Releaseo

A GitHub Action written in Go that creates release PRs with automated version bumping for VERSION files, Helm charts, and any YAML configuration.

Why Releaseo?

The Problem

Maintaining version consistency across a project is surprisingly difficult, especially when deploying containerized applications with Helm charts. Common pain points include:

• Chart versions drift from image versions: When you release a new version of your application, the Helm chart's appVersion, image.tag, and chart version need to stay in sync. This is often forgotten or done inconsistently.

• Manual version bumps are error-prone: Developers frequently forget to update all the places where versions live, leading to mismatched deployments.

• Release automation gaps: Tools like Renovate handle dependency updates well, but don't solve the problem of coordinating your own application's version across multiple files.

• Documentation gets out of sync: Helm chart documentation (via helm-docs) needs regenerating when versions change, but this step is often missed.

This problem is well-documented in projects like ToolHive, where the release flow required manual intervention to bump chart versions after image releases, causing CI failures and forgotten updates.

The Solution

Releaseo automates the entire version bump workflow:

1. Bump the version in your VERSION file (single source of truth)
2. Propagate that version to any YAML files you specify (Chart.yaml, values.yaml, etc.)
3. Optionally run helm-docs to regenerate chart documentation
4. Create a release PR with all changes ready for review

No more forgotten version bumps. No more mismatched chart and image versions.

Features

• Semantic version bumping (major, minor, patch)
• Updates VERSION file as single source of truth
• Updates any YAML file at any path (Chart.yaml version, appVersion, values.yaml image.tag, etc.)
• Optional helm-docs integration for chart documentation
• Creates release branch and PR automatically
• Validates version is increasing
• Preserves YAML formatting and comments

Usage

Basic Usage

name: Release

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      bump_type:
        description: 'Version bump type'
        required: true
        type: choice
        options:
          - patch
          - minor
          - major

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Create Release PR
        uses: stacklok/releaseo@v1
        with:
          releaseo_version: v1.0.0
          bump_type: ${{ inputs.bump_type }}
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

With Helm Chart Version Sync

- name: Create Release PR
  uses: stacklok/releaseo@v1
  with:
    releaseo_version: v1.0.0
    bump_type: ${{ inputs.bump_type }}
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    version_files: |
      - file: deploy/charts/myapp/Chart.yaml
        path: version
      - file: deploy/charts/myapp/Chart.yaml
        path: appVersion
      - file: deploy/charts/myapp/values.yaml
        path: image.tag
        prefix: "v"

With helm-docs Integration

- name: Setup Go
  uses: actions/setup-go@v5
  with:
    go-version: '1.23'

- name: Install helm-docs
  run: go install github.com/norwoodj/helm-docs/cmd/helm-docs@latest

- name: Create Release PR
  uses: stacklok/releaseo@v1
  with:
    releaseo_version: v1.0.0
    bump_type: ${{ inputs.bump_type }}
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    version_files: |
      - file: deploy/charts/myapp/Chart.yaml
        path: version
      - file: deploy/charts/myapp/Chart.yaml
        path: appVersion
    helm_docs_args: --chart-search-root=deploy/charts/myapp --template-files=README.md.gotmpl

Using Outputs

- name: Create Release PR
  id: release
  uses: stacklok/releaseo@v1
  with:
    releaseo_version: v1.0.0
    bump_type: ${{ inputs.bump_type }}
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

- name: Print PR URL
  run: |
    echo "Created PR #${{ steps.release.outputs.pr_number }}"
    echo "URL: ${{ steps.release.outputs.pr_url }}"
    echo "New version: ${{ steps.release.outputs.version }}"

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
releaseo_version	Version of releaseo to use (e.g., v1.0.0)	Yes	-
bump_type	Version bump type (major, minor, patch)	Yes	-
version_file	Path to VERSION file	No	VERSION
version_files	YAML list of files with paths to update (see below)	No	-
helm_docs_args	Arguments to pass to helm-docs (if provided, helm-docs runs)	No	-
token	GitHub token for creating PR	Yes	-
base_branch	Base branch for the PR	No	main

version_files Format

The version_files input accepts a YAML list where each entry specifies:

• file: Path to the YAML file
• path: Dot-notation path to the value (e.g., image.tag, metadata.version)
• prefix: Optional prefix to prepend to the version (e.g., v for v1.0.0)

version_files: |
  - file: deploy/charts/myapp/Chart.yaml
    path: version
  - file: deploy/charts/myapp/Chart.yaml
    path: appVersion
  - file: deploy/charts/myapp/values.yaml
    path: image.tag
    prefix: "v"
  - file: config/version.yaml
    path: spec.version

Outputs

Output	Description
version	The new version number
pr_number	The created PR number
pr_url	The created PR URL

How It Works

1. Reads current version from VERSION file
2. Calculates new version based on bump type:
   • major: 1.0.0 → 2.0.0
   • minor: 1.0.0 → 1.1.0
   • patch: 1.0.0 → 1.0.1
3. Validates new version is greater than current
4. Updates VERSION file
5. Updates all specified version_files at their configured paths
6. Runs helm-docs if helm_docs_args is provided
7. Creates branch release/v{version}
8. Commits all changes
9. Creates pull request with release label

Development

Building

go build -o releaseo .

Testing

go test ./...

Running Locally

export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token
export GITHUB_REPOSITORY=owner/repo

./releaseo \
  --bump-type=patch \
  --version-file=VERSION \
  --version-files='[{"file":"deploy/charts/myapp/Chart.yaml","path":"version"}]'

Related Issues

• ToolHive: Better Chart Release Flow - The original motivation for this tool

License

Apache License 2.0 - see LICENSE for details.