This Action returns a markdown formatted changelog between two git references. There are other projects that use milestones, labeled PRs, etc. Those are just to much work for simple projects.

I just wanted a simple way to populate the body of a GitHub Release.

A GITHUB_TOKEN with the ability to pull from the repo in question. This is required.

Why do we need myToken? Read more here: https://help.github.com/en/actions/automating-your-workflow-with-github-actions/authenticating-with-the-github_token#about-the-github_token-secret

The name of the head reference. Default ${{github.sha}}.

The name of the second branch. Defaults to the tag_name of the latest release.

Markdown formatted changelog.

There are two blocks you will need. First you will need to generate the changelog itself. To get the changelog between the SHA of the commit that triggered the action and the tag of the latest release:

- name: Generate changelog
  id: changelog
  uses: metcalfc/[email protected]
  with:
    myToken: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Or if you have two specific references you want:

- name: Generate changelog
  id: changelog
  uses: metcalfc/[email protected]
  with:
    myToken: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    head-ref: 'v0.0.2'
    base-ref: 'v0.0.1'

Then you can to use the resulting changelog.

- name: Get the changelog
  run: echo "${{ steps.changelog.outputs.changelog }}"

Generating the release notes for a GitHub Release.

Since Dependabot has native GitHub Actions support, to enable it on your GitHub repo all you need to do is add the .github/dependabot.yml file:

version: 2
updates:
  # Maintain dependencies for GitHub Actions
  - package-ecosystem: 'github-actions'
    directory: '/'
    schedule:
      interval: 'daily'

I took the basic framework for this action from: jessicalostinspace/commit-difference-action. Thanks @jessicalostinspace.