Tags, Releases & Semantic Versioning

standard-version automates the entire release process using conventional commits. No more manual version bumps or changelogs.

What it does:

• 1) Analyzes commits since last tag
• 2) Determines version bump (feat→minor, fix→patch, breaking→major)
• 3) Updates CHANGELOG.md with categorized changes
• 4) Bumps version in package.json
• 5) Creates a git commit with the version bump
• 6) Creates an annotated git tag

Usage: npx standard-version — patch/feat/breaking determines the bump automatically.

npx standard-version --release-as minor — force a minor bump

npx standard-version --first-release — for the first release (no version bump, just changelog)

# Automated release with standard-version

# Install
npm install --save-dev standard-version

# Add script to package.json
# "scripts": { "release": "standard-version" }

# Run it (analyzes commits since last tag)
npm run release
# Outputs:
# ✔ bumping version in package.json from 1.1.0 to 1.2.0
# ✔ outputting changes to CHANGELOG.md
# ✔ committing package.json and CHANGELOG.md
# ✔ tagging release v1.2.0

# Push commit + tag
git push --follow-tags origin main

# GitHub Release from tag
gh release create v1.2.0 --generate-notes

# First release
npx standard-version --first-release

# Force specific bump
npx standard-version --release-as major   # 1.2.0 → 2.0.0
npx standard-version --release-as minor   # 1.2.3 → 1.3.0
npx standard-version --release-as patch   # 1.2.3 → 1.2.4

# Dry run (see what would happen)
npx standard-version --dry-run

# Full CI automation (GitHub Actions)
# .github/workflows/release.yml
name: Release
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0  # need full history
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - run: npx standard-version
      - run: git push --follow-tags origin main