AutoRelease: AI-Powered Release Management Bot

A GitHub App that automates your release management process using AI to generate summaries, manage version numbers, and create draft PRs and releases.

Features

• Automated Release Flow: Seamlessly manages the flow from feature branches to staging to release
• AI-Generated Summaries: Uses OpenAI to create concise, contextual summaries of changes
• Smart Version Management: Automatically determines semantic version increments (MAJOR/MINOR/PATCH) based on AI analysis of changes
• Structured Release Notes: Organizes changes into "New Features" and "Bugs / Improvements" sections
• GitHub Releases: Automatically creates properly tagged GitHub releases when staging is merged to release
• PR Attribution: Tracks the original PR author and number in release notes

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • As a GitHub App
  • Self-Hosting
  • Docker Deployment
• Configuration
  • Configuration File Location
  • Configuration Options
  • Environment Variables
• Repository Structure
• Usage Workflow
• Development
• Contributing
• License

Installation

As a GitHub App

1. Create a GitHub App:

   • Go to GitHub profile → Settings → Developer settings → GitHub Apps → New GitHub App
   • Fill in required details:
     • Name: AutoRelease (or your preferred name)
     • Homepage URL: Your repository URL
     • Webhook URL: Where your app will receive events (update later)
     • Webhook Secret: Generate a secure random string
   • Set Permissions:
     • Repository permissions:
       • Contents: Read & write
       • Pull requests: Read & write
       • Issues: Read & write
       • Metadata: Read-only
     • Subscribe to events:
       • Pull request
       • Push
   • Save the App

2. Generate Private Key:

   • In your GitHub App settings
   • Under "Private keys", click "Generate a private key"
   • Save the downloaded .pem file securely

3. Install the App:

   • Go to your GitHub App settings
   • Click "Install App" in the sidebar
   • Choose the repositories where you want to use AutoRelease

Self-Hosting

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or higher
• Yarn or npm
• OpenAI API key

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/rbkayz/autorelease.git
   cd autorelease

2. Install dependencies:

   yarn install

3. Create environment file: Create a .env file with the following variables:

   # GitHub App Configuration
   APP_ID=your_github_app_id
   GITHUB_PRIVATE_KEY="-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\nYour private key content with \n for line breaks\n-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\n"
   WEBHOOK_SECRET=your_webhook_secret
   
   # Server Configuration
   PORT=8888
   WEBHOOK_PROXY_URL=https://smee.io/your-channel-id (optional, for local development)
   
   # OpenAI Configuration
   OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key
   

4. Build the application:

   yarn build

5. Start the server:

   yarn start

Docker Deployment

For easier deployment, you can use Docker:

1. Build the Docker image:

   yarn docker:build

2. Run with Docker:

   yarn docker:run

   This will start the container with the environment variables from your .env file.

3. Push to a Docker registry (optional):

   yarn docker:push

Additional Docker Commands

• Stop the container:

  yarn docker:stop

• Combined build, push and run:

  yarn docker:deploy

Configuration

Configuration File Location

Create a configuration file in your repository at:

Repository Structure

release-manager-app/
├── .github/
│   └── release-manager.json    # Example configuration
├── src/                        # TypeScript source code
│   ├── lib/                    # Service modules
│   │   ├── ai-service.ts       # AI service for generating summaries
│   │   ├── config-service.ts   # Configuration management
│   │   ├── pr-service.ts       # PR management service
│   │   └── release-service.ts  # Release and changelog service
│   ├── types/                  # TypeScript type definitions
│   │   ├── probot.d.ts         # Probot type definitions
│   │   └── octokit.d.ts        # Octokit type definitions
│   └── index.ts                # Main application entry point
├── dist/                       # Compiled JavaScript (generated)
├── .env                        # Environment variables (not committed)
├── .env.example                # Example environment variables
├── .gitignore                  # Git ignore file
├── tsconfig.json               # TypeScript configuration
├── package.json                # Node.js package config
└── README.md                   # This README

Usage Workflow

1. Branch Structure:

   • Create a staging branch (or configure your preferred branch name in the config)
   • Use your main branch for production code

2. Configuration:

   • Create a .github/release-manager.json file in your repository with your preferred settings (see Configuration)

3. Development Flow:

   • Developers merge feature branches into staging
   • The app automatically generates AI summaries of the features
   • When ready for release, the app creates a draft PR from staging to main
   • Review the PR, update the version tag if needed, and merge
   • The app automatically creates a GitHub release and updates the changelog

Development

Project Structure

release-manager-app/
├── .github/
│   └── release-manager.json    # Example configuration
├── src/                        # TypeScript source code
│   ├── lib/                    # Service modules
│   │   ├── ai-service.ts       # AI service for generating summaries
│   │   ├── config-service.ts   # Configuration management
│   │   ├── pr-service.ts       # PR management service
│   │   └── release-service.ts  # Release and changelog service
│   ├── types/                  # TypeScript type definitions
│   │   ├── probot.d.ts         # Probot type definitions
│   │   └── octokit.d.ts        # Octokit type definitions
│   └── index.ts                # Main application entry point
├── dist/                       # Compiled JavaScript (generated)
├── .env                        # Environment variables (not committed)
├── .env.example                # Example environment variables
├── .gitignore                  # Git ignore file
├── tsconfig.json               # TypeScript configuration
├── package.json                # Node.js package config
└── README.md                   # This README

Development

TypeScript

This project is written in TypeScript for better type safety and developer experience. The TypeScript code in the src directory is compiled to JavaScript in the dist directory.

To compile the TypeScript code:

npm run build

To run the app in development mode with automatic reloading:

npm run dev

Testing

To run tests:

npm test

Running Locally

To test the app locally:

1. Install smee-client for webhook forwarding:

   npm install -g smee-client

2. Create a Smee channel:

   • Go to smee.io
   • Click "Start a new channel"
   • Copy the webhook proxy URL

3. Update your GitHub App's webhook URL to the Smee URL

4. Start the Smee client:

   smee --url https://smee.io/your-channel-id --path /webhook --port 3000

5. Start your app:

   npm run dev

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Probot - A framework for building GitHub Apps
• OpenAI - For providing the AI models used for summarization