Keep-a-changelog plugin for release-it

This release-it plugin maintains your CHANGELOG.md file according to the Keep A Changelog standards.

It updates the changelog automatically by:

• replacing the ## [Unreleased] header with the current version and release date.
• [optionally] adding a new ## [Unreleased] header as preparation for future changes.

It does not automatically populate the changelog with commit messages from the git history!

The idea and initial implementation comes from @eMarek.

npm install --save-dev @release-it/keep-a-changelog

In release-it config:

"plugins": {
  "@release-it/keep-a-changelog": {
    "filename": "CHANGELOG.md"
  }
}

Options

option	default value	description
filename	'CHANGELOG.md'	File with changelogs.
strictLatest	true	Entry of latest version must be present in order to get correct changelog. Set this option to false if you expect latest version without logs.
addUnreleased	false	It leaves "Unreleased" title row if set to true.
keepUnreleased	false	It leaves "Unreleased" title row unchanged if set to true.
addVersionUrl	false	Links the version to the according changeset. Uses GitHub-compatible URLs by default, see other options to configure the URL format.
versionUrlFormats	See below.	Determines the version URL format when addVersionUrl is set to true. Uses GitHub-compatible URLs by default.
head	'HEAD'	The git revision the new version tag is compared to in the Unreleased URL.

versionUrlFormats

The URL formats used when addVersionUrl is set to true. Example configuration for a repository in Azure DevOps:

"plugins": {
  "@release-it/keep-a-changelog": {
    "filename": "CHANGELOG.md",
    "head": "main",
    "addVersionUrl": true,
    "versionUrlFormats": {
      "repositoryUrl": "https://dev.azure.com/...",
      "unreleasedUrl": "{repositoryUrl}/branchCompare?baseVersion=GT{tagName}&targetVersion=GB{head}",
      "versionUrl": "{repositoryUrl}/branchCompare?baseVersion=GT{previousTag}&targetVersion=GT{tagName}",
      "firstVersionUrl": "{repositoryUrl}?version=GT{tagName}"
    }
  }
}

option	default value	description
repositoryUrl	'https://{host}/{repository}'	The format of the repository URL.
unreleasedUrl	'{repositoryUrl}/compare/{tagName}...{head}'	The format of the [unreleased] section URL.
versionUrl	'{repositoryUrl}/compare/{previousTag}...{tagName}'	The format of a release version URL.
firstVersionUrl	'{repositoryUrl}/releases/tag/{tagName}'	The format of the first release version URL, i.e. when no previous tags have been released.