release-please-development

name: release-please-development description: This skill should be used when the user asks to "set up release please", "configure automated releases", "manage version numbers", "add changelog automation", or mentions release-please, semantic versioning, or monorepo versioning. allowed-tools: Read, Grep

Release Please Development

Configure automated versioning, changelog generation, and releases using Google's release-please.

Quick Reference

Single Package Pattern - Simple repos with one version
Multi-Package Pattern - Monorepos with independent versions
Configuration Options - All available settings

Overview

Release-please automates:

Version bumping based on conventional commits
CHANGELOG.md generation
GitHub release creation
Version updates in files (package.json, Chart.yaml, etc.)

Core Files

.github/
├── release-please-config.json    # Package configuration
├── release-please-manifest.json  # Current version tracking
└── workflows/
    └── release.yaml              # GitHub Actions workflow

When to Use Each Pattern

Pattern	Use Case
Single Package	Libraries, CLIs, simple apps with one version
Multi-Package	Monorepos, services with independent release cycles

Basic Setup

1. Create Config File

.github/release-please-config.json:

{
  "release-type": "simple",
  "packages": {
    ".": {
      "changelog-path": "CHANGELOG.md"
    }
  }
}

2. Create Manifest

.github/release-please-manifest.json:

{
  ".": "0.0.1"
}

3. Add GitHub Workflow

.github/workflows/release.yaml:

name: Release

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
        with:
          config-file: .github/release-please-config.json
          manifest-file: .github/release-please-manifest.json

Release Types

Type	Use Case	Versions
`simple`	Generic projects	CHANGELOG only
`node`	npm packages	package.json
`python`	Python packages	setup.py, pyproject.toml
`go`	Go modules	go.mod
`helm`	Helm charts	Chart.yaml

Updating Extra Files

Use extra-files to update versions in arbitrary files:

{
  "packages": {
    ".": {
      "extra-files": [
        {
          "type": "json",
          "path": "manifest.json",
          "jsonpath": "$.version"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code Plugin Marketplaces

For marketplaces with multiple plugins sharing a single version:

{
  "release-type": "simple",
  "packages": {
    ".": {
      "changelog-path": "CHANGELOG.md",
      "extra-files": [
        {
          "type": "json",
          "path": ".claude-plugin/marketplace.json",
          "jsonpath": "$.plugins[0].version"
        },
        {
          "type": "json",
          "path": ".claude-plugin/marketplace.json",
          "jsonpath": "$.plugins[1].version"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Add a jsonpath entry for each plugin in the marketplace. When adding new plugins, update both:

.claude-plugin/marketplace.json - add the plugin entry
.github/release-please-config.json - add jsonpath for the new plugin's version

Conventional Commits

Release-please uses commit prefixes to determine version bumps:

Prefix	Version Bump	Example
`feat:`	Minor (0.x.0)	New feature
`fix:`	Patch (0.0.x)	Bug fix
`feat!:` or `BREAKING CHANGE`	Major (x.0.0)	Breaking change
`docs:`, `chore:`, etc.	None	No release

How It Works

Push commits to main with conventional commit messages
Release-please creates/updates a release PR
Merge the release PR to create a GitHub release
Tags and changelog are automatically generated