📝 Changelog Parser Action

Parses a project's CHANGELOG.md and extracts version information, including support for custom non-production version formats and validation of changelog order.

🔧 Forked and enhanced from coditory/changelog-parser

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✨ Features

• ✅ Parses changelogs in Keep a Changelog format
• ✅ Extracts latest or specific version entry
• ✅ Outputs full semantic version parts
• ✅ Supports custom pre-release format: v<major>.<minor>.<patch>.<build>-<suffix>
• ✅ Validates changelog version ordering (newest at top)
• ✅ Handles [unreleased] section
• ✅ Supports optional dates in version headers (## v1.2.3 - 2024-03-15)

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🚀 Usage

- name: Parse changelog
  uses: PlainsightAI/changelog-parser-action@main
  id: changelog
  with:
    path: CHANGELOG.md             # optional, default: autodetects
    version: v2.0.0.456-dev        # optional, default: latest release

📥 Inputs

Input	Default	Description
path	""	Path to the changelog file. By default, standard locations are searched (CHANGELOG.md etc.).
version	""	Specific version to extract. Default: latest released.
skip-bump-bullet-checks	false	Escape hatch — discouraged. See Misplaced-bump validation.

📤 Outputs

Output	Description
version	Full version string (e.g., v2.0.0.456-dev)
versionMajor	Major version component
versionMinor	Minor version component
versionPatch	Patch version component
buildNumber	Optional build number (only for non-prod versions)
suffix	Optional suffix (dev, rc, or int)
date	Release date if provided
description	Contents of the changelog section
isProductionRelease	"true" if production release (v1.2.3), "false" otherwise

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📦 Supported Version Formats

✅ Production versions:

v<major>.<minor>.<patch>
v<major>.<minor>.<patch> - <date>

Example: v1.2.3, v1.2.3 - 2024-03-15

✅ Non-production versions:

v<major>.<minor>.<patch>.<build>-<suffix>
v<major>.<minor>.<patch>.<build>-<suffix> - <date>

• Allowed suffixes: dev, rc, int
• Example: v1.2.3.456-dev, v2.0.0.1-rc - 2024-02-20

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🚨 Validation Rules

• Changelog entries must appear in descending semantic version order
• Only [unreleased] (case-insensitive, with brackets) is allowed as a non-version section
• Multiple entries with the same base version (e.g., v1.2.3 and v1.2.3.1-rc) are allowed
• Exact duplicate versions (e.g., two v1.2.3) are rejected
• Misplaced-bump rules (see below)

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🛑 Misplaced-bump validation

Two rules catch the failure modes the cascade bump-strategy.sh script used to produce (DT-145):

1. Intro: a - Bump <pkg> to X.Y.Z bullet above the first ## header fails parsing. Bumps belong inside ## [Unreleased], not in the file preamble.
2. Released section: the same shape under a tagged ## vX.Y.Z header fails parsing. Bumps must live under ## [Unreleased] until a release cuts them.

Both rules are AST-driven (CommonMark via marked), so a bump-shaped line inside a fenced code block or HTML comment is not a false positive.

🪤 Escape hatch — skip-bump-bullet-checks

skip-bump-bullet-checks: 'true' bypasses both rules.

Strongly discouraged. The rules exist to catch real bugs the cascade automation used to produce. Setting the flag will:

• emit a workflow warning (visible in the Annotations tab) so the bypass is loud,
• only disable the two bump-bullet rules — version-header parsing, ordering, and duplicate detection still run,
• not fix the underlying RELEASE.md.

Use only when you genuinely cannot edit RELEASE.md for this PR (e.g., a time-critical hotfix sitting on top of legacy mis-placement). The flag is intended as a temporary safety valve, not a long-term opt-out — fix the file in a follow-up and remove the flag in the next change.

- uses: PlainsightAI/changelog-parser-action@main
  with:
    skip-bump-bullet-checks: 'true'  # discouraged; see above

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🆚 Differences from Original

Feature	Original Coditory Action	This Fork
Custom version format	❌	✅ v1.2.3.456-dev support
Strict ordering enforcement	❌	✅ Top-down semver validation
Build + suffix parsing	❌	✅ Extracted as buildNumber / suffix
Multiple entries per base version	❌	✅ Allowed (e.g. v1.2.3, v1.2.3.1-dev)
Duplicate version detection	✅	✅ Still enforced

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🧪 Example

Given this changelog:

## [unreleased]
- Upcoming features

## v2.0.0.456-dev
### Added
- Internal dev release

## v2.0.0
### Fixed
- Production bug

## v2.0.0.1-rc
### Added
- Internal dev release

## v1.9.9.999-int
### Added
- Internal test version

The latest release is v2.0.0.456-dev (because it appears before v2.0.0).

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🛠 Development

npm install
npm run build
npm run test

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📄 Forked from coditory/changelog-parser-action under MIT licence.