@lerna-lite/version v3.10.0

@lerna-lite/version

(lerna version) - Version command optional 📑

Lerna-Lite Version command, bump version of packages changed since the last release.

Installation

npm install @lerna-lite/version -D

# then use it (see usage below)
lerna version

Note please make sure that you have a lerna.json config file and a version property defined with either a fixed or independent mode (for example: "version": "independent"). An error will be thrown if you're missing any of them.

Usage

lerna version 1.0.1   # explicit
lerna version patch   # semver keyword
lerna version         # select from prompt(s)

When run, this command does the following:

1. Identifies packages that have been updated since the previous tagged release.
2. Prompts for a new version.
3. Modifies package metadata to reflect new release, running appropriate lifecycle scripts in root and per-package.
4. Commits those changes and tags the commit.
5. Pushes to the git remote.

Positionals

semver bump

lerna version [major | minor | patch | premajor | preminor | prepatch | prerelease]
# uses the next semantic version(s) value and this skips `Select a new version for...` prompt

When this positional parameter is passed, lerna version will skip the version selection prompt and increment the version by that keyword. You must still use the --yes flag to avoid all prompts.

Prerelease

If you have any packages with a prerelease version number (e.g. 2.0.0-beta.3) and you run lerna version with and a non-prerelease bump (major, minor, or patch), it will publish those previously pre-released packages as well as the packages that have changed since the last release.

For projects using conventional commits, use the following flags for prerelease management:

• --conventional-prerelease: release current changes as prerelease versions.
• --conventional-graduate: graduate prerelease versioned packages to stable versions.

Running lerna version --conventional-commits without the above flags will release current changes as prerelease only if the version is already in prerelease.

Options

• @lerna/version
  • Usage
  • Positionals
    • semver bump
  • Prerelease
  • Options
    • --allow-branch <glob>
    • --allow-peer-dependencies-update
    • --amend
    • --build-metadata <buildMetadata>
    • --changelog-preset
    • --conventional-commits
    • --conventional-graduate
    • --force-conventional-graduate
    • --conventional-prerelease
    • --conventional-bump-prerelease
    • --changelog-include-commits-git-author [msg]
    • --changelog-include-commits-client-login [msg]
    • --changelog-header-message <msg>
    • --create-release <type>
    • --create-release-discussion <name>
    • --generate-release-notes
    • --skip-bump-only-releases
    • --describe-tag <pattern>
    • --exact
    • --independent-subpackages
    • --force-publish
    • --dry-run
    • --git-tag-command <cmd>
    • --tag-version-separator
    • --git-remote <name>
    • --ignore-changes
    • --ignore-scripts
    • --include-merged-tags
    • --message <msg>
    • --no-changelog
    • --no-commit-hooks
    • --no-git-tag-version
    • --no-granular-pathspec
    • --no-private
    • --no-push
    • --no-manually-update-root-lockfile
    • --npm-client-args
    • --preid
    • --premajor-version-bump
    • --remote-client <type>
    • --signoff-git-commit
    • --sign-git-commit
    • --sign-git-tag
    • --force-git-tag
    • --tag-version-prefix
    • --sync-workspace-lock
    • --yes
  • Tips
    • Generating Initial Changelogs
  • Lifecycle Scripts
  • workspace: protocol

--allow-branch <glob>

A whitelist of globs that match git branches where lerna version is enabled. It is easiest (and recommended) to configure in lerna.json, but it is possible to pass as a CLI option as well.

{
  "command": {
    "version": {
      "allowBranch": "main"
    }
  }
}

With the configuration above, the lerna version will fail when run from any branch other than main. It is considered a best-practice to limit lerna version to the primary branch alone.

{
  "command": {
    "version": {
      "allowBranch": ["main", "feature/*"]
    }
  }
}

With the preceding configuration, lerna version will be allowed in any branch prefixed with feature/. Please be aware that generating git tags in feature branches is fraught with potential errors as the branches are merged into the primary branch. If the tags are "detached" from their original context (perhaps through a squash merge or a conflicted merge commit), future lerna version executions will have difficulty determining the correct "diff since last release."

