Drafts your next release notes as pull requests are merged into master. Built with Probot.
---
## Configuration options
You can configure Release Drafter using the following key in your `.github/release-drafter.yml` file:
|Key|Required|Description|
|-|-|-|
|`template`|Required|The template for the body of the draft release. Use [template variables](#template-variables) to insert values.|
|`change-template`|Optional|The template to use for each merged pull request. Use [change template variables](#change-template-variables) to insert values. Default: `* $TITLE ($NUMBER) @$AUTHOR`|
|`no-changes-template`|Optional|The template to use for when there’s no changes. Default: `* No changes`|
|`branches`|Optional|The branches to listen for configuration updates to `.github/release-drafter.yml` and for merge commits. Useful if you want to test the app on a pull request branch. Default is the repository’s default branch.|
Release Drafter also supports [Probot Config](https://github.com/probot/probot-config), if you want to store your configuration files in a central repository. This allows you to share configurations between projects, and create a organization-wide configuration file by creating a repository named `.github` and file named `release-drafter.yml`.
## Template variables
You can use any of the following variables in your `template`:
|Variable|Description|
|-|-|
|`$CHANGES`|The markdown list of pull requests that have been merged.|
|`$PREVIOUS_TAG`|The previous releases’s tag.|
## Change Template variables
You can use any of the following variables in `change-template`:
|Variable|Description|
|-|-|
|`$NUMBER`|The number of the pull request, e.g. `42`|
|`$TITLE`|The title of the pull request, e.g. `Add alien technology`|
|`$AUTHOR`|The pull request author’s username, e.g. `gracehopper`|
## GitHub Installation Permissions
Release Drafter needs to update your releases for you, and so it requires write access to the repository you want to automatically update. Unfortunately, at this time, GitHub doesn't offer a release-only write scope. **Please don't just add it to your entire GitHub account!** Only add the repositories you want to draft releases on.
## Developing
If you have Node v10+ installed locally, you can run the tests, and a local app, using the following commands:
```sh
# Install dependencies
yarn
# Run the tests
npm test
# Run the app locally
npm start
```
If you don’t have Node installed, you can use [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/):
```sh
# Run the tests
docker-compose run --rm app npm test
```
## Contributing
Third-party contributions are welcome! 🙏🏼 See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for step-by-step instructions.
If you need help or have a question, let me know via a GitHub issue.
## Deployment
If you want to deploy your own copy of Release Drafter, follow the [Probot Deployment Guide](https://probot.github.io/docs/deployment/).
## Releasing
Run the following command:
```bash
git checkout master && git pull && npm test && npm version [major | minor | patch]
```
The command does the following:
* Ensures you’re on master and don’t have local, un-commited changes
* Bumps the version number in [package.json](package.json) based on major, minor or patch
* Runs the `postversion` npm script in [package.json](package.json), which:
* Pushes the tag to GitHub
* Publishes the npm release
* Deploys to [Now](https://now.sh)
* Opens the GitHub releases page so you can publish the release notes