appium/packages/semantic-release-config

@appium/semantic-release-config

Shared semantic-release configuration factory for Appium and Appium-adjacent projects.

Usage

Install the package:

npm install @appium/semantic-release-config --save-dev

Then, in release.config.mjs (or .releaserc.mjs):

// release.config.mjs
import releaseConfig from '@appium/semantic-release-config';

export default releaseConfig();

This reproduces the "standard" config used by most appium-org repos: an angular-preset commit-analyzer, a conventionalcommits-preset release-notes-generator, a changelog committed back to the repo, npm publish, and a GitHub release.

For a repo that deviates from the standard, pass options:

export default releaseConfig({
  branches: ['main'],
  extraGitAssets: ['npm-shrinkwrap.json'],
  removeGitAssets: ['docs'],
  releaseNotesTypeOverrides: {chore: {hidden: true}},
});

For a repo that isn't published to npm (a sample/demo app rather than a library), use the app flavor:

export default releaseConfig({
  flavor: 'app',
  branches: ['main'],
  extraGitAssets: ['app/build.gradle.kts'],
});

Options

Option	Type	Default	Effect
flavor	'library' | 'app'	'library'	'app' switches to the conventionalcommits commit-analyzer preset, sets npmPublish: false, disables GitHub success/fail PR & issue comments, and defaults @semantic-release/github's assets to [].
branches	string[]	(omitted)	Sets the top-level branches option. Omit to fall back to semantic-release's own default branches.
extraGitAssets	string[]	[]	Appended to @semantic-release/git's assets.
removeGitAssets	string[]	[]	Removed from @semantic-release/git's assets (applied after extraGitAssets).
githubAssets	Array	(flavor default)	@semantic-release/github's assets option — plain path strings or {path, label} objects.
commitAnalyzerReleaseRules	Array	(flavor default)	Full override of commit-analyzer's releaseRules.
releaseNotesTypeOverrides	Record<string, {hidden?: boolean, section?: string}>	(none)	Shallow-patched onto the default presetConfig.types, keyed by commit type, e.g. {chore: {hidden: true}}.

Gotchas

1. extends in a JSON .releaserc does a shallow merge. plugins and other array options are replaced wholesale, not deep-merged, when redefined locally. This means a JSON config with extends can't losslessly express "same plugin list, but tweak one nested option of one plugin" — exactly what several appium-org repos need. That's why this package ships a JS factory function instead of static JSON: the merging happens once, in JS, before semantic-release ever sees the resulting config object.
2. This package is ESM-only. Consumers must import the factory from a release.config.mjs (or .releaserc.mjs) — repos still on CommonJS need to migrate to ESM (or at least add "type": "module") first. Also: cosmiconfig (which semantic-release uses to locate its config) searches .releaserc* files before release.config.*. If a migration adds release.config.mjs without deleting the old .releaserc/.releaserc.json in the same commit, semantic-release will silently keep using the old file.

Migrating an existing repo

This package only defines the shared config; migrating the ~26 existing appium-org repos off their hand-copied .releaserc files is a separate, repo-by-repo effort. For each repo:

1. Add @appium/semantic-release-config as a devDependency.
2. Remove that repo's own semantic-release, @semantic-release/changelog, @semantic-release/git, and conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits devDependencies — they're pulled in transitively via this package's own pinned dependencies, so restating their versions per-repo is no longer necessary (and would risk drifting from the versions this package actually ships).
3. Add a release.config.mjs that imports and calls the factory with whatever options reproduce that repo's current deviations (see the table above).
4. Delete the old .releaserc/.releaserc.json in the same commit — see gotcha #2 above.
5. If the repo is still on CommonJS, migrate it to "type": "module" first (or as part of the same change).

License

Copyright © 2026 OpenJS Foundation. Licensed Apache-2.0