It is always possible to override this "durable" config on the command-line. Please use with caution.

lerna version --allow-branch hotfix/oops-fix-the-thing

--allow-peer-dependencies-update

lerna version --allow-peer-dependencies-update

By default peer dependencies versions will not be bumped unless this flag is enabled. When the package to be bumped is found in regular dependencies (or devDependencies) and also in peerDependencies, then it will bump both of them to the same version.

Note peer dependency that includes a semver range with an operator (ie >=2.0.0) will never be mutated even if this flag is enabled.

Note Please use with caution when enabling this option, it is not recommended for most users since the npm standard is to never mutate (bump) any peerDependencies when publishing new version in an automated fashion, at least not without a user intervention, as explained by core Lerna maintainer:

Changes to a peer version range are always semver major, and should be as broad as possible. Until we can get fancier, we should never automatically modify them to match the new version being published (which is the current incorrect behavior).

Examples

For the example shown below, we will consider the packages to have the following versions ("A": "1.2.0", "B": "0.4.0" anc "C": 2.0.0"). The examples shown below includes very basic demo of what workspace: can do, for more info on that subject please read workspace: protocol.

with flag enabled

with the new flag both deps would be updated and bumped, for example if we do a minor bump

{
  "name": "B",
  "dependencies": {
    "A": "workspace:^1.2.0",  // will bump the version to "workspace:^1.3.0" and publish as "^1.3.0"
    "B": "^0.4.0",            // will bump to "^0.5.0"
    "C": "workspace:^"        // will bump the version to "workspace:^2.1.0" and publish as "^2.1.0"
   },
  "peerDependencies": {
    "A": "workspace:^1.2.0",  // will update the version to "workspace:^1.3.0" and publish as "^1.3.0"
    "B": ">=0.2.0",           // will not be updated because range with operator (>=) are skipped
    "C": "workspace:^"        // will keep the version to "workspace:^" but publish as "^2.1.0"
  }
}

without flag

without the flag it will only update the first package it finds, that is dependencies in this case, so peer deps would never be updated

{
  "name": "B",
  "dependencies": {
    "A": "workspace:^1.2.0",  // will bump to "workspace:^1.3.0"
    "B": "^0.4.0",            // will bump to "^0.5.0"
    "C": "workspace:^"
   },
  "peerDependencies": {
    "A": "workspace:^1.2.0",  // will NOT bump the version and will publish as "^1.2.0"
    "B": ">=0.2.0",           // will NOT bump the version and will publish as ">=0.2.0"
    "C": "workspace:^"        // will NOT bump the version and will publish previously resolved version "^2.0.0"
  }
}

Some Exclusions

with the flag enabled, it will update regular semver like these

• 1.2.3
• ^1.2.3
• ^1.4.0-alpha.0
• workspace:^1.2.3

but it will never update or change versions with ranges

• >=1.0.0
• >=1.0.0 <2.0.0
• ^1 | ^2 | ^3

--amend

lerna version --amend
# commit message is retained, and `git push` is skipped.

When run with this flag, lerna version will perform all changes on the current commit, instead of adding a new one. This is useful during Continuous integration (CI) to reduce the number of commits in the project's history.

In order to prevent unintended overwrites, this command will skip git push (i.e., it implies --no-push).

--build-metadata

lerna version --build-metadata 001

Build metadata must be SemVer compatible. When provided it will apply to all updated packages, irrespective of whether independent or fixed versioning is utilised. If prompted to choose package version bumps, you can request a custom version to alter or remove build metadata for specific packages.

--changelog-preset

lerna version --conventional-commits --changelog-preset angular-bitbucket

By default, the changelog preset is set to angular. In some cases you might want to change either use another preset or a custom one.

Presets are names of built-in or installable configuration for conventional changelog. Presets may be passed as the full name of the package, or the auto-expanded suffix (e.g., angular is expanded to conventional-changelog-angular).

