Release and publish a new JavaScript SDK version automatically: a step-by-step guide

1. Set up a GitHub Action to release a new SDK version.
2. Publish a new SDK version:
   • Create an npm account.
   • Store an npm API token securely in GitHub.
   • Set up a GitHub Action that auto-publishes new SDK versions.

1. In your GitHub repository, go to Settings > Actions > General and make sure "Allow GitHub Actions to create and approve pull requests" is checked.

1. In the root of your project, create a directory .github/workflows/. GitHub Action configuration files always live here.
2. In that directory, create a new YAML configuration file. Name it release-please.yml.
3. Copy the following code into the file:

# This workflow opens and updates a pull request with a new package version
# based on code changes.

# The pull request updates the version in package.json, updates the changelog
# and creates release tags.

# https://github.com/marketplace/actions/release-please-action

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

name: release-please

jobs:
  release-please:
    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
    steps:
      - uses: google-github-actions/release-please-action@v3.7.10
        with:
          release-type: node
          package-name: release-please-action
          pull-request-title-pattern: "chore(release): ${version}"
          pull-request-header: ":robot: Merge this PR to release a new version"

1. If you have released your SDK before, make sure the commit of the latest release has a version tag attached (in the format "v2.1.1") and that the tag is pushed to GitHub. release-please reads this tag to work out the next version number. Without such a tag, release-please proposes "v1.0.0" as the next version.

2. Commit all of these changes and push them to the GitHub repository. The workflow is now set up. The next time someone adds something releasable with a conventional commit message (a fix: or feat: prefix), release-please opens a pull request. As you add more code, it updates that pull request automatically. When you are ready to roll out a new SDK version, you simply merge it.

1. Before you publish your SDK for the first time, create an npm account at npmjs.com.
2. Go to your Account > Access Tokens and generate a new Classic Token of type Automation. Here is more info about npm tokens.
3. Copy the token.
4. Open your project's GitHub page. Go to Settings > Security > Secrets and Variables > Actions and click "New repository secret".
5. Enter NPM_TOKEN in the Name field.
6. Paste the token from step 3 into the Secret field. Click "Add secret" to confirm.

1. In your project, open the .github/workflows folder (or create it if it does not exist yet) and create a new YAML configuration file. Name it, for example, npm-publish.yml.
2. Copy the following code into the file:

# This workflow will publish a package to npmjs.com when a release is created

# https://docs.github.com/en/actions/publishing-packages/publishing-nodejs-packages

name: Node.js Package

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master

jobs:
  publish-npm:
    if: contains(github.event.head_commit.message, 'chore(release)')
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3.5.3
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3.7.0
        with:
          node-version: 18.16.1
          registry-url: https://registry.npmjs.org/
      - run: npm publish --access public
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

1. Commit this new file to your project's main branch and push the changes to the GitHub origin repository.

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