📋 AutoChangelog

Generate beautiful changelogs from your git history in seconds.

Zero dependencies. Conventional Commits aware. Works as a CLI tool and GitHub Action.

npx autochangelog

That's it. Beautiful, grouped, emoji-rich changelog from your git history.

---

Output Example

## v2.1.0 (2026-02-19)

### ✨ Features
- **auth:** add OAuth2 support (a1b2c3d)
- **api:** new batch endpoint (e4f5g6h)

### 🐛 Bug Fixes
- **db:** fix connection pool leak (i7j8k9l)

### ⚡ Performance
- reduce bundle size by 40% (m0n1o2p)

Install

# Use directly (no install needed)
npx autochangelog

# Or install globally
npm install -g autochangelog

CLI Usage

# Changes since last tag → stdout
autochangelog

# Full changelog from all tags
autochangelog --all

# Write to file
autochangelog --all --output CHANGELOG.md

# With commit links
autochangelog --repo-url https://github.com/you/repo

# JSON output (for pipelines)
autochangelog --format json

# Changes between specific refs
autochangelog --from v1.0.0 --to v2.0.0

GitHub Action

Add to .github/workflows/changelog.yml:

name: Generate Changelog
on:
  push:
    tags: ['v*']

jobs:
  changelog:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0  # Full history needed

      - uses: jcrewfare/autochangelog@v1
        id: changelog
        with:
          all: true
          output: CHANGELOG.md

      - name: Create Release
        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v1
        with:
          body: ${{ steps.changelog.outputs.changelog }}

Action Inputs

Input	Description	Default
from	Start ref (tag/commit)	Latest tag
to	End ref	HEAD
version	Version heading	Auto-detected
repo-url	Repo URL for links	Auto from GitHub
output	Output file path	CHANGELOG.md
format	markdown or json	markdown
all	Full changelog	false

Action Outputs

Output	Description
changelog	Generated changelog content
suggested-bump	Suggested semver bump

How It Works

1. Reads your git log (tags + commits)
2. Parses Conventional Commits (feat:, fix:, perf:, etc.)
3. Groups changes by type with emoji headers
4. Suggests version bumps based on commit types
5. Non-conventional commits go to "Other Changes" (nothing is lost)

Commit Format

AutoChangelog works best with Conventional Commits:

feat(scope): add new feature       → ✨ Features (minor bump)
fix(scope): resolve bug            → 🐛 Bug Fixes (patch bump)
perf: improve speed                → ⚡ Performance (patch bump)
feat!: breaking change             → ⚠️ BREAKING (major bump)
docs: update readme                → 📚 Documentation
refactor: clean up code            → ♻️ Refactoring

But it also handles non-conventional commits gracefully — they appear under "📝 Other Changes".

Free vs Pro

Feature	Free	Pro ($5)
Conventional Commits parsing	✅	✅
Grouped output with emoji	✅	✅
Commit links	✅	✅
JSON output	✅	✅
Full changelog (--all)	✅	✅
GitHub Action	✅	✅
Custom templates	❌	✅
Slack/Discord webhooks	❌	✅
JIRA/Linear ticket linking	❌	✅
Priority support	❌	✅

Get Pro →

export AUTOCHANGELOG_PRO=your-key
autochangelog --template my-template.md

Zero Dependencies

AutoChangelog has no npm dependencies. It uses only Node.js built-ins (child_process, fs, path). Install is instant, no supply chain risk.

License

MIT © jcrewfare