Git Changelog
When to use
Generate a human-readable changelog from git commit history. Works with any git repository.
Setup
No dependencies required. Uses only git and bash.
How to
Basic changelog (last 30 days or since last tag)
bash scripts/changelog.sh --repo /path/to/repo
Since a specific date
bash scripts/changelog.sh --repo /path/to/repo --since "2026-01-01"
Date range
bash scripts/changelog.sh --repo /path/to/repo --since "2026-01-01" --until "2026-02-01"
JSON output (for programmatic use)
bash scripts/changelog.sh --repo /path/to/repo --format json
Plain text output
bash scripts/changelog.sh --repo /path/to/repo --format plain
Output Formats
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
markdown |
Default. Headers, commit hashes, authors, dates |
plain |
Simple bullet list |
json |
Array of commit objects with hash, subject, author, date, type |
Options
| Flag | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
--repo <path> |
Repository path | Current directory |
--since <date> |
Start date | Last tag or 30 days ago |
--until <date> |
End date | Now |
--format <fmt> |
Output format | markdown |
--group |
Group by conventional commit type | Off (needs bash 4+) |
Notes
- Automatically detects the last git tag and uses it as the start point
- Excludes merge commits for cleaner output
- Conventional commit types (feat/fix/docs/etc) are extracted for JSON output
--groupmode requires bash 4+ (macOS ships with 3.2; install viabrew install bash)