Generate Release Notes GitHub Action

Overview

The Issue2ReleaseNotes GitHub Action automatically generates release notes for a specified milestone in a GitHub repository.

It:

• Retrieves the milestone from the GitHub API
• Collects all closed issues associated with that milestone
• Supports API pagination (no 30-issue limit)
• Groups issues by label
• Generates a markdown file (RELEASE.md)

The output file can either:

• Be committed directly to the repository (default behavior)
• Be generated only (for artifact upload or use as release body)

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Features

• ✅ Groups issues by label
• ✅ Issues without labels grouped under No Label
• ✅ Pagination support (per_page=100 + Link header traversal)
• ✅ Optional verbose logging
• ✅ Optional artifact-only mode
• ✅ Outputs available for downstream workflow steps

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Inputs

Name	Required	Default	Description
milestone_number	✅ Yes	—	The milestone number to generate release notes for
github_token	✅ Yes	—	GitHub token (usually ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }})
verbose	❌ No	None	Set to verbose to enable debug output
write_mode	❌ No	direct	direct = commit & push; none = generate only

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Outputs

Name	Description
release_file	Path to generated release notes file (default: RELEASE.md)
milestone_title	Title of the milestone

These outputs allow you to upload artifacts or create releases without hardcoding filenames.

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Behavior Modes

write_mode: direct (Default)

• Generates RELEASE.md
• Commits the file
• Pushes to the current branch

⚠️ Will fail if branch protection requires pull requests.

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write_mode: none

• Generates RELEASE.md
• Does not commit
• Does not push
• Intended for artifact uploads or release body usage

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Usage Examples

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Basic Usage (Default: Commit to Repo)

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

      - uses: mod-posh/Issue2ReleaseNotes@v0.0.3.4
        with:
          milestone_number: 1
          verbose: 'verbose'
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

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Artifact-Only Mode (Recommended for Protected Branches)

jobs:
  generate-release-notes:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Generate Release Notes
        id: notes
        uses: mod-posh/Issue2ReleaseNotes@v0.0.3.4
        with:
          milestone_number: ${{ github.event.milestone.number }}
          write_mode: none
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Upload Release Notes Artifact
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: release-notes-${{ steps.notes.outputs.milestone_title }}
          path: ${{ steps.notes.outputs.release_file }}

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Use as GitHub Release Body

- name: Generate Release Notes
  id: notes
  uses: mod-posh/Issue2ReleaseNotes@v0.0.3.4
  with:
    milestone_number: ${{ github.event.milestone.number }}
    write_mode: none
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

- name: Create GitHub Release
  run: |
    gh release create v${{ github.event.milestone.title }} \
      --notes-file "${{ steps.notes.outputs.release_file }}"
  env:
    GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

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Automatic Milestone Trigger Example

on:
  milestone:
    types: [closed]

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

      - uses: mod-posh/Issue2ReleaseNotes@v0.0.3.4
        with:
          milestone_number: ${{ github.event.milestone.number }}
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

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Important Notes

Caution

This action will overwrite any existing RELEASE.md file.

Note

GitHub’s Issues API includes Pull Requests. This action automatically filters PRs out.

Note

Pagination is supported, so milestones with more than 30 issues are handled correctly.

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License

This project is licensed under the GNU GPL-3.