This option can also be specified in lerna.json configuration:

{
  "changelogPreset": "angular"
}

If the preset exports a builder function (e.g. conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits), you can specify the preset configuration too:

{
  "changelogPreset": {
    "name": "conventionalcommits",
    "issueUrlFormat": "{{host}}/{{owner}}/{{repository}}/issues/{{id}}"
  }
}

Note the option changelogPreset.releaseCommitMessageFormat is not supported and will throw, you can simply use --message to have the same result.

--conventional-commits

lerna version --conventional-commits

When run with this flag, lerna version will use the Conventional Commits Specification to determine the version bump and generate CHANGELOG.md files.

Passing --no-changelog will disable the generation (or updating) of CHANGELOG.md files.

--conventional-graduate

lerna version --conventional-commits --conventional-graduate=package-2,package-4

# force all prerelease packages to be graduated
lerna version --conventional-commits --conventional-graduate

When run with this flag, lerna version will graduate the specified packages (comma-separated) or all packages using *. This command works regardless of whether the current HEAD has been released, similar to --force-publish, except that any non-prerelease packages are ignored. If changes are present for packages that are not specified (if specifying packages), or for packages that are not in prerelease, those packages will be versioned as they normally would using --conventional-commits.

"Graduating" a package means bumping to the non-prerelease variant of a prerelease version, eg. package-1@1.0.0-alpha.0 => package-1@1.0.0.

Note when specifying packages, dependents of specified packages will be released, but will not be graduated.

--force-conventional-graduate

lerna version --conventional-commits --conventional-graduate=package-2,package-4 --force-conventional-graduate

# force all prerelease packages to be graduated and updated if not a prerelease or having no change
lerna version --conventional-commits --conventional-graduate --force-conventional-graduate

When run with this flag, lerna version will graduate all packages specified by --conventional-graduate. Non-prerelease packages will not be ignored as it would be the case without the flag. In combination with single version mode this can be used to force all specified packages to be updated to a single version despite having no change or being a non-prerelease version. It works similar to --force-publish but is not ignored when --conventional-commits and --conventional-graduate are enabled. This flag is only applicable when having --conventional-graduate set, otherwise the option is ignored.

--conventional-prerelease

lerna version --conventional-commits --conventional-prerelease=package-2,package-4

# force all changed packages to be prereleased
lerna version --conventional-commits --conventional-prerelease

When run with this flag, lerna version will release with prerelease versions the specified packages (comma-separated) or all packages using *. Releases all unreleased changes as pre(patch/minor/major/release) by prefixing the version recommendation from conventional-commits with pre, eg. if present changes include a feature commit, the recommended bump will be minor, so this flag will result in a preminor release. If changes are present for packages that are not specified (if specifying packages), or for packages that are already in prerelease, those packages will be versioned as they normally would using --conventional-commits.

--changelog-include-commits-git-author [msg]

Specify if we want to include the git commit author's name to the end of each changelog commit entry and wrapped in (...). You could also provide a custom format by using any of these tokens (%a, %e), see examples below.

• %a: git author name, ie: ("Whitesource Renovate")
• %e: git author email, ie: ("bot@renovateapp.com")

This option is only available when using --conventional-commits with changelogs enabled.

Note the author name is what the user has configured in git, for more info please refer to Git Configuration. Also note, that is not the same as a remote client GitHub login username, Git does not store such information in its commit history, for that you will want to use the next option shown below.

# default format, without any argument
# will add the author name wrapped in (...) and appended to the commit line entry
lerna version --conventional-commits --changelog-include-commits-git-author
# **deps:** update dependency git-url-parse to v12 ([978bf36](https://github.com/.../978bf36)) (Whitesource Renovate)

## custom format with 1 of these 2 tokens: %a and/or %e ##
lerna version --conventional-commits --changelog-include-commits-git-author " (by _%a_)"
# **deps:** update dependency git-url-parse to v12 ([978bf36](https://github.com/.../978bf36)) (by _Whitesource Renovate_)

lerna version --conventional-commits --changelog-include-commits-client-login " by %a (%e)" --remote-client github
# **deps:** update dependency git-url-parse to v12 ([978bf36](https://github.com/.../978bf36)) by _Whitesource Renovate (bot@renovateapp.com)

We recommend you first try it with the --dry-run option so that you can validate your remote client access and inspect the changelog output. Make sure to revert your changes once you're satisfied with the output.

