cz bump automatically increases the version, based on the commits.

The commits should follow the rules established by the committer in order to be parsed correctly.

prerelease versions are supported (alpha, beta, release candidate).

The version can also be manually bumped.

The version format follows PEP 0440 and semantic versioning.

This means MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH

PEP 0440 is the default, you can switch by using the setting version_scheme or the cli:

cz bump --version-scheme semver

Some examples of pep440:

0.9.0
0.9.1
0.9.2
0.9.10
0.9.11
1.0.0a0  # alpha
1.0.0a1
1.0.0b0  # beta
1.0.0rc0 # release candidate
1.0.0rc1
1.0.0
1.0.1
1.1.0
2.0.0
2.0.1a

post releases are not supported yet.

$ cz bump --help
usage: cz bump [-h] [--dry-run] [--files-only] [--local-version] [--changelog] [--no-verify] [--yes] [--tag-format TAG_FORMAT]
               [--bump-message BUMP_MESSAGE] [--prerelease {alpha,beta,rc}] [--devrelease DEVRELEASE] [--increment {MAJOR,MINOR,PATCH}]
               [--check-consistency] [--annotated-tag] [--gpg-sign] [--changelog-to-stdout] [--git-output-to-stderr] [--retry] [--major-version-zero]
               [--prerelease-offset PRERELEASE_OFFSET] [--version-scheme {pep440,semver,semver2}] [--version-type {pep440,semver,semver2}] [--build-metadata BUILD_METADATA]
               [MANUAL_VERSION]

positional arguments:
  MANUAL_VERSION        bump to the given version (e.g: 1.5.3)

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --dry-run             show output to stdout, no commit, no modified files
  --files-only          bump version in the files from the config
  --local-version       bump only the local version portion
  --changelog, -ch      generate the changelog for the newest version
  --no-verify           this option bypasses the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks
  --yes                 accept automatically questions done
  --tag-format TAG_FORMAT
                        the format used to tag the commit and read it, use it in existing projects, wrap around simple quotes
  --bump-message BUMP_MESSAGE
                        template used to create the release commit, useful when working with CI
  --prerelease {alpha,beta,rc}, -pr {alpha,beta,rc}
                        choose type of prerelease
  --devrelease DEVRELEASE, -d DEVRELEASE
                        specify non-negative integer for dev. release
  --increment {MAJOR,MINOR,PATCH}
                        manually specify the desired increment
  --increment-mode
                        set the method by which the new version is chosen. 'linear' (default) guesses the next version based
                        on typical linear version progression, such that bumping of a pre-release with lower precedence than
                        the current pre-release phase maintains the current phase of higher precedence. 'exact' applies the
                        changes that have been specified (or determined from the commit log) without interpretation, such that
                        the increment and pre-release are always honored
  --check-consistency, -cc
                        check consistency among versions defined in commitizen configuration and version_files
  --annotated-tag, -at  create annotated tag instead of lightweight one
  --gpg-sign, -s        sign tag instead of lightweight one
  --changelog-to-stdout
                        Output changelog to the stdout
  --git-output-to-stderr
                        Redirect git output to stderr
  --retry               retry commit if it fails the 1st time
  --major-version-zero  keep major version at zero, even for breaking changes
  --prerelease-offset PRERELEASE_OFFSET
                        start pre-releases with this offset
  --version-scheme {pep440,semver,semver2}
                        choose version scheme
  --version-type {pep440,semver,semver2}
                        Deprecated, use --version-scheme
  --build-metadata {BUILD_METADATA}
                        additional metadata in the version string

Bumps the version in the files defined in version_files without creating a commit and tag on the git repository,

cz bump --files-only

Generate a changelog along with the new version and tag when bumping.

cz bump --changelog

The bump is a pre-release bump, meaning that in addition to a possible version bump the new version receives a pre-release segment compatible with the bump’s version scheme, where the segment consist of a phase and a non-negative number. Supported options for --prerelease are the following phase names alpha, beta, or rc (release candidate). For more details, refer to the Python Packaging User Guide.

Note that as per semantic versioning spec

Pre-release versions have a lower precedence than the associated normal version. A pre-release version indicates that the version is unstable and might not satisfy the intended compatibility requirements as denoted by its associated normal version.

