keepachangelog-manager-fork 6.1.1

Python package allowing you to manage your CHANGELOG.md files

(Keep a) Changelog Manager

Python tool to

• initialize a CHANGELOG.md
• backfill it with commits, PRs, etc
• CLI and GUI to edit and update entries
• Validate
• Create a Github or Gitlab release page with CHANGLOG.md as note.

It supports these standards

• Keep a Changelog
• Semantic Version, PEP 440, Calver
• Conventional Commits, Gitmoji (for backfill from commit messages)

This is a fork of keepachangelog-manager, originally mostly written by KevinDeJong at TomTom International, but now archived.

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.

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.

What it does

keepachangelog-manager helps you:

Edit entries

• create and validate changelogs
• add, edit, list, and remove [Unreleased] entries
• work with multi-component repositories (multiple changelog) via TOML config files

Flip Unreleased Changelog to a Released Changelog

• infer the next release from change types for SemVer, PEP 440, or CalVer projects
• release [Unreleased] with an optional confirmation guard

Initialize or bulk update Changelog

• seed [Unreleased] from git history using Conventional Commit subjects
• backfill missing released versions from local git tags

Many features for bash scripting ergonomics.

Online integration with Git Forge Release pages

• create or update GitHub and GitLab releases
• open or update a GitHub pull request for release automation

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

Exports and scripting

Commands that produce structured output or integrate with CI:

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

For --json, --quiet, jq patterns, exit codes, and full release.yml examples, see Scripting and CI integration.

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

Configuration

Use --config to set switch defaults 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.

CLI Visuals

Credits

Vendored

• Colin-b/keepachangelog
• llvm_diagnostics

Documentation

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