Clikd Release Action

Automated semantic releases with AI-powered changelogs for monorepos and multi-language projects.

Features

• Conventional Commits Analysis - Automatically determines version bumps (major/minor/patch) from commit messages
• Multi-Language Support - Rust, Node.js, Python, Go, Elixir, C#
• Monorepo Support - Handles multiple packages with dependency graph resolution
• AI-Powered Changelogs - Optional AI enhancement using Claude API
• PR-Based Workflow - Creates release PRs for review before publishing
• Zero Configuration - Works out of the box with sensible defaults

How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  1. Action runs clikd release prepare --ci                     │
│     ├── Analyzes conventional commits                          │
│     ├── Bumps versions (major/minor/patch)                     │
│     ├── Generates changelogs (with optional AI)                │
│     ├── Creates release manifest in clikd/releases/            │
│     └── Creates Pull Request                                   │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  2. You review and merge the PR                                │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  3. GitHub App (clikd-bot) handles post-merge:                 │
│     ├── Creates Git tags                                       │
│     ├── Creates GitHub Releases                                │
│     └── Cleans up manifest files                               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Quick Start

name: Release

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

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

      - uses: clikd-inc/release-action@v1
        with:
          github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Prerequisites

Before using this action, initialize clikd in your repository:

# Install clikd
curl -fsSL https://clikd.dev/install.sh | sh

# Initialize release management
clikd release init

This creates a clikd/ directory with configuration files.

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
version	Version of clikd to install	No	latest
bump	Version bump type: major, minor, patch, auto	No	auto
projects	Per-project bumps (e.g., gate:major,rig:minor)	No	-
anthropic-api-key	API key for AI changelogs	No	-
github-token	GitHub token for PR creation	No	github.token
working-directory	Working directory	No	.
dry-run	Run without creating PR	No	false
git-user-name	Git user name for commits	No	github-actions[bot]
git-user-email	Git user email for commits	No	github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com

Outputs

Output	Description
pr-created	true if a release PR was created
pr-url	URL of the created pull request
pr-number	Number of the created pull request
releases	JSON array of packages to be released
release-count	Number of packages in the release

Releases Output Format

[
  {
    "name": "my-package",
    "old_version": "1.0.0",
    "new_version": "1.1.0"
  }
]

Examples

Basic Usage (Auto-detect bump from commits)

- uses: clikd-inc/release-action@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Force Major Release

- uses: clikd-inc/release-action@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    bump: major

Per-Project Bumps (Monorepo)

- uses: clikd-inc/release-action@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    projects: 'api:major,web:minor,shared:patch'

With AI-Powered Changelogs

- uses: clikd-inc/release-action@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    anthropic-api-key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}

Dry Run (Testing)

- uses: clikd-inc/release-action@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    dry-run: true

Using Outputs

- id: release
  uses: clikd-inc/release-action@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

- name: Show PR
  if: steps.release.outputs.pr-created == 'true'
  run: |
    echo "Release PR: ${{ steps.release.outputs.pr-url }}"
    echo "Packages: ${{ steps.release.outputs.release-count }}"

Auto-Merge Release PRs

- id: release
  uses: clikd-inc/release-action@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

- name: Enable auto-merge
  if: steps.release.outputs.pr-created == 'true'
  run: gh pr merge --auto --squash "${{ steps.release.outputs.pr-number }}"
  env:
    GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Custom Git Identity

- uses: clikd-inc/release-action@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    git-user-name: 'Release Bot'
    git-user-email: 'release-bot@example.com'

Specific clikd Version

- uses: clikd-inc/release-action@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    version: '0.6.0'

Conventional Commits

Version bumps are determined by commit prefixes:

Prefix	Version Bump	Example
feat:	Minor	feat: add new API endpoint
feat!: or BREAKING CHANGE:	Major	feat!: redesign API
fix:	Patch	fix: resolve memory leak
perf:	Patch	perf: optimize query
refactor:	Patch	refactor: simplify logic
chore:, docs:, ci:, test:	No bump	docs: update README

Supported Languages

Language	Version Files
Rust	Cargo.toml
Node.js	package.json
Python	pyproject.toml, setup.py
Go	go.mod
Elixir	mix.exs
C#	*.csproj

Troubleshooting

No PR created

• Ensure commits follow Conventional Commits format
• Check that clikd/ directory exists (run clikd release init)
• Verify fetch-depth: 0 in checkout action

Permission denied

• Add permissions: contents: write and pull-requests: write to your workflow
• For fine-grained PATs, ensure "Contents: Read and write" and "Pull requests: Read and write" permissions

AI changelog not working

• Verify ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is set correctly
• Check API key has sufficient credits/quota

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide first.

Links

• clikd CLI Documentation
• Conventional Commits
• Semantic Versioning