clog
A command-line tool that automatically generates changelogs from conventional Git commit history.
What is clog?
clog-cli is a command-line tool that automatically generates structured changelogs from Git commit history using conventional commit formats. It parses commit messages to categorize changes into features, bug fixes, and performance improvements, outputting formatted Markdown or JSON. This solves the problem of manually curating and maintaining changelogs across software releases.
Developers and maintainers of versioned software projects who follow conventional commit practices and want to automate changelog generation as part of their release workflow.
Developers choose clog-cli for its simplicity, tight integration with Git, and adherence to conventional commit standards, ensuring consistent and automated changelogs without manual effort. Its Rust-based performance and flexible configuration make it a reliable tool for release automation.
Overview
Generate beautiful changelogs from your Git commit history
Use Cases
Best For
- Automating changelog generation for GitHub or GitLab repositories
- Enforcing conventional commit message standards across teams
- Generating release notes for semantic versioned projects
- Integrating changelog creation into CI/CD pipelines
- Maintaining open-source projects with consistent documentation
- Converting Git history into formatted Markdown for documentation sites
Not Ideal For
- Projects using commit messages that don't follow Angular-style conventional formats
- Teams that require a graphical user interface for changelog editing and management
- Environments using version control systems other than Git (e.g., SVN or Mercurial)
- Projects needing highly customized, non-Markdown/JSON output formats like HTML or PDF
Pros & Cons
Pros
Accurately categorizes changes into Features, Bug Fixes, and Performance sections based on Angular-style commit messages, ensuring consistent and automated changelog structure without manual sorting.
Supports Markdown and JSON outputs with configurable repository link styles for GitHub, GitLab, Stash, and cgit, making it easy to integrate into various documentation workflows and platforms.
Automatically increments major, minor, or patch versions based on commit types, streamlining release versioning and reducing manual errors in semantic versioning.
Uses TOML files (.clog.toml) to set defaults like repository URLs and output files, allowing for project-specific settings and reducing repetitive CLI arguments during use.
Available as a Rust library (clog-lib) for embedding changelog generation into applications, offering flexibility beyond command-line use for custom automation scenarios.
Cons
Requires Rust and cargo to compile from source, and precompiled binaries are scarce except for Mac via npm, making initial setup cumbersome for teams not familiar with Rust toolchains.
Lacks readily available precompiled binaries for most platforms, forcing users to compile manually or rely on limited npm distribution, which can slow down adoption in heterogeneous environments.
Heavily relies on Angular-style conventional commits; any deviation in commit message format results in incomplete or inaccurate changelogs, requiring strict team discipline to maintain effectiveness.
Offers limited output customization beyond Markdown and JSON, with no built-in support for advanced templates or formats like HTML, which may not suit projects needing highly styled changelogs.
Frequently Asked Questions
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