Migrate From Changesets

Migrate from Changesets to Tegami

A field-tested, end-to-end procedure for replacing @changesets/cli with Tegami. The official reference is Migrating from Changesets; this skill is the procedure — the ordered steps, the validation technique, and the non-obvious traps — for an agent driving the migration in someone's repo.

When to use

The repo has a .changeset/ directory and @changesets/cli in devDependencies, and the user wants to move to Tegami. Works for npm, Cargo, and mixed monorepos; the examples below assume a pnpm workspace (swap in your package manager as needed).

Before you start — survey the existing setup

Don't write anything yet. First read what Changesets is doing, because every option maps to a Tegami equivalent:

cat .changeset/config.json          # access, baseBranch, ignore, fixed, linked, privatePackages
ls .changeset/*.md                  # pending changesets to convert (README.md is not one)
cat .github/workflows/*.yml | grep -l changeset   # the release workflow(s)
grep -rn "changeset" package.json scripts/        # npm scripts + any custom version/publish helpers

Note in particular:

• Which packages actually publish. Often only one package in a monorepo is public; the rest are private and merely versioned. Tegami versions private packages by default but never publishes them.
• Any custom post-version script (e.g. a sync-versions step that force-aligns every package.json to one version). These usually become a Tegami package group (see step 5).
• How the workflow authenticates to npm — an NPM_TOKEN secret vs OIDC trusted publishing (id-token: write, no token). This drives a critical gotcha below.

Steps

1. Install Tegami

pnpm add -D -w tegami     # npm install tegami -D / bun add -D tegami

Requires Node.js 24+.

2. Create the config script

Tegami is configured by a Node script, not a JSON file. Copy templates/tegami.mts to scripts/tegami.mts and edit repo, the registry client, and the base branch. Add a package script:

{ "scripts": { "tegami": "node scripts/tegami.mts" } }

Invoke it as pnpm tegami (the npm script runs the config under Node). Tegami also runs fine under Bun (bun scripts/tegami.mts) — see gotchas.

3. Map .changeset/config.json to tegami() options

4. Convert pending changesets

Only convert changesets that have not been released yet. For each .changeset/*.md, rewrite into .tegami/*.md: move the package keys under a packages: frontmatter field, and ensure the body has at least one #/##/### heading.

---
packages:
  my-pkg: patch
---

## Summary of the change

5. (Optional) Keep packages on one shared version

If the old setup force-aligned every package to a single version (a custom sync-versions script, or Changesets fixed), replace it with one group that every package joins via syncBump:

groups: { all: { syncBump: true } },
packages: () => ({ group: 'all' }),

syncBump applies the same bump type to all members, so they stay aligned only if they already share a version today — verify that first (grep '"version"' **/package.json). It does not force identical version strings the way a sync script does; a package that has drifted won't snap back on its own.

6. Replace the CI workflow

Delete the Changesets release workflow and add templates/release.yml: it runs tegami ci on pushes to the main branch (version when changelogs are pending → opens a Version Packages PR; otherwise publish from the committed lock). Optionally add the PR release-preview pair templates/tegami-pr.yml + templates/tegami-pr-comment.yml (a capability Changesets needed its GitHub App for).

Version in the PR title. Changesets workflows often put the release version in the Version Packages PR title (chore: release v1.2.3). Tegami's github plugin doesn't by default — restore it with the versionPr.create() hook in scripts/tegami.mts, where this is the TegamiContext (so this.graph is available):

github({
  repo: 'your-org/your-repo',
  versionPr: {
    base: 'main',
    create() {
      // `create` runs AFTER the draft is applied, so the graph already holds the
      // bumped versions — read the new version straight off the published package.
      // With a shared-version group, any member works.
      const version = this.graph.get('npm:your-package')?.version;
      return { title: version ? `chore: release v${version}` : 'chore: release' };
    },
  },
}),

Pitfall: don't compute the version with draft.getPackageDraft(id)?.bumpVersion(pkg) here. create fires after the draft is applied, so the graph package is already bumped — re-bumping it double-counts (e.g. titles the PR v0.21.0 while it actually bumps to v0.20.0). Read this.graph.get(id)?.version instead.

create() must be a method (or function), not an arrow, so this binds to the context. It only reads a version — no markdown rendering — so it's safe under any runtime. Note it sets the title at PR-creation time; an already-open Version Packages PR keeps its old title until the next run updates it.

