GitHub Actions

There are two official GitHub Actions for Python Semantic Release:

  1. python-semantic-release/python-semantic-release@TAG

    This is the main action that runs the version CLI command. It is used to (1) determine the next version number, (2) stamp the version number, (3) run the build command, (4) build the changelog, (5) commit the changes, (6) tag the commit, (7) publish the commit & tag and lastly (8) create a GitHub release. For more information review the version command documentation and see below for the Action configuration options.

  2. python-semantic-release/publish-action@TAG

    This action is used to execute the publish CLI command. It is used to upload files, such as distribution artifacts and other assets, to a GitHub release.

Note

These GitHub Actions are only simplified wrappers around the python-semantic-release CLI. Ultimately, they download and install the published package from PyPI so if you find that you are trying to do something more advanced or less common, you may need to install and use the CLI directly.

Python Semantic Release Action

The official Python Semantic Release GitHub Action is a GitHub Docker Action, which means at the beginning of the job it will build a Docker image that contains the Python Semantic Release package and its dependencies. It will then run the job step inside the Docker Container. This is done to ensure that the environment is consistent across all GitHub Runners regardless of platform. With this choice, comes some limitations of non-configurable options like a pre-defined python version, lack of installed build tools, and an inability to utilize caching.

The primary benefit of using the GitHub Action is that it is easy to set up and use for most projects. We handle a lot of the git configuration under the hood, so you don’t have to handle it yourself. There are a plenty of customization options available which are detailed individually below.

Most importantly your project’s configuration file will be used as normal, as your project will be mounted into the container for the action to use.

See also

action.yml: the code definition of the action

Inputs

GitHub Action inputs are used for select configuration and provide the necessary information to execute the action. The inputs are passed to the action using the with keyword in the workflow file. Many inputs will mirror the command line options available in the version command. This section outlines each supported input and its purpose.

build_metadata

Type: string

Explicitly set the build metadata of the version. This is equivalent to running the command:

semantic-release version --build-metadata <metadata>

Required: false

See also

changelog

Type: Literal["true", "false"]

Override whether the action should generate a changelog or not. This option is equivalent to adding either --changelog (on true) or --no-changelog (on false) to the version command.

Required: false

Note

If not set, the default behavior is defined by the version command and any user configurations.

See also

commit

Type: Literal["true", "false"]

Override whether the action should commit any changes to the local repository. Changes include the version stamps, changelog, and any other files that are modified and added to the index during the build command. This option is equivalent to adding either --commit (on true) or --no-commit (on false) to the version command.

Required: false

Note

If not set, the default behavior is defined by the version command and any user configurations.

See also

directory

If the project is not at the root of the repository (like in monorepos), you can specify a sub-directory to change into before running semantic-release.

Required: false

Default: .

force

Type: Literal["prerelease", "patch", "minor", "major"]

Force the next version to be a specific bump type. This is equivalent to running the command:

semantic-release version --<type>

# Ex: force a patch level version bump
semantic-release version --patch

Required: false

See also

git_committer_email

The email of the account used to commit. If customized, it must be associated with the provided token.

Required: false

git_committer_name

The name of the account used to commit. If customized, it must be associated with the provided token.

Required: false

github_token

The GitHub Token is essential for access to your GitHub repository to allow the push of commits & tags as well as to create a release. Not only do you need to provide the token as an input but you also need to ensure that the token has the correct permissions.

The token should have the following permissions:

  • id-token: write

  • contents: write

Required: true

prerelease

Force the version to be a prerelease version when set to true. This is equivalent to running the command:

semantic-release version --as-prerelease

Required: false

Note

If not set, the default behavior is defined by the version command and any user configurations.

See also

prerelease_token

Override any prerelease token in the configuration file with this value, if it is a pre-release. This will override the matching release branch configuration’s prerelease_token value. If you always want it to be a prerelease then you must also set the prerelease input to true.

