRun
• --skip-automatic-bump maps to skipAutomaticBump
• --mono-repo and --no-mono-repo map to monoRepo
• --org maps to org
• --preid maps to preid
• --identifier-base and --no-identifier-base map to identifierBase
• --commit-message-template maps to commitMessageTemplate
• --tag-template maps to tagTemplate
• --install map to install
• --skip-changelog and --no-skip-changelog map to skipChangelog
• --skip-tag and --no-skip-tag map to skipTag
• --changelog-prepend-file maps to changelogPrependFile
• --skip-commit maps to skipCommit
• --git-host-variant maps to gitHostVariant
• --git-repo maps to gitRepo
• --git-token maps to gitToken
• --push-tag and --no-push-tag map to pushTag
• --github-release and --no-github-release map to githubRelease
• --github-release-draft maps to githubReleaseDraft
• --github-release-pre-release maps to githubReleasePrerelease
• --github-release-latest maps to githubReleaseLatest
• --github-release-name-template maps to githubReleaseNameTemplate
• --verbose maps to verbose

When using .cliff-jumperrc or .cliff-jumperrc.json as your config file you can also use the JSON schema to get schema validation. To do so, add the following to your config file:

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/favware/cliff-jumper/main/assets/cliff-jumper.schema.json"
}

Alternatively you can reference the local schema in node_modules:

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/@favware/cliff-jumper/assets/cliff-jumper.schema.json"
}

Example JSON file:

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/favware/cliff-jumper/main/assets/cliff-jumper.schema.json",
  "name": "my-package",
  "packagePath": ".",
  "verbose": true
}

Example YAML file:

name: my-package
packagePath: .
verbose: true

Default values

This library has opinionated defaults for its options. These are as follows:

• --dry-run will default to undefined.
• --skipAutomaticBump will default to undefined.
• --org will default to undefined.
• --preid will default to undefined.
• --identifier-base will default to undefined. Alternatively, you can force this to false by providing --no-identifier-base.
• --install will default to undefined.
• --skip-changelog will default to false (true when CI environment variable is 'true'). Alternatively you can force this to false by providing --no-skip-changelog.
• --skip-tag will default to false (true when CI environment variable is 'true'). Alternatively you can force this to false by providing --no-skip-tag.
• --mono-repo will default to true when org is set, or false when it's not. Alternatively you can force this to false by providing --no-mono-repo.
• --commit-message-template will default to chore({{name}}): release {{full-name}}@{{new-version}}
  • {{new-version}} will be replaced with the new version that will be published
  • {{name}} will be replaced with the name provided through -n, --name or the same value set in your config file
  • {{full-name}} will be replaced with {{name}} (when org is not provided), or @{{org}}/{{name}} (when org is provided).
• --tag-template will default to {{full-name}}@{{new-version}} (when org is provided) or v{{new-version}} (when org is not provided)
  • {{new-version}} will be replaced with the new version that will be published
  • {{name}} will be replaced with the name provided through -n, --name or the same value set in your config file
  • {{org}} will be replaced with the org provided through -o, --org or the same value set in your config file
  • {{full-name}} will be replaced with {{name}} (when org is not provided), or @{{org}}/{{name}} (when org is provided).
• --changelog-prepend-file will default to ./CHANGELOG.md.
• --skip-commit will default to [] (an empty array).
• --git-host-variant will default to 'github'.
• --git-repo will default to undefined.
• --git-token will default to undefined.
• --push-tag will default to false. Alternatively you can force this to false by providing --no-push-tag.
• --github-release will default to false. Alternatively you can force this to false by providing --no-github-release.
• --github-release-draft will default to false.
• --github-release-pre-release will default to false.
• --github-release-latest will default to true.
• --github-release-name-template will default to an empty string.
• --verbose will default to false.

Merging of config file, defaults and CLI provided flags

When you have a config file the options in the file are merged with the default options and with any other provided CLI flags. Which source takes highest priority depends on the type of the option. The priority is as follows (lower means it gets lower priority):

1. CLI flags
2. Default values
3. Config file

This means that the CLI flags will always have the highest priority. This way you can have a config file for base options, then overwrite that with CLI flags, such as in a CI environment.

Creating a GitHub release

This package provides the options --push-tag and --github-release to automatically create a release on GitHub using the output from git-cliff as the release notes. In order to use this feature you have to provide --git-host-variant=github, --git-repo, and --git-token (or set the latter respective environment variables). Alternatively, if you want to run this step from a GitHub workflow you can base your step on the following example.