--changelog-include-commits-client-login [msg]

Specify if we want to include commit remote client login (ie GitHub login username) to the end of each changelog commit entry and wrapped in (@...). You could also provide a custom format by using any of these tokens (%l, %a, %e), see examples below.

• %l: remote client login, ie ("@renovate-bot")
• %a: git author name, ie: ("Whitesource Renovate")
• %e: git author email, ie: ("bot@renovateapp.com")

This option is only available when using --conventional-commits with changelogs enabled. You must also provide 1 of these 2 options --create-release <type> or --remote-client <type>

Note this will execute one or more client remote API calls (GH is limited to 100 per query), which at the moment is only supporting the GitHub client type. This option will also require a valid GH_TOKEN (or GITHUB_TOKEN) with read access permissions to the GitHub API so that it can execute the query to fetch all commit details since the last release, for more info refer to the Remote Client Auth Tokens below.

Note for this option to work properly, you must make sure that your local commits, on the current branch, are in sync with the remote server. It will then try to match all commits with their respective remote server commits and from there extract their associated remote client user login.

# default format, without any argument
# will add the remote client login name wrapped in (@...) and appended to the commit line entry
lerna version --conventional-commits --changelog-include-commits-client-login --create-release github
# **deps:** update dependency git-url-parse to v12 ([978bf36](https://github.com/.../978bf36)) (@renovate-bot)

## custom format with 1 of these 3 tokens: %l, %a and/or %e ##
lerna version --conventional-commits --changelog-include-commits-client-login " by @%l" --remote-client github
# **deps:** update dependency git-url-parse to v12 ([978bf36](https://github.com/.../978bf36)) by @renovate-bot

lerna version --conventional-commits --changelog-include-commits-client-login " by @%l, %a (%e)" --remote-client github
# **deps:** update dependency git-url-parse to v12 ([978bf36](https://github.com/.../978bf36)) by @renovate-bot, _Whitesource Renovate (bot@renovateapp.com)

We recommend you first try it with the --dry-run option so that you can validate your remote client access and inspect the changelog output. Make sure to revert your changes once you're satisfied with the output.

--changelog-header-message <msg>

Add a custom message at the top of all "changelog.md" files. This option is only available when using --conventional-commits

lerna version --conventional-commits --changelog-header-message "My Custom Header Message"

--conventional-bump-prerelease

lerna version --conventional-commits --conventional-prerelease --conventional-bump-prerelease

When run with this flag, lerna version will release with bumped prerelease versions even if already released packages are prereleases. Releases all unreleased changes as pre(patch/minor/major/release) by prefixing the version recommendation from conventional-commits with pre, eg. if present changes include a feature commit, the recommended bump will be minor, so this flag will result in a preminor release. If not used just a prerelease bump will be applied to prereleased packages.

Changes:
 - major: 1.0.0-alpha.0 => 2.0.0-alpha.0
 - minor: 1.0.0-alpha.0 => 1.1.0-alpha.0
 - patch: 1.0.0-alpha.0 => 1.0.1-alpha.0

--create-release <type>

lerna version --conventional-commits --create-release github
lerna version --conventional-commits --create-release gitlab

When run with this flag, lerna version will create an official GitHub or GitLab release based on the changed packages. Requires --conventional-commits to be passed so that changelogs can be generated.

