yeet

Release automation for GitHub, GitLab, and Azure DevOps, driven by conventional commits.

yeet analyzes commit history, calculates the next version (semver or calver), generates changelogs, opens a release PR/MR, and tags the release when it merges. It ships as a single static binary with no runtime dependencies.

Inspired by release-please.

Why yeet

If you want release-please's release-PR workflow but your code lives on GitLab or Azure DevOps, or you want it without a Node.js runtime in your pipeline, that is the gap yeet fills.

	yeet	release-please	semantic-release
Providers	GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps	GitHub	GitHub, GitLab
Self-hosted instances	GitHub Enterprise, self-managed GitLab, Azure DevOps Server	GitHub Enterprise	GitHub Enterprise, self-managed GitLab
Workflow	release PR/MR, tag on merge	release PR, tag on merge	publishes directly on push
Auto-merge release PR/MR	built in (auto/squash/rebase/merge)	external automation	no release PR
Release PR/MR reviewers	built in (release.reviewers, validated per provider)	not supported (use CODEOWNERS)	no release PR
Runtime	single binary or container image	Node.js	Node.js plus plugins
Versioning	semver and calver	semver	semver
Prerelease channels	branch-scoped channels (semver)	prerelease versioning strategy, no branch channels	branch-based channels built in
Exact version override	Release-As commit footer (semver)	Release-As commit footer or config	not supported
Commit type to bump mapping	configurable (bump_types)	fixed strategies only	configurable (releaseRules)
Version updates in arbitrary files	comment markers and JSON pointers	comment markers and typed extra-files	plugins only
Issue tracker links in changelog	built in (regex patterns and footers)	not supported	preset passthrough or community plugin
Commit message overrides	PR/MR body override block	PR body override block (squash only)	not supported
Monorepo	built in (targets)	built in (manifest)	third-party plugins
Configuration	one YAML file with a JSON schema	JSON config plus manifest	plugin config in .releaserc

Self-hosted setup is covered in Authentication.

Install

brew install monkescience/tap/yeet

Or on Windows with Scoop:

scoop bucket add monkescience https://github.com/monkescience/scoop-bucket
scoop install yeet

Or with Go:

go install github.com/monkescience/yeet/cmd/yeet@v0.10.14 # x-yeet-version

Or use the published container image:

docker run --rm ghcr.io/monkescience/yeet:v0.10.14 --help # x-yeet-version

Shell completions are available via yeet completion bash|zsh|fish|powershell.

Verify a release

Release archives and the container image are signed with Sigstore keyless signing, and both carry GitHub build provenance attestations.

Verify an archive against the .sigstore.json bundle published next to it:

cosign verify-blob \
  --bundle yeet_linux_amd64.tar.gz.sigstore.json \
  --certificate-identity-regexp 'https://github.com/monkescience/yeet/.github/workflows/binaries.yaml@.*' \
  --certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com \
  yeet_linux_amd64.tar.gz

Verify the container image signature:

cosign verify \
  --certificate-identity-regexp 'https://github.com/monkescience/yeet/.github/workflows/image.yaml@.*' \
  --certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com \
  ghcr.io/monkescience/yeet:v0.10.14 # x-yeet-version

Verify build provenance (which workflow and commit produced the artifact) with the GitHub CLI:

gh attestation verify yeet_linux_amd64.tar.gz --repo monkescience/yeet
gh attestation verify oci://ghcr.io/monkescience/yeet:v0.10.14 --repo monkescience/yeet # x-yeet-version

Quick start

yeet talks to the provider API, so export a token first (GITHUB_TOKEN, GITLAB_TOKEN, or AZURE_DEVOPS_EXT_PAT, see Authentication).

# Initialize config in your repo
yeet init

# Preview what the next release would look like
yeet release --dry-run

# Create a release PR/MR
yeet release

# Auto-merge and finalize in the same run
yeet release --auto-merge

Run yeet --help for the full list of commands and flags.

How it works

yeet release does slightly different work depending on repository state:

1. Before a release PR/MR exists, it scans conventional commits, calculates the next version, updates the changelog/version files, and opens a release PR/MR labeled autorelease: pending.
2. While that PR/MR is open, rerunning yeet release updates the same release branch instead of creating a second pending release.
3. After the release PR/MR is merged, the next yeet release run on the base branch creates the tag/provider release from the committed changelog entry and flips the label to autorelease: tagged.

Final release notes are read from the matching CHANGELOG.md entry. To customize release notes, edit that changelog entry on the release PR/MR branch. The PR/MR body itself is regenerated by yeet release and should not be used for final release-note edits.

That label lifecycle is operational, not decorative: yeet uses autorelease: pending to discover merged releases that still need tagging, and it expects only one open pending release PR/MR per base branch. If multiple pending PRs/MRs exist, yeet release fails and prints the conflicting URLs so you can close or relabel stale entries.

When auto-merge is enabled (--auto-merge or release.auto_merge in config), yeet merges the release PR/MR and finalizes the release in the same run. Force mode (--auto-merge-force) skips yeet's own readiness gates but does not bypass provider branch protections, required checks, approvals, or missing permissions.

Documentation

Getting started:

• Authentication: tokens and self-hosted setup per provider
• CI setup: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Azure Pipelines examples, performance tuning
• Migrating from release-please: config mapping and switch-over steps
• Troubleshooting: error categories and debug logging

Customization:

• Configuration: config file, repository targeting, monorepo targets, bump types, version files
• Versioning: semver, calver, and Release-As overrides
• Changelog generation: sections, issue tracker references, commit overrides
• Release PRs/MRs: PR/MR body and merge settings, release notes, prerelease channels