Release Please

Reusable automated versioning workflow based on conventional commits. Detects commits on the main branch, creates/updates a Release PR with version bump and CHANGELOG.md, then creates a GitHub Release on merge.

Trigger

on:
  workflow_call:

Called via uses: in the repository's release workflow.

Inputs

No inputs are required. Release Please reads its configuration directly from release-please-config.json and .release-please-manifest.json in the calling repository.

Secrets

No additional secrets are required. The workflow uses the default GITHUB_TOKEN via permissions.

Permissions

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

• contents: write — to create tags and releases.
• pull-requests: write — to create and update the release PR.

Outputs

Output	Description
release_created	'true' if a release was created in this run
tag_name	The tag name (e.g. 1.2.3)
version	The release version

These outputs are used by subsequent jobs (e.g. post-release, sync-develop) to decide whether to run.

Job: release-please

Runs on ubuntu-latest:

1. Runs the googleapis/release-please-action@v4 action.
2. If there are new conventional commits since the last release:
   • Creates or updates a PR with the version bump and changelog.
3. When the release PR is merged:
   • Creates the Git tag and GitHub Release.
   • Sets the release_created, tag_name, and version outputs.

Typical release flow

feat: add new feature  ──┐
fix: resolve bug X       ├── commits on main
chore: update deps     ──┘
                           │
                           ▼
              Release Please detects commits
                           │
                           ▼
              Creates/updates PR "chore: release 1.3.0"
              (with updated CHANGELOG.md)
                           │
                           ▼
              Merge the release PR
                           │
                           ▼
              Tag 1.3.0 + GitHub Release created
                           │
                    ┌──────┴──────┐
                    ▼             ▼
              post-release   sync-develop

Usage example

Release Please only

# .github/workflows/release.yml
name: Release

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  release-please:
    uses: middag-io/.github-private/.github/workflows/release-please.yml@workflows-v1

With post-release and sync-develop

name: Release

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  release-please:
    uses: middag-io/.github-private/.github/workflows/release-please.yml@workflows-v1

  post-release:
    needs: release-please
    if: needs.release-please.outputs.release_created == 'true'
    uses: middag-io/.github-private/.github/workflows/wp-plugin-post-release.yml@workflows-v1
    with:
      tag-name: ${{ needs.release-please.outputs.tag_name }}
      zip-name: wp-plugin-example
    secrets: inherit

  sync-develop:
    needs: release-please
    if: needs.release-please.outputs.release_created == 'true'
    uses: middag-io/.github-private/.github/workflows/sync-develop.yml@workflows-v1