Note to avoid creating too many "Version bump only for package x" when using independent mode, you could enable the option --skip-bump-only-releases

--create-release-discussion <name>

Create a discussion for this release, this will create both a Release and a Discussion. Conventional commits is required for this option to work.

lerna version --conventional-commits --create-release github --create-release-discussion announcement

Note this option is currently only available for GitHub Releases following this GitHub blog post You can now link discussions to new releases

--generate-release-notes

When run with this flag, lerna version will create an official GitHub release by automatically generating the name and body for the new release. Conventional commits is required for this option to work.

lerna version --conventional-commits --create-release github --generate-release-notes

Since GitHub automatically generates the name and body for the new release, you could skip the changelog creation if you wish.

lerna version --conventional-commits --no-changelog --create-release github --generate-release-notes

Note this option is currently only available for GitHub Releases, more info can be found in this GitHub documentation page Automatically generated release notes

--skip-bump-only-releases

When this option is enabled and a package version is only being bumped without any conventional commits detected, the GitHub/GitLab release will be skipped. This will avoid creating releases with only "Version bump only for package x" in the release notes, however please note that each changelog are still going to be updated with the "version bump only" text.

lerna version --create-release github --skip-bump-only-releases

# or the same for gitlab
lerna version --create-release gitlab --skip-bump-only-releases

--describe-tag <pattern>

When lerna version is executed, it will identifies packages that have been updated since the previous tagged release. The rules it identifies are based on describe tag pattern (excuted git describe --match behind the scenes).

The tag pattern defaults to *@* (independent mode) or "" (non-independent mode). You can configure describeTag in lerna.json to specify the tag pattern.

The describeTag will also take effect under lerna publish, for example lerna publish --canary, but it will not take effect under lerna publish from-git.

lerna version --describe-tag "*lerna-project*"

Remote Client Auth Tokens

GitHub Auth Token

To authenticate with GitHub, the following environment variables can be defined.

• GH_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN: Your GitHub authentication token (under Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens), please give it the repo:public_repo scope when creating the token (for more info, refer to GitHub - Creating a personal access token).
• GHE_API_URL: When using GitHub Enterprise, an absolute URL to the API.
• GHE_VERSION: When using GitHub Enterprise, the currently installed GHE version. Supports the following versions.

Note even though GH_TOKEN (or GITHUB_TOKEN) is the preferred way to automate the creation of a GitHub Release (especially in a CI environment), we are also providing a more manual mode when the GH_TOKEN could not be found or read. For that use case (when token cannot be read), we will create a link that once clicked it will open the GitHub web interface form with the fields pre-populated. This mode is enabled automatically when --create-release github is enabled without providing a valid GH_TOKEN environment variable.

GitLab Auth Token

To authenticate with GitLab, the following environment variables can be defined.

• GL_TOKEN (required): Your GitLab authentication token (under User Settings > Access Tokens).
• GL_API_URL: An absolute URL to the API, including the version. (Default: https://gitlab.com/api/v4)

Note When using this option, you cannot pass --no-changelog except when used with --generate-release-notes.

--exact

lerna version --exact

When run with this flag, lerna version will specify updated dependencies in updated packages exactly (with no punctuation), instead of as semver compatible (with a ^).

For more information, see the package.json dependencies documentation.

--independent-subpackages

lerna version --independent-subpackages

If package B, being a child of package A, has changes they will normally both get bumped although package A itself is eventually unchanged. If this flag is enabled and only package B was actually changed, package A will not get bumped if it does not have any changes on its own.

--force-publish

lerna version --force-publish=package-2,package-4

# force all packages to be versioned
lerna version --force-publish

When run with this flag, lerna version will force publish the specified packages (comma-separated) or all packages using *.

This will skip the lerna changed check for changed packages and forces a package that didn't have a git diff change to be updated. NOTE: When used in combination with --conventional-commits and --conventional-graduate this option will be ignored.

--dry-run

Displays the git command that would be performed without actually executing it, however please note that it will still create all the changelogs. This could be helpful for troubleshooting and also to see changelog changes without committing them to Git.

Note changelogs will still be created (when enabled) even in dry-run mode, so it could be useful to see what gets created without them being committed (however, make sure to revert the changes and roll back your version in lerna.json once you're satisfied with the output).

$ lerna run watch --dry-run

--git-tag-command <cmd>

Allows users to specify a custom command to be used when applying git tags. For example, this may be useful for providing a wrapper command in CI/CD pipelines that have no direct write access.

lerna version --git-tag-command "git gh-tag %s -m %s"

This can also be configured in lerna.json.

