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Every commitdog release automatically generates a changelog by reading your Git commit messages since the last tag. The changelog is grouped by conventional commit type and included in the release body on GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, and Forgejo. You can also preview the changelog at any time without triggering a release.

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Preview the changelog without releasing

Run the following command to print the grouped changelog for commits since your last tag:
The output is printed directly to your terminal. No version bump, no build, no push — just the changelog.

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How the changelog is built

commitdog reads commit subject lines (the first line of each commit message) between the latest tag and HEAD, excluding merge commits. It then classifies each commit by its conventional commit prefix and groups them under the following sections, in this order: Commits that do not follow the type: or type(scope): convention are placed in the Other section. Empty sections are omitted entirely. If there are no commits since the last tag, the changelog reads No changes.

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Example output

Given a set of commits since the last tag, the output of commitdog release --changelog-only looks like this:
The same text is used as the release body when you run commitdog release and confirm. commitdog shows it to you as a changelog preview step before asking for your final confirmation, so you can review it before anything is published.

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Changelog preview during release

During a normal commitdog release run, the changelog preview appears after you pick a version bump and before any changes are made:
If the changelog does not look right, press n to abort. Fix or amend the relevant commits, then run commitdog release again.
Write your commit messages in conventional commit format — feat:, fix:, chore:, etc. — to get a clean, well-grouped changelog automatically. commitdog’s commit suggestions already follow this format.