It is very important that if your main branch is protected by branch protection you have to provide a Personal Access Token (this can be both a classic or a fine-grained one) for a user who can bypass branch protections as token: ${{ secrets.YOUR_TOKEN_VAR }} to actions/checkout!

- name: Checkout Project
  uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    fetch-depth: 0
    ref: main
- name: Use Node.js v20
  uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: 20
    cache: yarn
- name: Configure Git
  run: |
    git remote set-url origin "https://${GITHUB_TOKEN}:x-oauth-basic@github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}.git"
    git config --local user.email "${GITHUB_EMAIL}"
    git config --local user.name "${GITHUB_USER}"
  env:
    GITHUB_USER: github-actions[bot]
    GITHUB_EMAIL: 41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
- name: Bump Versions & Publish
  run: npx @favware/cliff-jumper
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.BOT_TOKEN }}

This will create a GitHub commit, release, and tag using the GitHub Actions bot account. This ensures that you do not need a Personal Access Token to create a release. The GITHUB_TOKEN secret is provided by GitHub Actions and is a token that has the necessary permissions to create a release. It also be noted that classic Personal Access Tokens will not even work for this, you will at least need a Fine-Grained Personal Access Token which is at time of writing (2024-06-03) a beta feature. You can find more information about there here.

Lastly, the example above assumes a cliff-jumper config file similar to the one in this repository (.cliff-jumperrc). As an alternative example for a package that is not scoped by an npm/github org here is another example. Replace the values in between <> with your desired values.

name: <package-name>
packagePath: .
pushTag: true
gitRepo: <repo-owner>/<repo-name>
githubRelease: true
githubReleaseLatest: true

Example Configuration setups

Following are JSON examples of how you can configure this package based on different situations.

Scoped packages in a non-mono repo

This is for versioning @my-org/my-package that does not reside in a mono repo, for example sapphiredev/shapeshift

{
  "name": "package-name",
  "packagePath": ".",
  "org": "my-org",
  "monoRepo": false,
  "commitMessageTemplate": "chore(release): release {{new-version}}",
  "tagTemplate": "v{{new-version}}"
}

Scoped packages in a mono repo

This is for versioning @my-org/my-package that resides in a mono repo, for example sapphiredev/utilities

{
  "name": "package-name",
  "org": "my-org",
  "packagePath": "packages/decorators"
}

Non-scoped packages in a non-mono repo

This is for versioning my-package that does not reside in a mono repo, for example favware/esbuild-plugin-version-injector

{
  "name": "my-package",
  "packagePath": ".",
  "commitMessageTemplate": "chore(release): release {{new-version}}",
  "tagTemplate": "v{{new-version}}"
}

Non-scoped packages in a mono repo

This is for versioning my-package that resides in a mono repo, for example discord.js/discordjs

{
  "name": "my-package",
  "packagePath": "packages/discord.js",
  "tagTemplate": "{{new-version}}"
}

Git Cliff commands executed

The following commands are executed by git-cliff after options are parsed, depending on the scenario:

In a regular repository

git cliff --tag "TAG_TEMPLATE_OPTION" --prepend ./CHANGELOG.md --unreleased --config ./cliff.toml

For example this could be:

git cliff --tag "@favware/cliff-jumper@1.0.0" --prepend ./CHANGELOG.md --unreleased --config ./cliff.toml

In a mono repository

git cliff --tag "TAG_TEMPLATE_OPTION" --prepend ./CHANGELOG.md --unreleased --config ./cliff.toml --repository RELATIVE_PATH_TO_REPOSITORY_ROOT --include-path "PACKAGE_PATH_OPTIONS/*"

For example this could be:

git cliff --tag "@sapphire/utilities@1.0.0" --prepend ./CHANGELOG.md --unreleased --config ./cliff.toml --repository ../../ --include-path "packages/utilities/*"

Buy us some doughnuts

Favware projects are and always will be open source, even if we don't get donations. That being said, we know there are amazing people who may still want to donate just to show their appreciation. Thank you very much in advance!

We accept donations through Ko-fi, Paypal, Patreon, GitHub Sponsorships, and various cryptocurrencies. You can use the buttons below to donate through your method of choice.

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Contributors

Please make sure to read the Contributing Guide before making a pull request.

Thank you to all the people who already contributed to Sapphire!