{
  "command": {
    "version": {
      "gitTagCommand": "git gh-tag %s -m %s"
    }
  }
}

--tag-version-separator

Customize the tag version separator used when creating tags for independent versioning, defaults to "@".

lerna version --tag-version-separator "__"

--git-remote <name>

lerna version --git-remote upstream

When run with this flag, lerna version will push the git changes to the specified remote instead of origin.

--ignore-changes

Ignore changes in files matched by glob(s) when detecting changed packages.

lerna version --ignore-changes '**/*.md' '**/__tests__/**'

This option is best specified as root lerna.json configuration, both to avoid premature shell evaluation of the globs and to share the config with lerna diff and lerna changed:

{
  "ignoreChanges": ["**/__fixtures__/**", "**/__tests__/**", "**/*.md"]
}

Pass --no-ignore-changes to disable any existing durable configuration.

In the following cases, a package will always be published, regardless of this option:

1. The latest release of the package is a prerelease version (i.e. 1.0.0-alpha, 1.0.0–0.3.7, etc.).
2. One or more linked dependencies of the package have changed.

--ignore-scripts

When passed, this flag will disable running lifecycle scripts during lerna version.

--include-merged-tags

lerna version --include-merged-tags

Include tags from merged branches when detecting changed packages.

--message <msg>

This option is aliased to -m for parity with git commit.

lerna version -m "chore(release): publish %s"
# commit message = "chore(release): publish v1.0.0"

lerna version -m "chore(release): publish %v"
# commit message = "chore(release): publish 1.0.0"

# When versioning packages independently, no placeholders are replaced
lerna version -m "chore(release): publish"
# commit message = "chore(release): publish
#
# - package-1@3.0.1
# - package-2@1.5.4"

When run with this flag, lerna version will use the provided message when committing the version updates for publication. Useful for integrating lerna into projects that expect commit messages to adhere to certain guidelines, such as projects which use commitizen and/or semantic-release.

If the message contains %s, it will be replaced with the new global version version number prefixed with a "v". If the message contains %v, it will be replaced with the new global version version number without the leading "v". Note that this placeholder interpolation only applies when using the default "fixed" versioning mode, as there is no "global" version to interpolate when versioning independently.

This can be configured in lerna.json, as well:

{
  "command": {
    "version": {
      "message": "chore(release): publish %s"
    }
  }
}

--no-changelog

lerna version --conventional-commits --no-changelog

When using conventional-commits, do not generate any CHANGELOG.md files.

Note When using this option, you cannot pass --create-release.

--no-commit-hooks

By default, lerna version will allow git commit hooks to run when committing version changes. Pass --no-commit-hooks to disable this behavior.

This option is analogous to the npm version option --commit-hooks, just inverted.

--no-git-tag-version

By default, lerna version will commit changes to package.json files and tag the release. Pass --no-git-tag-version to disable the behavior.

This option is analogous to the npm version option --git-tag-version, just inverted.

--no-granular-pathspec

By default, lerna version will git add only the leaf package manifests (and possibly changelogs) that have changed during the versioning process. This yields the equivalent of git add -- packages/*/package.json, but tailored to exactly what changed.

If you know you need different behavior, you'll understand: Pass --no-granular-pathspec to make the git command literally git add -- .. By opting into this pathspec, you MUST HAVE ALL SECRETS AND BUILD OUTPUT PROPERLY IGNORED, OR IT WILL BE COMMITTED AND PUSHED.

This option makes the most sense configured in lerna.json, as you really don't want to mess it up:

{
  "version": "independent",
  "granularPathspec": false
}

The root-level configuration is intentional, as this also covers the identically-named option in lerna publish.

--no-private

By default, lerna version will include private packages when choosing versions, making commits, and tagging releases. Pass --no-private to disable this behavior.

Note that this option does not exclude private scoped packages, only those with a "private": true field in their package.json file.

