Custom Semantic Release for Java

This project provides a customizable GitHub Action to automate semantic versioning and changelog generation for Java projects using semantic-release and Maven.

Features

• Automated semantic versioning based on commit messages (with gitmoji support)
• Changelog generation with custom Handlebars templates (default-template.hbs, commit-template.hbs)
• Maven version bump and build integration
• Supports both standard and prerelease workflows
• Customizable via .releaserc.js and .prerelease-releaserc.js

Inputs

Name	Description	Required	Default
github_token	GitHub token for authentication	Yes
release_branch	Branch to perform the release from	No	master
maven_settings_path	Path to Maven settings.xml (if needed)	No

Outputs

Name	Description
release_version	The version of the release created

Configuration

• Edit .releaserc.js for main releases.
• Edit .prerelease-releaserc.js for prereleases.
• Customize changelog templates in the templates/ directory.

Usage

Add the following step to your workflow YAML:

- name: Semantic Release
  uses: your-org/semantic-release-action@v1
  with:
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    release_branch: 'main' # or 'develop' for prereleases
    maven_settings_path: './settings.xml' # optional

📄 Sources

• semantic-release tool
• semantic-release configuration file
• gitmoji plugin
• Handleebars
• Github Actions Guide