github-changelog-generator/github-changelog-generator
Github Changelog Generator
This project is an automated release note tool and markdown history generator that transforms repository activity into structured documentation. It functions as a GitHub API client and CI/CD pipeline component, aggregating tags, issues, and pull requests to produce categorized summaries of project changes.
The tool distinguishes itself through native GitHub Enterprise integration, supporting custom API endpoints for self-hosted server instances. It employs a label-based categorization system to group changes into specific sections and utilizes personal access tokens or OAuth to manage API rate limits and access private data.
The system covers broad capabilities including content filtering, output formatting, and the preservation of historical logs. Users can define custom categories, exclude specific entries based on metadata, and manage settings through command-line arguments or local configuration files.
The tool can be executed via a command-line interface or within a Docker container.
Features
- Release Changelog Generators - Generates a formatted markdown change history by aggregating closed issues, pull requests, and tags.
- Release Note Generation - Automatically generates structured markdown release notes by aggregating tags, issues, and pull requests from GitHub.
- Authenticated API Clients - Retrieves repository metadata and activity using personal access tokens to bypass API rate limits.
- Markdown Changelog Generators - Converts git hosting service data into a formatted markdown changelog for project documentation.
- Template-Driven Generators - Transforms aggregated project data into structured version history documents using predefined markdown layout files.
- CI/CD Integrations - Integrates into CI/CD pipelines to automate the production of version summaries using GitHub API data.
- GitHub Integrations - Connects to GitHub to retrieve repository metadata, labels, and release activity for documentation purposes.
- Enterprise Instance Connectors - Provides a connector that supports custom API endpoints for generating change logs from self-hosted server instances.
- Label-Based Categorization - Groups repository items into distinct output sections by mapping specific metadata labels to defined categories.
- REST Data Fetching Utilities - Retrieves project activity such as issues, pull requests, and tags from external REST API endpoints.
- Version Control Integrations - Connects to external git hosting services to retrieve project activity and metadata.
- Version Tag Management - Identifies git tags to split change history into chronological version segments.
- Change - Groups issues into distinct sections based on labels such as bug fixes, enhancements, or custom mappings.
- CI CD Pipelines - Functions as a workflow component that automatically produces release summaries within a delivery pipeline.
- Enterprise API Client - Supports the generation of changelogs for self-hosted GitHub Enterprise instances using custom API endpoints.
- Enterprise API Integration - Provides native support for self-hosted GitHub Enterprise instances through custom API endpoint resolution.
- Document Section Customization - Defines custom categories and labels to group changes into specific sections like breaking changes or bug fixes.
- CLI Task Runners - Executes the changelog build process through a command-line interface, Docker container, or task runner.
- Issue Filtering - Excludes irrelevant issues from the output based on specific labels or inclusion criteria.
- Output Formatting Utilities - Customizes the date format, file destination, and header labels of the generated markdown file.
- Release Note Templates - Transforms categorized project changes into structured documentation using customizable text templates.
- Custom API Endpoints - Allows connection to self-hosted GitHub Enterprise server instances by specifying custom site and API URLs.
- Enterprise Server Integrations - Integrates with self-hosted GitHub Enterprise instances using custom site and API endpoints.
- GitHub Authentication - Supports GitHub-native token management via environment variables or flags to remove API rate restrictions.
- API Request Authentication - Implements token-based authentication for API requests to increase request volume and access private data.
- OAuth Authentication - Implements OAuth 2.0 token authentication to bypass API rate limits and access private repository data.
- Change - Includes or excludes specific issues and pull requests based on labels, tags, milestones, or author information.
- Token-Based Authentication - Uses personal access tokens and OAuth headers to authenticate requests and bypass API rate limits.
- Versioned Documentation - Produces categorized logs of bug fixes and enhancements to document software version history.
- Documentation - Automate changelog generation from GitHub metadata.
- Project Documentation Examples - Features a comprehensive FAQ and output examples.
- Dokumentation und Wissen - Automates changelog generation from GitHub tags and issues.
