README

This package adds changelog management over the command line and version release management. You can add new changelog items, and if you release, the changelog is updated with the new version and the version file. Thus, it is easy to manage a customer changelog.

The changelog is a JSON file that can easily be integrated into a controller to present to the end customer.

See ROADMAP for new functions.

HINT: Please run 'php artisan vendor:publish --tag=resources'

Version Compatibility

Release Changelog Generator	PHP	Laravel
0.1.x	>=8.0	9
0.2.0	>=8.0	9
0.2.1	>=8.0	9 / 10 (not tested)
0.3.x	>=8.1	9 / 10
0.4.x	>=8.2	11
1.0.x	>=8.3	11, 12
1.1.x	>=8.4	12, 13

Installation

You can install the package via Composer:

composer require lightszentip/laravel-release-changelog-generator

Please publish the necessary files with:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Lightszentip\LaravelReleaseChangelogGenerator\ServiceProvider"
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=resources

Usage

If the command is used without arguments, the command line creates an ask for all necessary arguments.

Create a new changelog item:

php artisan changelog:add --type="feat" --message="Implement the whole function for magic"
php artisan changelog:add --type="fix" --message="Fix the magic" --issue="42"
php artisan changelog:add --type="feat" --message="Module feature" --module="core"

Options: --type, --message, --issue (optional issue reference), --module (optional module name).

You can find the result in resources/.changes/changelog.json

Release the changelog

php artisan changelog:release --releasename="My First Release" --type=patch

This updates the version.yml to the next patch version and add in the changelog.json a new release with all current changelog items.

Set a specific release version:

php artisan changelog:set-release --releasename="My Release" --versionnumber="2.1.0"

Update the version without creating a release:

php artisan changelog:update-version --type=patch

Types: patch, minor, major, rc, timestamp

Show the current version:

php artisan changelog:show-version
php artisan changelog:show-version --format=full

Update CHANGELOG.md file:

This will update the CHANGELOG.md file in the root with your changes.

php artisan changelog:generate-md

Get the version in the application

Blade

@releasechangelog

To get a special format for the version, you find in the 'releasechangelog.php' in the config dir the item ' version_formats'. You can add new formats and/or change the existing ones. To use it:

@releasechangelog('full')

Code

app('releasechangelog.version')->showVersion($format)

Config

prerelease set to false to remove the "rc" part from version

To use another pre-release name as 'rc', change it on version.yml direct.

Example Result

version.yml

label: v
major: 1
minor: 0
patch: 1
prerelease: rc
prereleasenumber: 0
buildmetadata: null
timestamp:
    date: null
    timestamp: null

changelog.json

{"unreleased":{"name":"tbd","date":"","release":false},
"1.0.1.rc0":{"name":"My First Release","date":"2022-12-22 23:56:34","release":true,"feat":[{"message":"My first feature"},{"message":"Implement the whole function for magic"}]}}

AI & Pipeline Integration

JSON Output Flag

Every Artisan command supports --json for machine-readable output:

php artisan changelog:show-version --json
# {"version":"1.0.0"}

php artisan changelog:suggest-release --json
# {"type":"minor","reason":"Feature type 'feat' found in unreleased entries"}

TYPE=$(php artisan changelog:suggest-release --json | jq -r '.type')
php artisan changelog:release --releasename="My Release" --type="$TYPE"

Read Commands

# List all released versions
php artisan changelog:list
php artisan changelog:list --json

# Show unreleased entries (default) or a specific version
php artisan changelog:show
php artisan changelog:show --unreleased --json
php artisan changelog:show --ver=1.0.0 --json

MCP Server (Claude Code / AI Tools)

The package ships a standalone MCP server that AI tools (Claude, Cursor, etc.) can use to read and write the changelog without a full Laravel bootstrap.

Setup:

Copy the example config to your project root:

cp vendor/lightszentip/laravel-release-changelog-generator/.mcp.json.example .mcp.json

Adjust paths in .mcp.json if your project uses non-default locations:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "changelog": {
      "command": "vendor/bin/changelog-mcp",
      "env": {
        "CHANGELOG_PATH": "resources/.changes/changelog.json",
        "VERSION_PATH":   "resources/.version/version.yml"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available MCP Tools:

Tool	Description
`add_entry`	Add a changelog entry to unreleased (`type`, `message`, optional `module`/`issue`)
`get_unreleased`	Return the current unreleased section
`get_version`	Return the current version (optional `format` parameter)
`list_releases`	List all released versions
`create_release`	Bump version and create a new release (`name`, `type`: patch/minor/major/rc)

Testing

composer test

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Security Vulnerabilities

Please review our security policy on how to report security vulnerabilities.

Credits

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

lightszentip / laravel-release-changelog-generator

Maintainers

Package info

Statistics

Security