--no-push

By default, lerna version will push the committed and tagged changes to the configured git remote. Pass --no-push to disable this behavior.

--no-manually-update-root-lockfile

When using pnpm or npm >= 7, the default config is to have Lerna-Lite update the npm package-lock.json directly and even though that does work, it came with some drawback and you can now disable this option via this flag

lerna version --no-manually-update-root-lockfile

A newer and better option is to this use the new flag --sync-workspace-lock which will to rely on your package manager client to do the work (via install lockfile-only) which is a lot more reliable, future proof and requires a lot less code in Lerna-Lite itself.

--npm-client-args

This option allows arguments to be passed to the npm install that lerna version performs to update the lockfile (when --sync-workspace-lock is enabled).

For example:

lerna version 3.3.3 --sync-workspace-lock --npm-client-args=--legacy-peer-deps
lerna version 3.3.3 --sync-workspace-lock --npm-client-args="--legacy-peer-deps,--force"
lerna version 3.3.3 --sync-workspace-lock --npm-client-args="--legacy-peer-deps --force"

This can also be set in lerna.json:

{
  ...
  "npmClientArgs": ["--legacy-peer-deps", "--production"]
}

or specifically for the version command:

{
  ...
  "command": {
    "version": {
      "npmClientArgs": ["--legacy-peer-deps", "--production"]
    }
  }
}

--preid

lerna version prerelease
# uses the next semantic prerelease version, e.g.
# 1.0.0 => 1.0.1-alpha.0

lerna version prepatch --preid next
# uses the next semantic prerelease version with a specific prerelease identifier, e.g.
# 1.0.0 => 1.0.1-next.0

When run with this flag, lerna version will increment premajor, preminor, prepatch, or prerelease semver bumps using the specified prerelease identifier.

--premajor-version-bump

This option allows you to control how lerna handles bumping versions for packages with a premajor version (packages that have not had a major release, e.g. "version": "0.2.4") when non-breaking changes are detected. Breaking changes in premajor packages will always trigger a minor bump.

lerna version --conventional-commits
# OR
lerna version --conventional-commits --premajor-version-bump default
# all non-breaking changes trigger a bump based on the configured conventional commits preset
# for the default preset, a non-breaking feat would be a minor bump
# 0.1.0 --> 0.2.0

lerna version --conventional-commits --premajor-version-bump force-patch
# ensures that all non-breaking premajor version bumps are handled as patches
# in this case, a non-breaking feat would always be a patch bump
# 0.1.0 --> 0.1.1

--remote-client <type>

Define which remote client type is used, this option is only useful with the option --changelog-include-commits-client-login [msg]

lerna version --conventional-commits --remote-client github
lerna version --conventional-commits --remote-client gitlab

For remote client authentication tokens, like GH_TOKEN (or GITHUB_TOKEN), refer to Remote Client Auth Tokens

--signoff-git-commit

Adds the --signoff flag to the git commit done by lerna version when executed.

Note This is different from --sign-git-commit which is about gpg signatures.

--sign-git-commit

This option is analogous to the npm version option of the same name.

--sign-git-tag

This option is analogous to the npm version option of the same name.

--force-git-tag

This option replaces any existing tag instead of failing.

--tag-version-prefix

This option allows to provide custom prefix instead of the default one: v.

Keep in mind that currently you have to supply it twice: for version command and for publish command:

# locally
lerna version --tag-version-prefix=''
# on ci
lerna publish from-git --tag-version-prefix=''

--sync-workspace-lock

This flag will leverage your package manager client to update the project lock file (ie npm install --package-lock-only) it relies heavily on the npmClient defined in your lerna.json config (pnpm, yarn or npm which is default) so make sure you have it configured correctly, this process will also include the lock file as part of your git change history once processed. This technique should be much more future proof and safer than having Lerna-Lite doing the actual work of updating the lock file which is not always ideal, neither safe, this flag is one of two solutions (the best option when available) to update the lock file. It might not be the best solution for your use case (ie it doesn't work with yarn classic), see all client notes below:

