GitHub Release Action

Automates GitHub release creation and changelog updates, generating detailed release notes with commits and contributors dynamically.

Why this action?

Most release actions require a Personal Access Token (PAT) to open pull requests and trigger CI on protected branches. This action works entirely with the built-in GITHUB_TOKEN - no PAT, no extra secret management.

Features

• Automatically extracts the latest version from package.json.
• Creates a changelog entry for each release.
• Dynamically lists commits made after the last tag and up to the current commit head.
• Generates a list of contributors for the release, linking to their profiles.
• Adds an "unreleased" section to the changelog for future updates.
• Supports draft and pre-release options for releases.

Requirements and Setup

The workflow must grant the required permissions to the built-in GITHUB_TOKEN. No Personal Access Token is required.

Required Permissions

The action requires the following GitHub Actions permissions:

Permission	Reason
contents: write	Push changelog branch, create tags and releases
pull-requests: write	Open the changelog PR
actions: write	Dispatch CI workflows for the changelog PR
checks: write	Mirror CI job results as Check Runs on the changelog PR
statuses: write	Mirror CI job results as Commit Statuses on the changelog PR

Note: actions: write, checks: write, and statuses: write are only needed when ci-workflows is not set to none or false. If you disable CI dispatch, only contents: write and pull-requests: write are required.

Workflow Configuration Example

Add the following configuration to your GitHub Actions workflow:

name: "Release Workflow"

on:
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write
  actions: write
  checks: write
  statuses: write

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Check out repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - uses: open-resource-discovery/github-release@main

Inputs

Input	Default	Description
github-token	${{ github.token }}	GitHub token for authentication. The built-in token is sufficient - no PAT needed.
tag-template	v<version>	Tag name template. Use <version> as placeholder, e.g. ms/<version>.
changelog-file-path	CHANGELOG.md	Path to the changelog file.
version	(from package.json)	Explicit version override. Takes precedence over package.json.
ci-workflows	auto	Workflows to dispatch after the changelog PR is created. auto dispatches all workflow_dispatch-enabled workflows (except the release workflow itself). Pass a comma-separated list to target specific files, or none/false to disable.
release-draft	false	Mark the release as a draft.
release-prerelease	false	Mark the release as a prerelease.
release-title-prefix	(empty)	Prefix prepended to the release title.
dry-run	false	Run without creating tags, PRs, or releases. Useful for testing.

Outputs

Output	Description
release-url	URL of the created GitHub release.

Post-Release Steps

To avoid conflicts or outdated information in your local changelog:

1. Run git pull in your local repository to fetch the latest changes.
2. Verify that the updated CHANGELOG.md file is synchronized with your local branch.

git pull

Support, Feedback, Contributing

This project is open to feature requests/suggestions, bug reports etc. via GitHub issues. Contribution and feedback are encouraged and always welcome. For more information about how to contribute, the project structure, as well as additional contribution information, see our Contribution Guidelines.

Code of Conduct

We as members, contributors, and leaders pledge to make participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone. By participating in this project, you agree to abide by its Code of Conduct at all times.

Licensing

Copyright 2025 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company and github-release contributors. Please see our LICENSE for copyright and license information. Detailed information including third-party components and their licensing/copyright information is available via the REUSE tool.