feat: add semantic-release and automated CI/CD pipeline

- Add semantic-release configuration for automated versioning
- Set up automated releases based on conventional commits
- Add CONTRIBUTING.md with development guidelines
- Update CI workflow to support automated releases
- Improve test fixtures and enhance test coverage
- Refactor CSS fix suggester and smart pairing logic
- Update package.json with release scripts and dependencies

Author: AdamManuel-dev

.github/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -100,8 +100,8 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build project
         run: npm run build
 
-      # Uncomment when ready to publish to npm
-      # - name: Publish to npm
-      #   run: npm publish
-      #   env:
-      #     NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
+      - name: Semantic Release
+        run: npx semantic-release
+        env:
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+          NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

.releaserc.json

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+{
+  "branches": ["main"],
+  "plugins": [
+    "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
+    "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
+    "@semantic-release/changelog",
+    "@semantic-release/npm",
+    "@semantic-release/github",
+    [
+      "@semantic-release/git",
+      {
+        "assets": ["CHANGELOG.md", "package.json", "package-lock.json"],
+        "message": "chore(release): ${nextRelease.version} [skip ci]\n\n${nextRelease.notes}"
+      }
+    ]
+  ]
+}

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+# Contributing to auto-image-diff
+
+## Commit Message Convention
+
+This project uses [Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/) for automated versioning and changelog generation.
+
+### Commit Message Format
+
+```
+<type>[optional scope]: <description>
+
+[optional body]
+
+[optional footer(s)]
+```
+
+### Types
+
+- **feat**: A new feature (triggers minor version bump)
+- **fix**: A bug fix (triggers patch version bump)
+- **docs**: Documentation only changes
+- **style**: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc)
+- **refactor**: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
+- **perf**: A code change that improves performance
+- **test**: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests
+- **chore**: Changes to the build process or auxiliary tools and libraries
+
+### Breaking Changes
+
+Add `BREAKING CHANGE:` in the commit footer or `!` after the type to trigger a major version bump:
+
+```
+feat!: remove deprecated API methods
+
+BREAKING CHANGE: The deprecated methods `oldMethod()` and `anotherOldMethod()` have been removed.
+```
+
+### Examples
+
+```
+feat: add CSS fix suggestion feature
+fix: resolve image alignment issues with rotated images
+docs: update API documentation with new examples
+perf: optimize batch processing for large image sets
+feat(classifier): add new edge detection algorithm
+fix(batch): handle empty directory gracefully
+```
+
+## Automated Releases
+
+This project uses [semantic-release](https://github.com/semantic-release/semantic-release) for automated versioning and publishing:
+
+- **Patch releases** (1.0.X) for bug fixes
+- **Minor releases** (1.X.0) for new features
+- **Major releases** (X.0.0) for breaking changes
+
+Releases are automatically created when commits are pushed to the `main` branch, based on the conventional commits since the last release.
+
+## Development Workflow
+
+1. Create a feature branch from `main`
+2. Make your changes using conventional commit messages
+3. Run tests: `npm test`
+4. Run linting: `npm run lint`
+5. Submit a pull request to `main`
+6. After review and merge, the release will be automated
+
+## Testing Releases Locally
+
+You can test what version would be released without actually releasing:
+
+```bash
+npm run release:dry-run
+```
+
+This will show you:
+
+- What version would be bumped to
+- What changelog entries would be generated
+- Whether the release would be published

README.md

@@ -396,10 +396,28 @@ Contributions are welcome! Please:
 
 1. Fork the repository
 2. Create a feature branch (`git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature`)
-3. Commit your changes (`git commit -m 'feat: add amazing feature'`)
+3. Commit your changes using [Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/) (`git commit -m 'feat: add amazing feature'`)
 4. Push to the branch (`git push origin feature/amazing-feature`)
 5. Open a Pull Request
 
+### 📋 Commit Convention
+
+This project uses [Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/) for automated versioning and changelog generation:
+
+- `feat:` - New features (minor version bump)
+- `fix:` - Bug fixes (patch version bump)
+- `docs:` - Documentation changes
+- `style:` - Code formatting changes
+- `refactor:` - Code changes that neither fix bugs nor add features
+- `test:` - Adding or updating tests
+- `chore:` - Build process or auxiliary tool changes
+
+For breaking changes, add `!` after the type: `feat!: remove deprecated API`
+
+### 🔄 Automated Releases
+
+This project uses [semantic-release](https://github.com/semantic-release/semantic-release) for automated versioning and publishing. When commits are merged to `main`, releases are automatically created based on the conventional commit messages. See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for more details.
+
 ### Development Setup
 
 ```bash