action-release-version-next

GitHub Action to calculate the next semantic version from commit history.

Supports push and pull_request contexts.

Inputs

• tag-prefix (optional, default: "")
  • Prefix for git tags, e.g. v for tags like v0.3.7.
• working-directory (optional, default: .)
  • Directory where git commands should run.
  • If this points to a subdirectory inside the repository, only commits that touched this subpath are considered.

Outputs

• next-version: version without prefix, e.g. 0.4.0
• next-tag: version with prefix, e.g. v0.4.0
• bump-type: one of major, minor, patch
• commit-count: number of commits evaluated

Bump rules

• feat: -> minor (x.Y.0)
• any other conventional commit type (e.g. chore:, fix:) -> patch (x.y.Z)
• non-conventional commit messages -> patch (never fails because of message format)
• ! or BREAKING CHANGE: -> major

Example workflow

name: Release version calc

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  version:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Calculate next version
        id: version
        uses: ./
        with:
          tag-prefix: v
          working-directory: .

      - name: Show
        run: |
          echo "next-version=${{ steps.version.outputs.next-version }}"
          echo "next-tag=${{ steps.version.outputs.next-tag }}"
          echo "bump-type=${{ steps.version.outputs.bump-type }}"
          echo "commit-count=${{ steps.version.outputs.commit-count }}"

Notes

• For correct tag and history detection, use fetch-depth: 0 in checkout.
• The action intentionally does not implement prerelease semantics.

Self-test workflow

• The repository includes a workflow test in .github/workflows/test-action.yml.
• It validates:
  • subpath filtering via working-directory
  • root repository behavior
  • non-conventional commit fallback to patch bump

Unit tests

• Unit tests use the built-in Node test runner.
• Run locally with:

node --test