Auto Semver Action

A custom GitHub Action written in Python to automatically bump semantic versioning, update changelogs, and create Pull Requests — fully configurable.

Usage

Marketplace install snippets often pin an exact release (for example @1.6.3). Prefer the floating major tag for compatible updates:

- name: Auto Semver Bumper
  uses: GuyErreich/Action-Semver-Control@v1

See Pinning policy for the floating v1 tag vs exact semver vs SHA pins.

Quickstart

New to this action? Follow docs/SETUP.md end-to-end (GitHub App, secrets, workflows).

Required: Caller workflows must include a concurrency queue when merging multiple PRs to the same branch.

One-command setup (recommended)

From your consumer repository:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/GuyErreich/Action-Semver-Control auto-semver setup

Add workflows without the CLI

1. Register a GitHub App — install it on your repo, set variable GH_APP_CLIENT_ID and secret GH_APP_PRIVATE_KEY.
2. Add a caller workflow — copy src/auto_semver/setup/scaffolds/auto-semver.caller.yml to .github/workflows/auto-semver.yml.
3. Add config — copy src/auto_semver/setup/scaffolds/auto_semver_config.yml to auto_semver_config.yml and edit branch suffixes.

Regenerate prefilled “add workflow” links for your repo:

python scripts/generate_onboarding_links.py --owner YOUR_ORG --repo YOUR_REPO --branch master

Pin reusable workflows at the floating major tag v1 (for example .../semver-bump.reusable.yml@v1). See Pinning policy.

Features

• Auto bump major, minor, or patch depending on branch type
• Add suffixes (-dev, -rc) depending on the target branch
• Auto-create release branches
• Auto-close old release PRs (single branch mode)
• Label bump PRs automatically (semver-bump)
• 100% typed Python (>=3.12)
• No subprocess for git — uses GitPython and Requests; bump/promote refresh lockfiles with the uv or npm already on the runner when lock_sync is enabled, and otherwise update only the project version inside the existing lock
• Published on PyPI as auto-semver-control. The console script stays auto-semver. The action installs that release when it exists, and this checkout until the first publish
• Comprehensive test coverage with pytest and pyfakefs
• Modern Python tooling (ruff, mypy, pre-commit, gitleaks secret scan)

CLI Usage

The action installs auto-semver-control for this checkout's version when that release is on PyPI. Install the stable package locally with uv tool install auto-semver-control.

To try a dev or staging publish before it is production, install that pre-release explicitly:

uv tool install --prerelease explicit "auto-semver-control==1.2.3.dev0"
uv tool install --prerelease explicit "auto-semver-control==1.2.3rc0"

1.2.3-dev is published as 1.2.3.dev0, and 1.2.3-rc as 1.2.3rc0. A plain uv tool install auto-semver-control stays on the stable release. The PyPI name auto-semver is a different project.

Manual Promotion

To manually promote a version from one branch to another (e.g., dev -> staging):

auto-semver --github-token <TOKEN> promote --from-branch dev --to-branch staging

Options:

• --dry-run: Validate the promotion without creating a PR.

Configuration (auto_semver_config.yml)

start_version: "0.1.0"

suffixes:
  dev: "-dev"
  staging: "-rc"
  main: ""

files_to_update:
  - "version.txt"
  - "README.md"

Commit Parsing & Grouping

The action supports three intelligent parsing strategies to organize your changelogs and release notes effectively. Grouping is configured via the commit_groups section in your config file.

1. Sectioned Changes (Type 3 - Highest Priority)

Best for large commits covering multiple areas. Use Markdown headers in your commit body.

Commit Message:

feat: major overhaul of auth system

### ✨ Features
- Added OIDC provider support
- Implemented refresh token rotation

### 🐛 Bug Fixes
- Fixed race condition in login flow
- Resolved session timeout issue

Result:

• The bullet points under ### ✨ Features will appear in the "Features" group.
• The bullet points under ### 🐛 Bug Fixes will appear in the "Bug Fixes" group.

2. Bullet Points (Type 2)

Great for listing multiple related changes without specific sections.

Commit Message:

fix: update dependency handling

- Upgrade pydantic to v2
- Remove deprecated validation logic
- Fix circular import in config module

Result:

• Each bullet point is treated as an individual change.
• Each point is matched against your auto_semver_config.yml patterns independently.

3. Header Only (Type 1 - Default)

Standard conventional commit format.

Commit Message:

fix(api): handle missing auth header gracefully

Result:

• The entire header is matched against config patterns.
• Grouped based on the prefix (e.g., fix: goes to "Bug Fixes").

Configuration Example

Define how regex patterns map to groups in auto_semver_config.yml:

commit_groups:
  - title: "✨ Features"
    patterns:
      - "^feat:"
      - "^add:"
    priority: 1

  - title: "🐛 Bug Fixes"
    patterns:
      - "^fix:"
      - "^resolve:"
    priority: 2

License

GPL-3.0-or-later — see LICENSE.