Notes for each client:

pnpm/yarn users: we recommend using the workspace: protocol since it will prefer local dependencies and will make it less likely to fetch packages accidentally from the registry.

yarn users: please note that this will only work with Yarn Berry 3.x and higher since it uses yarn install --mode update-lockfile (this will not work with yarn 1.x classic)

lerna version --sync-workspace-lock

Depending on the npmClient defined, it will perform the following:

# npm is assuming a `package-lock.json` lock file and npm client >= 8.5.0 is required
npm install --package-lock-only

# pnpm is assuming a "pnpm-lock.yaml" lock file and "npmClient": "pnpm"
pnpm install --lockfile-only --ignore-scripts

# yarn is assuming a "yarn.lock" lock file and "npmClient": "yarn"
yarn install --mode update-lockfile

--yes

lerna version --yes
# skips `Are you sure you want to publish these packages?`

When run with this flag, lerna version will skip all confirmation prompts. Useful in Continuous integration (CI) to automatically answer the publish confirmation prompt.

Tips

Generating Initial Changelogs

If you start using the --conventional-commits option after the monorepo has been active for awhile, you can still generate changelogs for previous releases using conventional-changelog-cli and lerna exec:

# Lerna does not actually use conventional-changelog-cli, so you need to install it temporarily
npm i -D conventional-changelog-cli
# Documentation: `npx conventional-changelog --help`

# fixed versioning (default)
# run in root, then leaves
npx conventional-changelog --preset angular --release-count 0 --outfile ./CHANGELOG.md --verbose
lerna exec --concurrency 1 --stream -- 'conventional-changelog --preset angular --release-count 0 --commit-path $PWD --pkg $PWD/package.json --outfile $PWD/CHANGELOG.md --verbose'

# independent versioning
# (no root changelog)
lerna exec --concurrency 1 --stream -- 'conventional-changelog --preset angular --release-count 0 --commit-path $PWD --pkg $PWD/package.json --outfile $PWD/CHANGELOG.md --verbose --lerna-package $LERNA_PACKAGE_NAME'

If you use a custom --changelog-preset, you should change --preset value accordingly in the example above.

Lifecycle Scripts

// preversion:    Run BEFORE bumping the package version.
// version:       Run AFTER bumping the package version, but BEFORE commit.
// postversion:   Run AFTER bumping the package version, and AFTER commit.

lerna will run npm lifecycle scripts during lerna version in the following order:

1. Detect changed packages, choose version bump(s)
2. Run preversion lifecycle in root
3. For each changed package, in topological order (all dependencies before dependents):
   1. Run preversion lifecycle
   2. Update version in package.json
   3. Run version lifecycle
4. Run version lifecycle in root
5. Add changed files to index, if enabled
6. Create commit and tag(s), if enabled
7. For each changed package, in lexical order (alphabetical according to directory structure):
   1. Run postversion lifecycle
8. Run postversion lifecycle in root
9. Push commit and tag(s) to remote, if enabled
10. Create release, if enabled

workspace: protocol

The workspace: protocol (pnpm workspace, yarn workspace) is also supported by Lerna-Lite. We also strongly suggest that you use this in combo with the new --sync-workspace-lock flag to properly update your root project lock file. When versioning workspace: dependencies, it will do the following:

• fixed target workspace will remain untouched (if you use workspace:*, workspace:~, or workspace:^)
• semver range workspace will be bumped (if you use workspace:^1.2.3)

So for example, if we have foo, bar, qar, zoo in the workspace and they are all at version 1.5.0 and a minor bump is requested, then the following:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "foo": "workspace:*",
    "bar": "workspace:~",
    "qar": "workspace:^",
    "zoo": "workspace:^1.5.0"
  }
}

Will apply the following updates to your package.json (assuming a minor version was requested):

{
  "dependencies": {
    "foo": "workspace:*",
    "bar": "workspace:~",
    "qar": "workspace:^",
    "zoo": "workspace:^1.6.0"
  }
}

Note semver range with an operator (ie workspace:>=2.0.0) are also supported but will never be mutated.