auto-version-bump-action

A GitHub composite action that automatically bumps versions in package.json or .csproj files based on a <!-- Version: TYPE --> comment in a CHANGELOG.md [Unreleased] section.

It discovers all changelogs in the repository automatically — no configuration needed.

How it works

1. Recursively finds every CHANGELOG.md in the repository.
2. Checks whether the [Unreleased] section contains a comment like:

   <!-- Version: minor -->

3. Finds the package.json or .csproj in the same directory and bumps its version accordingly.
4. Moves the [Unreleased] content to a new versioned section with today's date and removes the comment.

Supported bump types: major, minor, patch.
Supported version files: package.json, any .csproj using <Version> or <ApplicationDisplayVersion>.

Usage

name: Auto Version Bump

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
    paths:
      - '**/CHANGELOG.md'

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  version-bump:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Configure Git
        run: |
          git config user.name "github-actions[bot]"
          git config user.email "github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com"

      - name: Bump versions
        id: version-bump
        uses: vensas/auto-version-bump-action@main

      - name: Commit and push changes
        if: steps.version-bump.outputs.has_changes == 'true'
        run: |
          git add -A
          git commit -m "chore: bump versions after merge [skip ci]

          ${{ steps.version-bump.outputs.updates }}"
          git push origin main

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
auto-commit	No	false	Commit and push the version bump changes automatically. Requires permissions: contents: write.
commit-message	No	chore: bump versions [skip ci]\n\n{updates}	Commit message when auto-commit is enabled. {updates} is replaced with the list of version changes.
post-bump-command	No	(none)	Shell command to run after bumping but before committing. Use this to regenerate lockfiles. Only runs when auto-commit is enabled and changes were made.
git-user-name	No	github-actions[bot]	Git user.name for the auto-commit.
git-user-email	No	github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com	Git user.email for the auto-commit.
version-files	No	{}	JSON map of changelog path to version file path (both repo-relative). Overrides auto-discovery for specific entries.

Outputs

Output	Description
has_changes	true if at least one version was bumped, otherwise false
updates	Comma-separated list of updates, e.g. src/frontend: 1.2.0 -> 1.3.0 (minor)

Auto-commit

To have the action commit and push changes itself, enable auto-commit. This removes the need for a separate commit step in your workflow:

- name: Bump versions
  uses: vensas/auto-version-bump-action@main
  with:
    auto-commit: 'true'

If your project uses a lockfile that needs to be regenerated after a version bump (e.g. package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml), use post-bump-command to handle that before the commit:

- name: Bump versions
  uses: vensas/auto-version-bump-action@main
  with:
    auto-commit: 'true'
    post-bump-command: 'cd src/frontend && pnpm install --lockfile-only'

Note: The default commit message includes [skip ci] to prevent the workflow from triggering itself again when the updated CHANGELOG.md is pushed back to the branch.

Overriding version file discovery

If a changelog is not in the same directory as its version file, use version-files to map them explicitly:

- name: Bump versions
  uses: vensas/auto-version-bump-action@main
  with:
    version-files: '{"src/backend/Feps/CHANGELOG.md": "src/backend/Feps/Feps.Api/Feps.Api.csproj"}'

Auto-discovery still runs for all other changelogs — only the mapped entries are overridden.

Changelog format

## [Unreleased]
<!-- Version: minor -->

### Added
- Some new feature

After the action runs, this becomes:

## [Unreleased]

## [1.3.0] - 2026-05-05

### Added
- Some new feature

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on how to get started.

The most impactful way to contribute is adding support for additional languages and version file formats. Currently supported:

Language / Platform	Version file	Version tag
JavaScript / Node.js	package.json	version field
C# (.NET)	*.csproj	<Version> or <ApplicationDisplayVersion>