7. Validate with a dry run — before removing Changesets

This is the most important step and the technique most people miss. Tegami has no global version --dry-run, so simulate a release and revert it:

# back up the pending changelogs first — `version` consumes (deletes) them
cp .tegami/*.md /tmp/tegami-backup/ 2>/dev/null || true

pnpm tegami version            # inspect the release plan it prints
grep '"version"' **/package.json  # confirm the bumps are what you expect
head -20 path/to/published/CHANGELOG.md  # confirm the changelog output
pnpm tegami publish --dry-run  # validate the publish lock end-to-end

# revert everything the dry run touched, keeping your config edits
git checkout -- . ':(exclude)scripts/tegami.mts'
rm -f .tegami/publish-lock.yaml
cp /tmp/tegami-backup/*.md .tegami/ 2>/dev/null || true
pnpm install                   # restore the lockfile

Confirm: the right packages bump, only publishable packages appear in the publish plan, and no stray CHANGELOG.md files are generated for private packages.

8. Remove Changesets

pnpm remove @changesets/cli              # npm remove / bun remove
git rm -r .changeset
git rm .github/workflows/<changesets-workflow>.yml
git rm scripts/<custom-sync-script>      # if any (now handled by the group)

Remove the changeset* npm scripts from package.json. Then delete empty placeholder CHANGELOG.md files in private packages — they exist only because Changesets created them; Tegami writes a changelog only for packages that actually receive notes, and creates the file fresh if one ever does. Keep real changelogs (the published package's, and any root redirect).

9. (Optional) Backfill missing changelogs

If commits landed since the last release without a changeset, add .tegami/*.md entries for the user-facing ones so they appear in the next release. Find them with git log <last-tag>..HEAD and check which touch the published package's source.

10. Teach contributors and agents

Run tegami init-agent to append changelog instructions to AGENTS.md, and update CONTRIBUTING.md (replace "add a changeset" with "run tegami").

Gotchas (field-tested)

• npm trusted publishing is pinned to the workflow filename. If the old workflow published via OIDC (id-token: write, no NPM_TOKEN), npm's trusted-publisher config names the old workflow file. Renaming the workflow (e.g. changesets.yml → release.yml) breaks publishing until you update the trusted publisher on npmjs.com to the new filename. This is the easiest thing to forget.
• Bun works, even though every doc example uses pnpm/npm. Set npm: { client: 'bun' }. Tegami runs prepack/prepare via bun run, packs with bun pm pack, and publishes the tarball with npm publish (so OIDC/provenance still work).
• syncBump ≠ Changesets linked. It equalizes the bump delta, not the version string. Only reliable when members already share a version.
• Release tag format is <pkg-name>@<version> (or <group>@<version> with syncGitTag). If other workflows parse release tags (e.g. a post-release smoke test), confirm the format still matches.
• Private packages are versioned by default. To exclude them entirely (the Changesets privatePackages.version: false behavior), add them to ignore.
• tegami ci on an empty repo state is a safe no-op — no pending changelogs and no publish lock means it does nothing, so merging the migration PR won't accidentally publish.
• The Changesets GitHub App (changeset-bot) is separate from the workflow. Deleting .changeset/ and the workflow does not stop the changeset-bot[bot] "⚠️ No Changeset found" PR comments — that's an account-level App installation. It keeps commenting on every PR (harmless but confusing, and easy to mistake for Tegami) until you uninstall it: github.com/settings/installations → changeset-bot → remove the repo or uninstall.

Cleanup checklist

• .changeset/ removed
• @changesets/cli removed from devDependencies
• changeset* npm scripts removed
• Changesets release workflow removed; release.yml added
• changeset-bot GitHub App uninstalled (stops "No Changeset found" PR comments)
• Custom sync/version scripts removed (replaced by a group if needed)
• Empty placeholder CHANGELOG.md files removed
• npm trusted-publisher workflow filename updated
• CONTRIBUTING.md / AGENTS.md updated
• Dry run (step 7) passed and was reverted
• grep -rin changeset returns only historical CHANGELOG.md entries