Git Release

Git Release Skill

Automate the full release workflow: semver bump → changelog → git tag → GitHub Release.

Setup

export GITHUB_TOKEN="ghp_xxx..."
export GH_REPO="myorg/myapp"

Or if already logged in with gh auth login, skip GITHUB_TOKEN — the gh CLI uses its own token.

Check What Changed Since Last Release

# Show last tag
git describe --tags --abbrev=0

# Commits since last tag
git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD --oneline

# Count breaking / feat / fix
git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD --oneline | grep -c "^.*feat"
git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD --oneline | grep -c "^.*fix"

Determine Next Version (Semver)

LAST_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "v0.0.0")
MAJOR=$(echo $LAST_TAG | sed 's/v//' | cut -d. -f1)
MINOR=$(echo $LAST_TAG | sed 's/v//' | cut -d. -f2)
PATCH=$(echo $LAST_TAG | sed 's/v//' | cut -d. -f3)

# Bump patch (bug fixes only)
NEXT="v${MAJOR}.${MINOR}.$((PATCH + 1))"

# Bump minor (new features, no breaking changes)
NEXT="v${MAJOR}.$((MINOR + 1)).0"

# Bump major (breaking changes)
NEXT="v$((MAJOR + 1)).0.0"

echo "Last: $LAST_TAG → Next: $NEXT"

Generate Changelog from Commits

LAST_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "")
RANGE="${LAST_TAG:+${LAST_TAG}..}HEAD"

# Categorized changelog
BREAKING=$(git log $RANGE --oneline | grep -i "BREAKING\|!:" || true)
FEATURES=$(git log $RANGE --oneline | grep -i "^[a-f0-9]* feat" || true)
FIXES=$(git log $RANGE --oneline | grep -i "^[a-f0-9]* fix" || true)
OTHERS=$(git log $RANGE --oneline | grep -iv "^[a-f0-9]* \(feat\|fix\|chore\|docs\)" || true)

cat << EOF
## What's Changed

${BREAKING:+### Breaking Changes
$BREAKING

}${FEATURES:+### Features
$FEATURES

}${FIXES:+### Bug Fixes
$FIXES

}${OTHERS:+### Other Changes
$OTHERS
}
**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/$GH_REPO/compare/${LAST_TAG}...${NEXT}
EOF

Create Tag and Push

NEXT="v1.2.0"  # set your version

# Create annotated tag
git tag -a "$NEXT" -m "Release $NEXT"

# Push tag
git push origin "$NEXT"

echo "Tag $NEXT pushed"

Create GitHub Release

# Generate notes and create release
LAST_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null | head -1)
NOTES=$(git log ${LAST_TAG:+${LAST_TAG}..}HEAD --oneline \
  | sed 's/^[a-f0-9]* /- /' \
  | head -30)

gh release create "$NEXT" \
  --title "Release $NEXT" \
  --notes "## What's Changed

$NOTES

**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/$GH_REPO/compare/${LAST_TAG}...${NEXT}" \
  --verify-tag

Attach Build Artifacts to Release

# Build first (adjust for your stack)
# cargo build --release
# npm run build

# Upload artifacts
gh release upload "$NEXT" \
  ./target/release/myapp \
  ./target/release/myapp.tar.gz \
  --clobber

Full Release Workflow (One-liner)

# Set version
NEXT="v1.2.0"
LAST=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "")

# Tag
git tag -a "$NEXT" -m "Release $NEXT" && git push origin "$NEXT"

# Release
gh release create "$NEXT" \
  --generate-notes \
  --title "Release $NEXT"

echo "Released: https://github.com/$GH_REPO/releases/tag/$NEXT"

Tips

• Use --generate-notes with gh release create — GitHub auto-generates changelog from PRs
• Protect your main branch; require PRs so release notes are PR-title based (cleaner than raw commits)
• For Rust: bump Cargo.toml version before tagging: sed -i "s/^version = .*/version = \"1.2.0\"/" Cargo.toml
• For Node: npm version patch/minor/major auto-bumps package.json and creates a commit + tag
• Tag format: always use v prefix (v1.2.0) — most tools expect it
• Draft releases first with --draft, review, then gh release edit $NEXT --draft=false