For example, the following versions (using the PEP 440 scheme) are ordered by their precedence and showcase how a release might flow through a development cycle:

• 1.0.0 is the current published version
• 1.0.1a0 after committing a fix: for pre-release
• 1.1.0a1 after committing an additional feat: for pre-release
• 1.1.0b0 after bumping a beta release
• 1.1.0rc0 after bumping the release candidate
• 1.1.0 next feature release

By default, --increment-mode is set to linear, which ensures that bumping pre-releases maintains linearity: bumping of a pre-release with lower precedence than the current pre-release phase maintains the current phase of higher precedence. For example, if the current version is 1.0.0b1 then bumping with --prerelease alpha will continue to bump the “beta” phase.

Setting --increment-mode to exact instructs cz bump to instead apply the exact changes that have been specified with --increment or determined from the commit log. For example, --prerelease beta will always result in a b tag, and --increment PATCH will always increase the patch component.

Below are some examples that illustrate the difference in behavior:

Check whether the versions defined in version_files and the version in commitizen configuration are consistent before bumping version.

cz bump --check-consistency

For example, if we have pyproject.toml

[tool.commitizen]
version = "1.21.0"
version_files = [
    "src/__version__.py",
    "setup.py",
]

src/__version__.py,

__version__ = "1.21.0"

and setup.py.

from setuptools import setup

setup(..., version="1.0.5", ...)

If --check-consistency is used, commitizen will check whether the current version in pyproject.toml exists in all version_files and find out it does not exist in setup.py and fails. However, it will still update pyproject.toml and src/__version__.py.

To fix it, you'll first git checkout . to reset to the status before trying to bump and update the version in setup.py to 1.21.0

Bump the local portion of the version.

cz bump --local-version

For example, if we have pyproject.toml

[tool.commitizen]
version = "5.3.5+0.1.0"

If --local-version is used, it will bump only the local version 0.1.0 and keep the public version 5.3.5 intact, bumping to the version 5.3.5+0.2.0.

If --annotated-tag is used, commitizen will create annotated tags. Also available via configuration, in pyproject.toml or .cz.toml.

If --annotated-tag-message is used, commitizen will create annotated tags with the given message.

If --changelog-to-stdout is used, the incremental changelog generated by the bump will be sent to the stdout, and any other message generated by the bump will be sent to stderr.

If --changelog is not used with this command, it is still smart enough to understand that the user wants to create a changelog. It is recommended to be explicit and use --changelog (or the setting update_changelog_on_bump).

This command is useful to "transport" the newly created changelog. It can be sent to an auditing system, or to create a Github Release.

Example:

cz bump --changelog --changelog-to-stdout > body.md

If --git-output-to-stderr is used, git commands output is redirected to stderr.

This command is useful when used with --changelog-to-stdout and piping the output to a file, and you don't want the git commit output polluting the stdout.

If you use tools like pre-commit, add this flag. It will retry the commit if it fails the 1st time.

Useful to combine with code formatters, like Prettier.

A project in its initial development should have a major version zero, and even breaking changes should not bump that major version from zero. This command ensures that behavior.

If --major-version-zero is used for projects that have a version number greater than zero it fails. If used together with a manual version the command also fails.

We recommend setting major_version_zero = true in your configuration file while a project is in its initial development. Remove that configuration using a breaking-change commit to bump your project’s major version to v1.0.0 once your project has reached maturity.

Choose the version format, options: pep440, semver.

Default: pep440

Recommended for python: pep440

Recommended for other: semver

You can also set this in the configuration with version_scheme = "semver".

pep440 and semver are quite similar, their difference lies in how the prereleases look.

Can I transition from one to the other?

Yes, you shouldn't have any issues.

Provides your own changelog jinja template. See the template customization section

Provides your own changelog extra variables by using the extras settings or the --extra/-e parameter.

cz bump --changelog --extra key=value -e short="quoted value"

See the template customization section.

Provides a way to specify additional metadata in the version string. This parameter is not compatible with --local-version as it uses the same part of the version string.

cz bump --build-metadata yourmetadata

Will create a version like 1.1.2+yourmetadata. This can be useful for multiple things

• Git hash in version
• Labeling the version with additional metadata.

Note that Commitizen ignores everything after + when it bumps the version. It is therefore safe to write different build-metadata between versions.

