TinySemVer

TinySemVer turns Conventional Commits into Semantic Versioning releases from a single short Python file. It reads the commits since the last tag, picks the next version, patches it into every file you name, extends the changelog, commits, tags and optionally publishes a GitHub release.

$ uvx tinysemver --dry-run --verbose
> Current version: 1.2.2
> Next version: 1.3.0

uvx runs it straight from PyPI, while pip install tinysemver or uv tool install tinysemver keep it installed. A dry run changes nothing, so it's safe anywhere.

The first word of each commit title decides the bump, in any case, followed by a colon or a space:

• Major: breaking, break, major.
• Minor: feature, feat, minor, add, new.
• Patch: fix, patch, bug, improve, docs, make.

A commit matching none of them stops the release, and merge commits are skipped. Replace any list with --major-verbs, --minor-verbs or --patch-verbs.

Each file that embeds the version takes a path and a regular expression with exactly one capturing group, which receives the new version:

$ tinysemver --verbose \
    --changelog-file 'CHANGELOG.md' \
    --version-file 'VERSION' \
    --update-version-in 'pyproject.toml' '^version = "(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)"' \
    --update-version-in 'package.json' '"version": "(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)"' \
    --update-major-version-in 'include/project.h' '^#define PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR (\d+)' \
    --update-minor-version-in 'include/project.h' '^#define PROJECT_VERSION_MINOR (\d+)' \
    --update-patch-version-in 'include/project.h' '^#define PROJECT_VERSION_PATCH (\d+)' \
    --github-repository 'owner/project' \
    --push

Prefer strict groups like (\d+\.\d+\.\d+) over (.*). Without --push, the release commit and tag stay local, and git reset --soft HEAD~1 undoes the commit. Run tinysemver --help for every flag.

The GitHub Action takes the same settings as inputs, writing patterns as path:regex lines in a | block. A dry run on every pull request catches a commit title without a verb, or a pattern that stopped matching:

- uses: actions/checkout@v7
  with:
    fetch-depth: 0 # TinySemVer needs the tags
- uses: ashvardanian/tinysemver@v3
  with:
    dry-run: "true"
    verbose: "true"
    version-file: "VERSION"
    update-version-in: |
      pyproject.toml:^version = "(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)"
      package.json:"version": "(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)"

Pushing from CI takes push: "true" and a github-token that bypasses your branch protection, with persist-credentials: false on the checkout. That token is the attack surface the warning above describes.

TinySemVer never invents pre-releases, but it honors a -rc.N set by hand in the version file, to let people opt into a project before its API is stable. While the version file holds 3.0.0-rc.1, the next release is exactly 3.0.0, whatever the verbs say, and its changelog lists every commit since the last final tag. Pre-release tags never serve as the base, and the -rc.N suffix is stripped from every patched file, so the usual (\d+\.\d+\.\d+) patterns keep matching. A candidate that isn't above the last final tag stops the release, and other pre-release or build suffixes are rejected.

With --push-moving-tags, or push-moving-tags: "true" in the Action, each v3.1.0 release also moves the v3 and v3.1 aliases, the way GitHub Actions are usually pinned:

uses: ashvardanian/tinysemver@v3       # non-breaking updates
uses: ashvardanian/tinysemver@v3.1     # patch updates
uses: ashvardanian/tinysemver@v3.1.0   # never changes

Moving a tag is a force-push, so it needs permission to bypass tag protection. If an alias can't be pushed, TinySemVer warns and moves on, because the release itself is already published.

I used to release my 10+ projects with semantic-release. Then a breaking change deep in its dependencies broke all of their CI pipelines for a month, affecting dozens of companies using those libraries. Tracing it meant wading through 363K lines of JavaScript:

$ .../node_modules$ cloc .
   10751 text files.
    7809 unique files.
    3498 files ignored.

github.com/AlDanial/cloc v 1.90  T=2.96 s (2450.6 files/s, 300331.1 lines/s)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                      files          blank        comment           code
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JavaScript                     4902          48080          81205         363424
TypeScript                      732           7008          73034          79367
...                             ...            ...            ...            ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM:                           7256          90782         164390         634071
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TinySemVer is one Python file with about 600 lines of code, and rich for colored output as its only dependency.

• Commit scopes, like feat(scope): add new feature, which make little sense for most projects.
• GenAI.

TinySemVer accepts only MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH and a hand-set -rc.N, while SemVer 2.0 allows many more forms, like 1.0.0-alpha.beta.1 or 2.0.0+build.1848.

USearch has bindings to 10 programming languages, and its version lives in a dozen files:

$ tinysemver --dry-run --verbose \
    --version-file 'VERSION' \
    --update-version-in 'package.json' '"version": "(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)"' \
    --update-version-in 'CITATION.cff' '^version: (\d+\.\d+\.\d+)' \
    --update-version-in 'Cargo.toml' '^version = "(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)"' \
    --update-version-in 'wasmer.toml' '^version = "(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)"' \
    --update-version-in 'conanfile.py' 'version = "(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)"' \
    --update-version-in 'java/README.md' "usearchVersion = '(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)'" \
    --update-version-in 'java/README.md' "version: '(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)'" \
    --update-version-in 'README.md' 'version = {(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)}' \
    --update-version-in 'csharp/nuget/nuget-package.props' '>(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)</Version>' \
    --update-version-in 'CMakeLists.txt' 'VERSION (\d+\.\d+\.\d+)' \
    --update-major-version-in 'include/usearch/index.hpp' '^#define USEARCH_VERSION_MAJOR (\d+)' \
    --update-minor-version-in 'include/usearch/index.hpp' '^#define USEARCH_VERSION_MINOR (\d+)' \
    --update-patch-version-in 'include/usearch/index.hpp' '^#define USEARCH_VERSION_PATCH (\d+)'