The items JSON

gh release-changes items <tag> prints one JSON object, indented with two spaces, to stdout. It is an object rather than an array so fields can be added without breaking consumers. Field names and group identifiers are public API: they may be added to, never renamed.

{
  "repo": "owner/repo",
  "tag": "v3.7.0",
  "previous_tag": "v3.6.2",
  "items": [
    {
      "pr": 123,
      "title": "feat(6768,6747)!: …",
      "type": "feat",
      "scopes": ["6768", "6747"],
      "breaking": true,
      "issues": [6768, 6747],
      "author": "octocat",
      "bot": false,
      "url": "https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/123",
      "group": "features"
    }
  ]
}

Groups

In display order:

Identifier	Name	What lands there
`features`	Features	`feat`
`fixes`	Bug fixes	`fix`
`other`	Other	`docs test ci refactor perf style build revert`
`maintenance`	Maintenance	`chore`
`dependencies`	Dependencies	a `deps` or `deps-dev` scope, or a dependabot author — whatever the type
`unclassified`	Unclassified	titles outside the `<type>[(<scopes>)][!]: <subject>` format, never dropped

Items are listed in display order: by group as above, then by first issue number and PR number, with items without an issue last; dependencies by PR number. scopes and issues are always arrays, never null. An unclassified item has an empty type, empty scopes and issues, and breaking: false — unless --link closing gave it issues, see below.

Field	Meaning
`repo`	The source repository as `OWNER/REPO`: `-R`, or the repository of the current directory
`tag`	The tag the notes were generated for
`previous_tag`	The base of the comparison: `--previous-tag`, the previous final release with `--since-final`, or GitHub’s choice; `""` for a first release
`items`	The pull requests, in display order; `[]` when there are none

Unclassified items are listed and reported with a warning on stderr naming their PRs; the run still exits 0.

`issue_sources`

issues holds the digit scopes of the title. With --link closing it also holds the issues the pull request closes on GitHub, and every item gets an issue_sources object that says where each number came from:

{
  "pr": 1467,
  "title": "fix(1514): improved accessibility on table headers",
  "issues": [1514, 1600],
  "issue_sources": {
    "title": [1514],
    "closing": [1514, 1600]
  }
}

Field	Meaning
`title`	The digit scopes of the title, in title order
`closing`	The issues the pull request closes on GitHub, ascending

Both are always arrays, also when empty, and a number can be in both. issues is their union: the title’s numbers first, then the closing ones that are not among them, ascending. Without --link the field is left out, so the document is exactly as before. More sources may be added as fields of issue_sources.

How a line becomes an item is described in Parser.

Commands Exit codes