changesets/action

Automate versioning and npm publishing for repos that use Changesets.

Official actionCategory: Release AutomationLatest v1View on GitHub

What it does

changesets/action reads pending changeset files and keeps a "Version Packages" pull request up to date with version bumps and changelogs. When that PR merges, it runs your publish script to release to npm.

It is the standard release automation for pnpm/npm monorepos using @changesets/cli.

Usage

workflow (.yml)

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    with:
      fetch-depth: 0
  - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
    with:
      node-version: 22
  - run: npm ci
  - uses: changesets/action@v1
    with:
      publish-script: npm run release
    env:
      GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

Inputs

Input	Description	Default	Required
`github-token`	The GitHub token to use for authentication.	`${{ github.token }}`	No
`publish-script`	The command to use to build and publish packages.	-	No
`version-script`	The command to update version, edit CHANGELOG, read and delete changesets. Defaults to `changeset version`.	-	No
`commit-message`	The commit message for the version commit.	`Version Packages`	No
`pr-title`	The pull request title.	`Version Packages`	No
`create-github-releases`	Whether to create GitHub releases after publish.	`true`	No
`commit-mode`	How changes are pushed: "git-cli" or "github-api" (signed commits attributed to the token owner).	`git-cli`	No

Outputs

Output	Description
`published`	Boolean indicating whether a publish happened.
`published-packages`	JSON array of published packages with name and version.
`has-changesets`	Boolean indicating whether there were pending changesets.
`pr-number`	The pull request number that was created or updated.

Notes

Without publish-script the action only maintains the Version Packages PR; publishing is opt-in.

Check out with fetch-depth: 0 so the action can compare changesets against full history.

Common errors

GitHub Actions is not permitted to create or approve pull requests means the repo/org setting blocking Actions-created PRs is on. Enable it or use a PAT/App token as github-token.
An npm ENEEDAUTH or 401 during publish means NPM_TOKEN is missing from the env or your publish script does not read it (e.g. no .npmrc wiring).

Security and pinning

Use a granular npm automation token stored as a secret, scoped to only the packages this repo publishes.
Pin the action to a commit SHA; it runs with contents: write and your npm credentials.

Alternatives and related

googleapis/release-please-actionAutomate versioning and releases from conventional commits via a maintained release PR. peter-evans/create-pull-requestCommit changes made during a workflow and open (or update) a pull request with them.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the action say there are no changesets?

PRs must include a changeset file (from npx changeset) for the action to have anything to version. The has-changesets output tells you whether any were pending.

References

GitHub Actions documentation