---

name: release-please-development description: This skill should be used when the user asks to "set up release please", "configure automated releases", "manage version numbers", "add changelog automation", or mentions release-please, semantic versioning, or monorepo versioning.

Release Please Development

Configure automated versioning, changelog generation, and releases using Google's release-please.

Quick Reference

• Single Package Pattern - Simple repos with one version
• Multi-Package Pattern - Monorepos with independent versions
• Configuration Options - All available settings

Overview

Release-please automates:

• Version bumping based on conventional commits
• CHANGELOG.md generation
• GitHub release creation
• Version updates in files (package.json, Chart.yaml, etc.)

Core Files

Copy.github/
├── release-please-config.json    # Package configuration
├── release-please-manifest.json  # Current version tracking
└── workflows/
    └── release.yaml              # GitHub Actions workflow

When to Use Each Pattern

Basic Setup

1. Create Config File

.github/release-please-config.json:

Copy{
  "release-type": "simple",
  "packages": {
    ".": {
      "changelog-path": "CHANGELOG.md"
    }
  }
}

2. Create Manifest

.github/release-please-manifest.json:

Copy{
  ".": "0.0.1"
}

3. Add GitHub Workflow

.github/workflows/release.yaml:

Copyname: Release

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: googleapis/release-please-action@v4
        with:
          config-file: .github/release-please-config.json
          manifest-file: .github/release-please-manifest.json

Release Types

Updating Extra Files

Use extra-files to update versions in arbitrary files:

Copy{
  "packages": {
    ".": {
      "extra-files": [
        {
          "type": "json",
          "path": "manifest.json",
          "jsonpath": "$.version"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Conventional Commits

Release-please uses commit prefixes to determine version bumps:

How It Works

1. Push commits to main with conventional commit messages
2. Release-please creates/updates a release PR
3. Merge the release PR to create a GitHub release
4. Tags and changelog are automatically generated

See Also

• Single Package Example - Detailed single-package setup
• Multi-Package Example - Monorepo configuration
• Configuration Reference - All options explained