pnpm change

Added in: v11.13.0

Records a change intent: which packages a change affects, the bump type for each, and a summary that becomes the changelog entry. The intent file is written to .changeset/ in the changesets format.

pnpm change [--bump <type>] [--summary <text>] [<pkg>...]
pnpm change status
pnpm change check

Change intents are consumed later by pnpm version -r. See Release management for the whole workflow.

Usage

Run without arguments to record an intent interactively:

pnpm change

You are asked three questions:

1. Which packages does this change affect? Packages changed since the merge base with main (or master) are preselected.
2. Which packages should have a major bump?, then the same for minor. Anything left over is bumped as patch.
3. Summary of the change, which becomes the changelog entry.

The result is a file such as .changeset/calm-cats-resolve.md:

---
"@example/core": minor
"@example/cli": patch
---

Added a `--watch` flag to the build command.

Commit this file along with your change.

Passing package names together with --bump and --summary records an intent without prompting, which is useful in scripts:

pnpm change --bump patch --summary "Fixed a crash on empty input" @example/core

Subcommands

status

Show the pending change intents and the release plan they produce.

pnpm change status

Pending change intents:
  .changeset/calm-cats-resolve.md

Release plan:
  @example/core: 1.2.0 → 1.3.0 (minor, via intent)
  @example/cli: 0.4.1 → 0.4.2 (patch, via intent+dependencies)

The cause of each bump is one of intent (a change intent named the package), dependencies (a dependent was pulled in by propagation), fixed (a fixed group companion), or epic (an epic re-base).

check

Added in: v12.4.0

Validate the versions committed in the workspace against the epic bands and fixed group lockstep declared in pnpm-workspace.yaml.

pnpm change check

Unlike pnpm change status, which reports the release the pending intents produce, check looks only at the versions already in the manifests. It reads no intents, so it is the step to run on every pull request: a package whose version drifted out of its epic's band, or out of step with its fixed group, fails the command. Every violation is listed, including ones in packages the current release does not touch.

Options

--bump <type>

The bump type for the named packages: none, patch, minor, or major. none records an explicit decline — the change needs no release.

--summary <text>

The summary for the changelog entry. Together with package names, this runs the command non-interactively.

Referencing packages by directory

When two workspace projects publish the same name, a package can be referenced by its workspace-relative directory instead, with a ./ prefix:

---
"./packages/cli": minor
---

This is the one additive extension pnpm makes to the changesets format. pnpm change writes it automatically when a name is ambiguous.