vociferate/README.md

vociferate

vociferate is a release orchestration tool written in Go for repositories that want changelog-driven versioning, automated release preparation, and repeatable tag publication.

It started as release preparation glue, but it now covers the full release path: recommend the next semantic version, promote Unreleased changelog entries, commit and tag a release, and publish release notes/assets from the tagged revision.

Reuse In Other Repositories

Vociferate ships two composite actions that together cover the full release flow. Pin both to the same released tag.

prepare — update files, commit, and push tag

name: Prepare Release

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      version:
        description: Optional semantic version override.
        required: false

jobs:
  prepare:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Resolve cache token
        id: cache-token
        run: echo "value=${GITHUB_SHA}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"

      - uses: git.hrafn.xyz/aether/vociferate/prepare@v1.0.0
        env:
          VOCIFERATE_CACHE_TOKEN: ${{ steps.cache-token.outputs.value }}
        with:
          version: ${{ inputs.version }}

Downloads a prebuilt vociferate binary, runs it to update changelog.md and release-version, then commits those changes to the default branch and pushes the release tag. Does not require Go on the runner.

For repositories that embed the version inside source code, pass version-file and version-pattern:

- uses: git.hrafn.xyz/aether/vociferate/prepare@v1.0.0
  env:
    VOCIFERATE_CACHE_TOKEN: ${{ github.sha }}
  with:
    version-file: internal/myapp/version/version.go
    version-pattern: 'const Version = "([^"]+)"'
    git-add-files: changelog.md internal/myapp/version/version.go

prepare uses github.token internally for authenticated fetch/push operations, so no token input is required.

publish — create release with changelog notes

name: Do Release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - "v*.*.*"

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

      - uses: git.hrafn.xyz/aether/vociferate/publish@v1.0.0

Reads the matching section from changelog.md and creates or updates the Gitea/GitHub release with those notes. The version input is optional — when omitted it is derived from the current tag ref automatically.

The publish action outputs release-id so you can upload additional release assets after it runs:

- id: publish
  uses: git.hrafn.xyz/aether/vociferate/publish@v1.0.0

- name: Upload my binary
  run: |
    curl --fail-with-body -X POST \
      -H "Authorization: token ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/octet-stream" \
      "${{ github.api_url }}/repos/${{ github.repository }}/releases/${{ steps.publish.outputs.release-id }}/assets?name=myapp" \
      --data-binary "@dist/myapp"

Why The Name

vociferate (verb): to cry out loudly or forcefully.

Long story short: vociferating into the Æther is synonymous screaming into the void.

If updating changelogs and documenting releases has ever felt like that, this tool is for you.

Build

Build with just:

just go-build

Or directly with Go:

go build -o dist/vociferate ./cmd/vociferate

Usage

Prepare release files:

go run ./cmd/vociferate --version v1.2.3 --date 2026-03-20 --root .

In the provided workflow and composite action, version is optional. When it is omitted, vociferate computes and uses the recommended next version automatically.

Recommend next release tag from changelog content:

go run ./cmd/vociferate --recommend --root .

Flags

• --version semantic version to release (with or without leading v).
• --date release date in YYYY-MM-DD format.
• --recommend print recommended next tag based on ## [Unreleased].
• --root repository root directory.
• --version-file path to version source file relative to --root.
• --version-pattern regexp with exactly one capture group for version value.
• --changelog path to changelog file relative to --root.

Defaults:

• version-file: release-version
• version-pattern: ^\s*([^\r\n]+)\s*$
• changelog: changelog.md

When no --version-file flag is provided, vociferate derives the current version from the most recent released section heading in the changelog (## [x.y.z] - ...). If no prior releases exist, it defaults to 0.0.0 and recommends v1.0.0 as the first tag.

When running --version, the release-version file is created automatically if it does not exist, so new repositories do not need to pre-seed it.

Repositories that keep the version inside source code should pass explicit --version-file and --version-pattern values; in that case the version file is used directly instead of the changelog.

Testing

just go-test

Release Flow

Releases use two workflows:

• Prepare Release runs on demand, updates release-version and changelog.md, commits those changes back to main, and pushes the release tag.
• Do Release runs from the pushed tag, reads the matching changelog section from that tagged revision, creates or updates the release, and uploads prebuilt binaries.

This split matters because release notes must be generated from the tagged commit that already contains the promoted changelog section.

Release Artifacts

The tag-driven Do Release workflow publishes prebuilt vociferate binaries for:

• linux/amd64
• linux/arm64

It also uploads checksums.txt for integrity verification. If a release already exists for the same tag, the workflow updates its release notes and replaces matching asset filenames so reruns stay in sync.