This option is equivalent to running the command:

semantic-release version --prerelease-token <token>

Required: false

Note

If not set, the default behavior is defined by the version command and any user configurations.

See also

push

Type: Literal["true", "false"]

Override whether the action should push any commits or tags from the local repository to the remote repository. This option is equivalent to adding either --push (on true) or --no-push (on false) to the version command.

Required: false

Note

If not set, the default behavior is defined by the version command and any user configurations.

See also

root_options

Additional options for the main semantic-release command, which will come before the version subcommand.

Example

- uses: python-semantic-release/python-semantic-release@v9.9.0
  with:
    root_options: "-vv --noop"

This configuration would cause the command to be semantic-release -vv --noop version, which would run the version command verbosely but in no-operation mode.

Required: false

Default: -v

See also

ssh_public_signing_key

The public key associated with the private key used in signing a commit and tag.

Required: false

ssh_private_signing_key

The private key used to sign a commit and tag.

Required: false

tag

Type: Literal["true", "false"]

Override whether the action should create a version tag in the local repository. This option is equivalent to adding either --tag (on true) or --no-tag (on false) to the version command.

Required: false

Note

If not set, the default behavior is defined by the version command and any user configurations.

See also

vcs_release

Type: Literal["true", "false"]

Override whether the action should create a release on the VCS. This option is equivalent to adding either --vcs-release (on true) or --no-vcs-release (on false) to the version command.

Required: false

Note

If not set, the default behavior is defined by the version command and any user configurations.

See also

Outputs

The Python Semantic Release Action also provides outputs that can be used in subsequent steps of the workflow. These outputs are used to provide information about the release and any actions that were taken.

is_prerelease

Type: Literal["true", "false"]

A boolean value indicating whether the released version is a prerelease.

released

Type: Literal["true", "false"]

A boolean value indicating whether a release was made.

version

Type: string

The newly released SemVer version string if one was made, otherwise the current version.

Example: 1.2.3

tag

Type: string

The Git tag corresponding to the version output but in the tag format dictated by your configuration.

Example: v1.2.3

Python Semantic Release Publish Action

The official Python Semantic Release Publish Action is a GitHub Docker Action, which means at the beginning of the job it will build a Docker image that contains the Python Semantic Release package and its dependencies. It will then run the job step inside the Docker Container. This is done to ensure that the environment is consistent across all GitHub Runners regardless of platform. With this choice, comes some limitations of non-configurable options like a pre-defined python version, lack of additional 3rd party tools, and an inability to utilize caching.

The primary benefit of using the GitHub Action is that it is easy to set up and use for most projects. We handle some additional configuration under the hood, so you don’t have to handle it yourself. We do however provide a few customization options which are detailed individually below.

Most importantly your project’s configuration file will be used as normal, as your project will be mounted into the container for the action to use.

If you have issues with the action, please open an issue on the python-semantic-release/publish-action repository.

See also

  • action.yml: the code definition for the publish action

Inputs

GitHub Action inputs are used for select configuration and provide the necessary information to execute the action. The inputs are passed to the action using the with keyword in the workflow file. Many inputs will mirror the command line options available in the publish command and others will be specific to adjustment of the action environment. This section outlines each supported input and its purpose.

directory

If the project is not at the root of the repository (like in monorepos), you can specify a sub-directory to change into before running semantic-release.

Required: false

Default: .

github_token

The GitHub Token is essential for access to your GitHub repository to allow the publish of assets to a release. Not only do you need to provide the token as an input but you also need to ensure that the token has the correct permissions.

The token should have the following permissions:

  • contents: write: Required for modifying a GitHub Release

Required: true

root_options

Additional options for the main semantic-release command, which will come before the publish subcommand.

Example

- uses: python-semantic-release/publish-action@v9.8.9
  with:
    root_options: "-vv --noop"

This configuration would cause the command to be semantic-release -vv --noop publish, which would run the publish command verbosely but in no-operation mode.

