What is Versionary?
Versionary is a software-agnostic, automated release tool. It reads your Conventional Commits, computes the next Semantic Version, generates a changelog, updates your version files, creates tags, and publishes release metadata to your source-control provider (GitHub today).
It is designed as a practical middle ground between semantic-release and release-please:
- Like
semantic-release, it supports direct release execution—merge to your trunk and a release goes out. - Like
release-please, it supports a release PR workflow, so maintainers can preview and review the version bump and changelog before anything is published.
You choose which behavior you want with the review-mode config key.
What it does
The core keeps versioning, changelog generation, tagging, and release metadata in one tool:
- semantic version planning from commits
- changelog generation
- release PR automation
- tags and SCM release metadata (e.g., GitHub Releases)
What it does not do (by design)
- Publishing artifacts to language registries (npm, crates.io, PyPI, CRAN, …). Versionary creates the tag and the release; your CI publishes from that event.
- Replacing package-specific publish tooling.
- Loading external/user-provided plugins at runtime. Extension points exist, but they are internal.
Use your CI/CD platform for registry publishing, triggered from the release/tag that Versionary creates. See GitHub Actions for the wiring.
Design priorities
When in doubt, Versionary favors:
- trunk-based-development compatibility
- monorepo ergonomics
- explicit failure handling over a broad dependency surface
- a small, stable core with clear extension points
- staying SCM-agnostic at the core with built-in provider integration (GitHub first; others later)
Status
Versionary is in early, alpha-stage development. Breaking changes are expected before 1.0.0. The changelog tracks what has shipped.
Next steps
- Getting started — install, configure, and run your first release.
- Conventional Commits — how commits are parsed and filtered.
- Versioning — how the next version is computed.
- GitHub Actions — automate the whole thing in CI.