@williamthorsen/release-kit 8.0.0 → 8.0.1

package/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -2,6 +2,14 @@
 
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 
+## 8.0.1 — 2026-07-18
+
+### 🐛 Bug fixes
+
+- Skip private packages cleanly in publish and create-github-release (#477)
+
+  Fixes an issue where a workspace marked private in its `package.json` could break a release: `release-kit publish` failed on it, and `release-kit create-github-release` created an unwanted public GitHub Release for it. Both commands now skip private workspaces cleanly: publish reports the skip and continues instead of failing the run, and create-github-release produces no Release for a private package. Any publishable packages released alongside it still publish and still get their Releases. Marking a workspace private is now all it takes to exclude it from both publishing and GitHub Releases.
+
 ## 8.0.0 — 2026-07-13
 
 ### 🎉 Features

package/README.md

@@ -5,15 +5,13 @@ Version-bumping and changelog-generation toolkit for release workflows.
 Provides a self-contained CLI that auto-discovers workspaces from `pnpm-workspace.yaml`, parses conventional commits, determines version bumps, updates `package.json` files, and generates changelogs from `git-cliff --context` output rendered in-process (with optional [editorial overrides](#editorial-overrides)).
 
 <!-- section:release-notes -->
-## Release notes — v8.0.0 (2026-07-13)
+## Release notes — v8.0.1 (2026-07-18)
 
-### 🎉 Features
+### 🐛 Bug fixes
 
-- 🚨 **Breaking:** Fail a package that declares types but ships none (#467)
+- Skip private packages cleanly in publish and create-github-release (#477)
 
-  `nmr attw` now fails a package that claims to ship type declarations but ships none. Such a package used to pass, leaving every TypeScript consumer of it silently typed as `any`.
-
-    A package that ships working declarations found only by sitting beside its JavaScript entry point escapes the check, since it declares nothing. Add a `types` entry to bring it under the check.
+  Fixes an issue where a workspace marked private in its `package.json` could break a release: `release-kit publish` failed on it, and `release-kit create-github-release` created an unwanted public GitHub Release for it. Both commands now skip private workspaces cleanly: publish reports the skip and continues instead of failing the run, and create-github-release produces no Release for a private package. Any publishable packages released alongside it still publish and still get their Releases. Marking a workspace private is now all it takes to exclude it from both publishing and GitHub Releases.
 <!-- /section:release-notes -->
 
 ## Installation
@@ -626,22 +624,24 @@ Publish packages that have release tags on HEAD. The publish workflow's reusable
 
 #### Publishability filter
 
-`publish` operates only on workspaces where `package.json#private` is absent or `false`. A workspace marked `private: true` is "versioned but not published": it can still be tagged by `release-kit tag`, get a `CHANGELOG.md` entry, and get a GitHub Release via `release-kit create-github-release` — only the registry publish step is skipped. Other commands ignore this filter and operate on private workspaces unchanged.
+`publish` and `create-github-release` operate only on workspaces where `package.json#private` is absent or `false`. A workspace marked `private: true` is "versioned but not published": it can still be tagged by `release-kit tag` and get a `CHANGELOG.md` entry, but it is skipped by both `release-kit publish` (no registry publish) and `release-kit create-github-release` (no GitHub Release). `private: true` alone routes a workspace out of publish and announce — no extra release config is required. Other commands ignore this filter and operate on private workspaces unchanged.
 
-The filter behaves differently depending on whether `--tags` is provided:
+An unpublishable tag is always skipped cleanly, never fatal. For `release-kit publish`, whether the skip is announced depends on how the tag was resolved:
 
 - **Without `--tags`** (implicit resolution): unpublishable tags on HEAD are silently filtered. The pre-publish listing shows only the publishable subset. If the filter empties the set, `release-kit publish` prints `Nothing to publish.` and exits 0.
-- **With `--tags`** (explicit naming): if any named tag points at an unpublishable workspace, `release-kit publish` exits 1 with one error line per unpublishable tag, citing `package.json#private`. Explicit naming surfaces the contradiction rather than silently dropping the tag.
+- **With `--tags`** (explicit naming): each named tag pointing at an unpublishable workspace is skipped with a warning, and any publishable tags named in the same command still publish.
+
+`release-kit create-github-release` skips unpublishable workspaces with a warning regardless of `--tags`; an all-private tag set is a clean no-op.
 
-Example output when an explicit tag is unpublishable:
+Example warning when an explicit tag is unpublishable:
 
 ```
-Error: basic-v1.0.0 (packages/basic) cannot be published: package.json#private is true.
+Skipping basic-v1.0.0 (packages/basic): package.json#private is true.
 ```
 
 ### `release-kit create-github-release`
 
-Create GitHub Releases from `changelog.json` for tags on HEAD. Independent of `npm publish`: invoking this command creates Releases regardless of whether the matching package was published.
+Create GitHub Releases from `changelog.json` for tags on HEAD. Independent of `npm publish`: invoking this command creates Releases for publishable packages whether or not they were published to a registry. Private workspaces are skipped (see [Publishability filter](#publishability-filter)).
 
 | Flag                   | