Autoship

What it does

Autoship automates the release process for JavaScript projects hosted on GitHub, handling tasks from repository cloning to npm publishing. It analyzes code changes and suggests a suitable release type (patch, minor, or major), generates an AI-powered changeset description, creates and merges pull requests, and triggers package publication. This simplifies software releases and reduces manual effort for developers.

When to use it

• For automating routine patch releases of JavaScript packages.
• When you want AI assistance in determining the appropriate release type (patch, minor, or major).
• To streamline the creation of changeset descriptions and pull requests.
• As part of a CI/CD pipeline for fully automated releases.

Key capabilities

• Repository Configuration: Adds repositories to be managed by Autoship (autoship add).
• Release Type Suggestion: Uses AI to suggest patch, minor, or major release types based on code changes.
• Changeset Description Generation: Generates a changeset description using AI.
• Pull Request Management: Creates and merges pull requests for the changeset and version packages.
• Automated Publishing: Triggers npm publishing upon successful merging of the Version Packages PR.
• Custom Message Support: Allows specifying custom changeset descriptions, bypassing AI generation (autoship -m).

Example prompts

• autoship myproject (Interactive release with AI assistance)
• autoship myproject -t patch -y (Fully automated patch release)
• autoship myproject -t minor -m "Added new authentication providers" -y (Automated minor release with a custom message)

Tips & gotchas

• GitHub CLI Authentication: Ensure the GitHub CLI is authenticated using gh auth login.
• AI API Key: An AI gateway API key (AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY) is required for AI-powered features.
• CI/CD Integration: When integrating with CI/CD pipelines, ensure the AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY environment variable is properly set.