You should normally not use this functionality, but if you decide to do, keep in mind that

• Version 1.2.3+a, and 1.2.3+b are the same version! Tools should not use the string after + for version calculation. This is probably not a guarantee (example in helm) even tho it is in the spec.
• It might be problematic having the metadata in place when doing upgrades depending on what tool you use.

Some situations from commitizen raise an exit code different than 0. If the error code is different than 0, any CI or script running commitizen might be interrupted.

If you have a special use case, where you don't want to raise one of this error codes, you can tell commitizen to not raise them.

At the moment, we've identified that the most common error code to skip is

There are some situations where you don't want to get an error code when some commits do not match your rules, you just want those commits to be skipped.

cz -nr 21 bump

Check which error code was raised by commitizen by running in the terminal

echo $?

The output should be an integer like this

3

And then you can tell commitizen to ignore it:

cz --no-raise 3

You can tell commitizen to skip more than one if needed:

cz --no-raise 3,4,5

Check the list of exit_codes and understand which one you have to skip and why.

Remember to document somewhere this, because you'll forget.

For example if the system raises a NoneIncrementExit error, you look it up on the list and then you can use the exit code:

cz -nr 21 bump

tag_format and version_scheme are combined to make Git tag names from versions.

These are used in:

• cz bump: Find previous release tag (exact match) and generate new tag.
• Find previous release tags in cz changelog.
  • If --incremental: Using latest version found in the changelog, scan existing Git tags with 89% similarity match.
  • --rev-range is converted to Git tag names with tag_format before searching Git history.
• If the scm version_provider is used, it uses different regexes to find the previous version tags:
  • If tag_format is set to $version (default): VersionProtocol.parser (allows v prefix)
  • If tag_format is set: Custom regex similar to SemVer (not as lenient as PEP440 e.g. on dev-releases)

Commitizen supports 2 types of formats, a simple and a more complex.

cz bump --tag-format="v$version"

cz bump --tag-format="v$minor.$major.$patch$prerelease.$devrelease"

In your pyproject.toml or .cz.toml

[tool.commitizen]
tag_format = "v$major.$minor.$patch$prerelease"

The variables must be preceded by a $ sign. Default is $version.

Supported variables:

It is used to identify the files which should be updated with the new version. It is also possible to provide a pattern for each file, separated by colons (:).

Commitizen will update its configuration file automatically (pyproject.toml, .cz) when bumping, regarding if the file is present or not in version_files.

* Renamed from files to version_files.

Some examples

pyproject.toml or .cz.toml

[tool.commitizen]
version_files = [
    "src/__version__.py",
    "setup.py:version"
]

In the example above, we can see the reference "setup.py:version". This means that it will find a file setup.py and will only make a change in a line containing the version substring.

!!! note Files can be specified using relative (to the execution) paths, absolute paths or glob patterns.

Template used to specify the commit message generated when bumping.

defaults to: bump: version $current_version → $new_version

Some examples

pyproject.toml or .cz.toml

[tool.commitizen]
bump_message = "release $current_version → $new_version [skip-ci]"

When set to true the changelog is always updated incrementally when running cz bump, so the user does not have to provide the --changelog flag every time.

defaults to: false

[tool.commitizen]
update_changelog_on_bump = true

When set to true commitizen will create annotated tags.

[tool.commitizen]
annotated_tag = true

When set to true commitizen will create gpg signed tags.

[tool.commitizen]
gpg_sign = true

When set to true commitizen will keep the major version at zero. Useful during the initial development stage of your project.

Defaults to: false

[tool.commitizen]
major_version_zero = true

A list of optional commands that will run right after updating version_files and before actual committing and tagging the release.

Useful when you need to generate documentation based on the new version. During execution of the script, some environment variables are available:

[tool.commitizen]
pre_bump_hooks = [
  "scripts/generate_documentation.sh"
]

A list of optional commands that will run right after committing and tagging the release.

Useful when you need to send notifications about a release, or further automate deploying the release. During execution of the script, some environment variables are available:

[tool.commitizen]
post_bump_hooks = [
  "scripts/slack_notification.sh"
]

Offset with which to start counting prereleses.

Defaults to: 0

[tool.commitizen]
prerelease_offset = 1

Choose version scheme

Options: pep440, semver, semver2

Defaults to: pep440

[tool.commitizen]
version_scheme = "semver"

Read the customizing section.