Generate Changelog

Generate a changelog from git history between two tags, grouped by conventional commit types. Designed for use in Forgejo Actions release workflows.

Features

• Automatic tag detection: Finds the previous tag automatically, or accepts a manual override
• Conventional commit grouping: Categorizes commits by type (feat, fix, chore, refactor, etc.)
• Customizable categories: Define your own commit type to section header mapping via JSON
• Compare link: Automatically adds a full changelog link when running on Forgejo

Usage

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    with:
      fetch-depth: 0  # Required: full history needed for tag detection

  - name: Generate changelog
    id: changelog
    uses: your-org/generate-changelog@v1
    with:
      tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}

  - name: Create release
    uses: actions/forgejo-release@v2
    with:
      body: ${{ steps.changelog.outputs.changelog }}

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
tag	The current release tag	Yes	${{ github.ref_name }}
previous-tag	Override for the previous tag. Auto-detected if omitted	No
categories	JSON mapping of commit prefixes to section headers	No	See below

Default categories

{
  "feat": "✨ Features",
  "fix": "🐛 Bug Fixes",
  "refactor": "♻️ Refactoring",
  "chore": "🔧 Chores"
}

Commits that don't match any category are listed under 📝 Other Changes.

Outputs

Output	Description
changelog	The generated changelog as a markdown string

Examples

Custom categories

- name: Generate changelog
  id: changelog
  uses: your-org/generate-changelog@v1
  with:
    tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}
    categories: '{"feat": "New Features", "fix": "Bug Fixes", "docs": "Documentation", "perf": "Performance"}'

Manual tag override

- name: Generate changelog
  id: changelog
  uses: your-org/generate-changelog@v1
  with:
    tag: v2.0.0
    previous-tag: v1.0.0

Sample output

# Release v1.2.0

## ✨ Features

- add user authentication (a1b2c3d)
- add rate limiting to API (e4f5g6h)

## 🐛 Bug Fixes

- handle empty input gracefully (i7j8k9l)

---
**Full Changelog**: https://forgejo.example.com/org/repo/compare/v1.1.0...v1.2.0

Requirements

• The checkout step must use fetch-depth: 0 so that the full git history and tags are available.
• jq is recommended on the runner for category parsing. A pure bash fallback is included.

License

MIT