changenog 2.0.5

Zero-config changelog generator with monorepo support.

changenog

Zero-config changelog generator with monorepo support.

Parses Git tags and commits since last entry, restricts them by current working directory, and adds any missing entries to the changelog.

See this repo's changelog for example output.

• Usage
  • Rust
  • JS
  • Python
  • Manual
• Supported Platforms
• Options
  • Filters
    • Presets
• Entry Strategy
• Monorepo Support
• Known Limitations
  • Cross-Branch Tag Ranges (Rebase/Squash Workflows)

Usage

Rust

https://crates.io/crates/changenog

cargo install changenog

changenog

JS

https://www.npmjs.com/package/changenog

pnpm i -D changenog

{
  "scripts": {
    "changenog": "changenog"
  }
}

Python

https://pypi.org/project/changenog/

pip install changenog

changenog

Manual

Binaries are available on the releases page.

Supported Platforms

Platform	Architecture	Notes
Linux	x86_64	Tested on Ubuntu latest
Linux	aarch64	Tested on Ubuntu 22.04
MacOS	x86_64	Tested on MacOS 15
MacOS	aarch64	Tested on MacOS latest
Windows	x86_64	Tested on Windows 11
Windows	aarch64	Untested ⚠️

Options

Option	Type	Description
--overwrite	boolean	overwrite existing changelog
--root	string	root dir relative to the current working directory. default: current working directory
--output	string	output of the generated changelog. one of ['file', 'stdout']. default: 'file'
--no-links	boolean	disable links
--remote-url	string	remote URL to use for links. default: origin
--max-entries	number	maximum number of entries to process. default: '100'
--tag-filter-regex	regex	regex pattern(s) that each tag must match to be included
--commit-filter-regex	regex	regex pattern(s) that each commit must match to be included
--commit-filter-preset	string	filter preset(s) to use. one of ['angular', 'angular-readme-only-docs', 'no-changelog', 'no-semver']

Filters

Multiple --tag-filter-regex, --commit-filter-preset and --commit-filter-regex options can be passed. A tag/commit must match all filters to be included.

For example:

changenog --commit-filter-preset=angular --commit-filter-regex='^(?!.*changelog).*$'

Would filter:

✅
docs(readme): update usage
feat: add new feature
fix: fix bug
perf: improve performance

❌
chore: update dependencies
ci(release): release version
docs(changelog): v0.1.0
my commit message

Presets

• angular - include only feat, fix, perf, and docs commits that match the Angular commit message convention
• angular-readme-only-docs - exclude Angular docs commits unless they have a scope of readme
• no-changelog - exclude all commits with changelog in the subject
• no-semver - exclude all commits that match the semver format, specifically, this regex

Entry Strategy

This is the general strategy for building and filtering entries:

1. All entries are processed, restricted by --max-entries
2. Commits are filtered to only include those with changes in --root
3. If <tag a>..<tag b> have no commits, the tags are made part of the same entry
4. Commit filters are applied
5. If an entry has no commits, the entry is excluded
6. Tag filters are applied
7. If an entry has no tags, all commits are merged into the next entry

Monorepo Support

If the git root is in a parent directory, changenog will filter commits to only include those that have changes within the subdirectory.

To include only the tags that apply to that subdirectory, you can provide a --tag-filter-regex option, e.g. --tag-filter-regex='my-package/.*'. This is assuming you have a convention for tagging that scopes to that subdirectory.

Known Limitations

Cross-Branch Tag Ranges (Rebase/Squash Workflows)

When using rebase or squash merge workflows, the commits merged into the main branch are new commits, and any tag created on the merged branch remains pointing at their original commit. There's no way to link the new commits back to the original ones, so the changelog entry for a new tag will include the commits associated with the previous entry.

Workarounds:

• Manually delete the entries for these newer commits in the changelog
• Only create tags after merging to your target branch
• Use merge commits