Go Changelog Action

A Go-based GitHub Action that generates changelogs from Conventional Commits.

• Parses git history using Conventional Commits format
• Groups changes by type (Features, Bug Fixes, etc.)
• Highlights BREAKING CHANGES
• Auto-detects PR links ((#123)) and issue references (closes #456)
• Generates compare links between versions (v1.0.0...v1.1.0)
• Contributors section per release (with bot filtering via exclude_authors)
• Includes non-conventional commits in "Other Changes" (optional)
• Tag range filtering with since_tag / until_tag
• Custom type-to-section mapping via JSON
• Supports unreleased changes section
• Configurable tag patterns, date formats, and excluded types
• Dry-run mode for previewing output
• Auto-detects repository URL for commit links

steps:
  - name: Checkout
    uses: actions/checkout@v6
    with:
      fetch-depth: 0

  - name: Generate Changelog
    uses: somaz94/go-changelog-action@v1
    with:
      output_file: CHANGELOG.md

steps:
  - name: Checkout
    uses: actions/checkout@v6
    with:
      fetch-depth: 0

  - name: Generate Changelog
    id: changelog
    uses: somaz94/go-changelog-action@v1
    with:
      output_file: CHANGELOG.md
      tag_pattern: 'v[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*'
      exclude_types: 'chore,style'
      include_breaking: true
      include_non_conventional: true
      date_format: '2006-01-02'
      unreleased: true
      skip_commits: '^Merge|^docs: update changelog|^docs: update CONTRIBUTORS'
      exclude_authors: 'GitHub Action,GitHub Actions,dependabot[bot],renovate[bot],github-actions[bot]'

  - name: Commit Changelog
    uses: somaz94/go-git-commit-action@v1
    with:
      branch: main
      commit_message: 'docs: update changelog'
      user_email: '[email protected]'
      user_name: 'GitHub Actions'
      file_pattern: 'CHANGELOG.md'
      github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

- name: Generate Changelog for specific range
  uses: somaz94/go-changelog-action@v1
  with:
    since_tag: v1.0.0
    until_tag: v2.0.0

- name: Generate Changelog with custom sections
  uses: somaz94/go-changelog-action@v1
  with:
    custom_type_mapping: '{"feat": "New Features", "fix": "Bugfixes", "perf": "Optimizations"}'

- name: Preview Changelog
  uses: somaz94/go-changelog-action@v1
  with:
    dry_run: true

# Changelog

## [v1.1.0](https://github.com/owner/repo/compare/v1.0.0...v1.1.0) (2024-03-15)

### Features

- **auth:** add OAuth2 support ([#42](https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/42)) ([abc1234](https://github.com/owner/repo/commit/abc1234))

### Bug Fixes

- fix memory leak ([def5678](https://github.com/owner/repo/commit/def5678)), closes [#99](https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/99)

### Contributors

- alice
- bob

This action parses commits following the Conventional Commits specification:

<type>[optional scope]: <description>

[optional body]

[optional footer(s)]

Breaking changes are detected via:

• ! after the type/scope: feat!: remove deprecated API
• BREAKING CHANGE in the commit body

By default, the following bot/automation accounts are excluded from the Contributors section:

• GitHub Action
• GitHub Actions
• dependabot[bot]
• renovate[bot]
• github-actions[bot]

You can customize this via the exclude_authors input. Use * suffix for contains matching (e.g., bot* excludes any author containing "bot").

To disable filtering and include all authors:

- name: Generate Changelog (no bot filtering)
  uses: somaz94/go-changelog-action@v1
  with:
    exclude_authors: ''

• PR numbers are auto-detected from (#123) in commit messages
• Issue references are detected from closes #123, fixes #456, resolves #789 in commit messages and bodies

.
├── cmd/
│   └── main.go              # Entry point
├── internal/
│   ├── changelog/
│   │   ├── generator.go     # Changelog generation logic
│   │   ├── generator_test.go
│   │   ├── parser.go        # Conventional commit parser
│   │   └── parser_test.go
│   ├── config/
│   │   ├── config.go        # Configuration from env vars
│   │   └── config_test.go
│   ├── git/
│   │   ├── git.go           # Git operations
│   │   └── git_test.go
│   └── output/
│       ├── output.go        # GitHub Actions output helpers
│       └── output_test.go
├── action.yml
├── Dockerfile
├── Makefile
└── go.mod

• Go (the version in go.mod)
• Docker (for container builds)

make build

make test

make cover

You can run the changelog generator locally without GitHub Actions:

# Dry run (preview only, no file written)
GITHUB_WORKSPACE="$(pwd)" \
INPUT_DRY_RUN=true \
INPUT_TAG_PATTERN="v[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*" \
INPUT_INCLUDE_BREAKING=true \
INPUT_DATE_FORMAT="2006-01-02" \
INPUT_HEADER="# Changelog" \
INPUT_UNRELEASED=true \
INPUT_UNRELEASED_TITLE="Unreleased" \
INPUT_OUTPUT_FILE="CHANGELOG.md" \
go run ./cmd/

# Generate CHANGELOG.md file
GITHUB_WORKSPACE="$(pwd)" \
INPUT_TAG_PATTERN="v[0-9]*.[0-9]*.[0-9]*" \
INPUT_INCLUDE_BREAKING=true \
INPUT_DATE_FORMAT="2006-01-02" \
INPUT_HEADER="# Changelog" \
INPUT_UNRELEASED=true \
INPUT_UNRELEASED_TITLE="Unreleased" \
INPUT_OUTPUT_FILE="CHANGELOG.md" \
go run ./cmd/

Note: If your git remote uses a custom SSH host (e.g. [email protected]:), the repository URL may not be detected correctly. Use INPUT_REPOSITORY_URL to specify it explicitly:

INPUT_REPOSITORY_URL="https://github.com/owner/repo" \
# ... other env vars ...
go run ./cmd/

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.