The latest articles on DEV Community by D T (@d_t_86971bfbafad68bae2412). https://dev.to/d_t_86971bfbafad68bae2412 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4095574%2Fc17edbd7-7413-46c8-930a-bd5cce8f7b4b.jpg https://dev.to/d_t_86971bfbafad68bae2412 en D T Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:08:55 +0000 https://dev.to/d_t_86971bfbafad68bae2412/i-built-a-read-only-github-action-that-generates-changelogs-from-ordinary-commits-p5i https://dev.to/d_t_86971bfbafad68bae2412/i-built-a-read-only-github-action-that-generates-changelogs-from-ordinary-commits-p5i <p>I built <strong>ChangelogGenie</strong>, a lightweight open-source GitHub Action and CLI for generating categorized technical Markdown changelogs directly from GitHub commit history.</p> <p>The main constraint I wanted to avoid was requiring repositories to adopt a particular commit convention before the tool becomes useful.</p> <h2> Why </h2> <p>Many changelog workflows depend on Conventional Commits, PR labels, release tags, or other repository-specific conventions.</p> <p>ChangelogGenie takes a simpler approach: give it a GitHub repository and an explicit calendar date range, and it reads the commits in that interval and produces a deterministic technical changelog.</p> <p>It does not modify the repository.</p> <h2> What it does </h2> <p>ChangelogGenie:</p> <ul> <li>works with ordinary Git commits — no Conventional Commits required;</li> <li>categorizes changes into features, bug fixes, performance, documentation, maintenance, dependencies, CI/CD, refactoring, breaking changes, and other technical categories;</li> <li>records the requested date range and the actual commit date range;</li> <li>preserves commit metadata and links to the source commits;</li> <li>runs read-only;</li> <li>does not create commits, modify files in the repository, or open pull requests.</li> </ul> <p>The GitHub Action generates a Markdown file inside the workflow. A workflow can then upload that file as an artifact or use it in downstream processing.</p> <h2> Real repository validation </h2> <p>I tested the released Action against the public <code>outline/outline</code> repository for March 15–18, 2026.</p> <p>It collected <strong>21 public commits</strong> and generated a categorized Markdown changelog.</p> <p>The actual generated output is persisted in the repository so it can be inspected directly:</p> <p><a href="https://github.com/Ubuntu-123/changeloggenie-prototype/blob/main/examples/outline-v1.6.1-changelog.md" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/Ubuntu-123/changeloggenie-prototype/blob/main/examples/outline-v1.6.1-changelog.md</a></p> <h2> Quick Start </h2> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> yaml - name: Generate changelog uses: Ubuntu-123/changeloggenie-prototype@v0.1.7 with: owner: ${{ github.repository_owner }} repo: ${{ github.event.repository.name }} start_date: "2026-08-01" end_date: "2026-08-31" version: "draft" output_path: "changelog-output.md" github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} - name: Upload changelog artifact uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4 with: name: changelog-output path: changelog-output.md Current limitations The categorization is deterministic and pattern-based rather than semantic. The Free GitHub Action is intentionally narrow: it produces the technical changelog but does not decide what should become customer-facing release communication. I prefer keeping that boundary explicit rather than hiding editorial decisions behind automatic rewriting. Links GitHub: https://github.com/Ubuntu-123/changeloggenie-prototype GitHub Marketplace: https://github.com/marketplace/actions/changeloggenie The project is MIT licensed. Feedback is especially useful on the generated format, categorization, and whether this kind of read-only workflow fits real release processes. </code></pre> </div> showdev githubactions opensource python