Required: false

Default: -v

See also

tag

Type: string

The tag corresponding to the GitHub Release that the artifacts should be published to. This option is equivalent to running the command:

semantic-release publish --tag <tag>

Python Semantic Release will automatically determine the latest release if no --tag option is provided.

Required: false

See also

Outputs

There are no outputs provided by the Python Semantic Release Publish Action at this time.

Note

If you would like outputs to be provided by this action, please open an issue on the python-semantic-release/publish-action repository.

Examples

Common Workflow Example

The following is a common workflow example that uses both the Python Semantic Release Action and the Python Semantic Release Publish Action. This workflow will run on every push to the main branch and will create a new release upon a successful version determination. If a version is released, the workflow will then publish the package to PyPI and upload the package to the GitHub Release Assets as well.

name: Continuous Delivery

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    concurrency: release

    permissions:
      id-token: write
      contents: write

    steps:
      # Note: we need to checkout the repository at the workflow sha in case during the workflow
      # the branch was updated. To keep PSR working with the configured release branches,
      # we force a checkout of the desired release branch but at the workflow sha HEAD.
      - name: Setup | Checkout Repository at workflow sha
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          ref: ${{ github.sha }}

      - name: Setup | Force correct release branch on workflow sha
        run: |
          git checkout -B ${{ github.ref_name }} ${{ github.sha }}

      - name: Action | Semantic Version Release
        id: release
        # Adjust tag with desired version if applicable.
        uses: python-semantic-release/python-semantic-release@v9.9.0
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          git_committer_name: "github-actions"
          git_committer_email: "actions@users.noreply.github.com"

      - name: Publish | Upload package to PyPI
        uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@v1
        if: steps.release.outputs.released == 'true'

      - name: Publish | Upload to GitHub Release Assets
        uses: python-semantic-release/publish-action@v9.8.9
        if: steps.release.outputs.released == 'true'
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          tag: ${{ steps.release.outputs.tag }}

Important

The concurrency directive is used on the job to prevent race conditions of more than one release job in the case if there are multiple pushes to main in a short period of time.

Warning

You must set fetch-depth to 0 when using actions/checkout@v4, since Python Semantic Release needs access to the full history to build a changelog and at least the latest tags to determine the next version.

Warning

The GITHUB_TOKEN secret is automatically configured by GitHub, with the same permissions role as the user who triggered the workflow run. This causes a problem if your default branch is protected to specific users.

You can work around this by storing an administrator’s Personal Access Token as a separate secret and using that instead of GITHUB_TOKEN. In this case, you will also need to pass the new token to actions/checkout (as the token input) in order to gain push access.

Version Overrides Example

In the case where you want to provide multiple command line options to the version command, you provide them through the with directive in the workflow file. In this example, we want to force a patch version bump, not produce a changelog, and provide specialized build metadata. As a regular CLI command, this would look like:

semantic-release version --patch --no-changelog --build-metadata abc123

The equivalent GitHub Action configuration would be:

# snippet

- name: Action | Semantic Version Release
  # Adjust tag with desired version if applicable.
  uses: python-semantic-release/python-semantic-release@v9.9.0
  with:
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    force: patch
    changelog: false
    build_metadata: abc123

Actions with Monorepos

While python-semantic-release does NOT have full monorepo support, if you have multiple projects stored within a single repository (or your project is not at the root of the repository), you can pass the directory input to the action to change directory before semantic-release execution.

For multiple packages, you would need to run the action multiple times, to release each project. The following example demonstrates how to release two projects in a monorepo.

The directory input directive is also available for the Python Semantic Release Publish Action.

- name: Release Project 1
  uses: python-semantic-release/python-semantic-release@v9.9.0
  with:
    directory: ./project1
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

- name: Release Project 2
  uses: python-semantic-release/python-semantic-release@v9.9.0
  with:
    directory: ./project2
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}