keepachangelog-manager-fork 6.1.0

Python package allowing you to manage your CHANGELOG.md files

(Keep a) Changelog Manager

CLI and Python library for managing CHANGELOG.md files that follow the Keep a Changelog format.

Fork of keepachangelog-manager, originally mostly written by KevinDeJong at TomTom International.

and gui

Install

uv tool install keepachangelog-manager-fork

The package name on PyPI is keepachangelog-manager-fork. The installed command is changelogmanager with legacy alias of keepachangelog-manager.

Supports pre-commit, CLI, and GitHub Actions workflows.

What it does

keepachangelog-manager helps you:

• create and validate changelogs
• add, edit, list, and remove [Unreleased] entries
• infer the next release from change types for SemVer, PEP 440, or CalVer projects
• release [Unreleased] with an optional confirmation guard
• seed [Unreleased] from git history using Conventional Commit subjects
• backfill missing released versions from local git tags
• export changelogs as JSON or HTML
• export a bundled CLI skill for Copilot or Claude
• create or update GitHub and GitLab releases
• open or update a GitHub pull request for release automation
• work with multi-component repositories via TOML config files
• script the CLI with --dry-run, --quiet, --json, --info, and --verbose
• use an optional Tkinter GUI for editing, backfill, release, and batch workflows

Commands

Commands are grouped below by what they do.

File editing

Commands that read and rewrite your CHANGELOG.md.

create        Create a new (empty) CHANGELOG.md
add           Add an entry to [Unreleased]
edit          Edit an existing [Unreleased] entry
remove        Remove an [Unreleased] entry (or --list them)
from-commits  Seed [Unreleased] from git commit history
backfill      Backfill missing released versions from local git tags

Machine readability

Commands and global flags for scripting and exporting structured data.

version       Print previous/current/future version
to-json       Export the changelog as JSON
to-html       Export the changelog as HTML
skill export  Export the bundled CLI skill for Copilot or Claude

--json        Emit a single machine-readable JSON object on stdout
--quiet       Suppress human-friendly output
--info        Runtime logging on stderr
--verbose     Verbose runtime logging on stderr (implies --info)

Repo release tools

Commands that cut a release and publish it to a forge.

release         Release [Unreleased] into a versioned section
github-release  Create/update a GitHub release from the changelog
github-pr       Open/update a GitHub pull request for a changelog branch
gitlab-release  Create/update a GitLab release from the changelog

Validation & setup

validate      Validate the CHANGELOG.md (use --fix to autofix)
config        Show or initialize configuration (config init)
gui           Launch the optional Tkinter GUI

Quick examples

Add an entry:

changelogmanager add --change-type added --message "Document the new release flow"

Edit or remove an existing [Unreleased] entry:

changelogmanager remove --list
changelogmanager edit --change-type added --index 0 --message "Document the guarded release flow"
changelogmanager remove --change-type added --index 0

Seed [Unreleased] from commit history:

changelogmanager from-commits

Backfill an existing repo from local git history:

changelogmanager backfill --source all --dry-run
changelogmanager backfill --source all

Validate and autofix common issues:

changelogmanager validate --fix

Release non-interactively:

changelogmanager release --yes

Publish a forge release from [Unreleased]:

changelogmanager github-release --repository owner/name
changelogmanager gitlab-release --project group/name

GitLab note: the default CI_JOB_TOKEN usually cannot create releases — use a project/group/personal access token via GITLAB_TOKEN. See docs/gitlab.md.

Export structured output:

changelogmanager to-json
changelogmanager to-html

Export the bundled CLI skill:

changelogmanager skill export

Machine-readable mode for scripts:

changelogmanager --json version --reference future
changelogmanager --quiet validate
changelogmanager --info validate
changelogmanager --verbose from-commits --dry-run

--info and --verbose enable stdlib runtime logging on stderr for diagnostics. --verbose is the more detailed level and implies --info. Existing validation diagnostics still use the configured LLVM or GitHub Actions annotation format.

Configuration

Use --config and --component for multi-component repositories:

[versioning]
scheme = "semver"

[validation]
enforce_preamble = false

[[components]]
name = "Service"
changelog = "service/CHANGELOG.md"
match = ["service/**"]

[[components]]
name = "Client"
changelog = "client/CHANGELOG.md"
match = ["client/**"]

changelogmanager --config changelogmanager.toml --component Service validate
changelogmanager config
changelogmanager config init
changelogmanager skill export

If --config is omitted, the CLI auto-detects changelogmanager.toml, .changelogmanager.toml, or [tool.changelogmanager] in pyproject.toml from the current directory.

changelogmanager config init is the quickest way to bootstrap config. It defaults to pyproject.toml and semver, then prompts for preamble enforcement and the default component/changelog path. Re-running it updates the active config instead of starting from scratch.

Optional desktop GUI

changelogmanager gui

The GUI now includes four screens: a live [Unreleased] editor, an initialize/backfill screen, a release publishing screen for GitHub/GitLab, and a components screen for batch validation and from-commits --all.

Credits

Vendored keepachangelog

• Colin-b/keepachangelog
• llvm_diagnostics

Documentation

• Generic CI
• GitHub automation
• GitLab automation
• Quick start
• Installation
• Key workflows
• CLI reference
• Desktop GUI