Changelog Command¶

The changelog command displays version history from a CHANGELOG.md embedded in the tool's assets. The changelog is baked into the binary at build time, so it always reflects the version the user is running.

Usage¶

mytool changelog                    # show full changelog
mytool changelog --latest           # show only the most recent release
mytool changelog --version v1.2.0   # show changes for a specific version
mytool changelog --since v1.1.0     # show changes since a version (exclusive)
mytool changelog --output json      # structured output for scripting

Feature Flag¶

The changelog command is enabled by default. Disable it via props.SetFeatures:

props.SetFeatures(props.Disable(props.ChangelogCmd))

Embedding the Changelog¶

The command reads CHANGELOG.md from props.Assets. Tool authors must include it in their embedded assets:

//go:embed all:assets
var assets embed.FS

// Include CHANGELOG.md at the root of the embed
//go:embed CHANGELOG.md
var changelogFS embed.FS

p := &props.Props{
    Assets: props.NewAssets(props.AssetMap{
        "root":      &assets,
        "changelog": &changelogFS,
    }),
}

If CHANGELOG.md is not present in the assets, the command shows a helpful error message rather than failing silently.

Generating the Changelog¶

GTB uses a pure-Go changelog generator (go tool changelog generate) to produce CHANGELOG.md from conventional commits. The goreleaser workflow runs it before building, so it's available for embedding.

For generated tools, the CI pipeline runs go tool changelog generate --output CHANGELOG.md before go build so the embed picks it up. The tool is declared as a Go tool directive in go.mod.

Integration with Update¶

After a successful self-update, the update command suggests viewing the changelog:

Updated to v1.3.0.
Run 'mytool changelog --latest' to see the full changelog.

Flags¶

Related Documentation¶

• Changelog Package — the underlying parser
• Update Command — self-update with changelog display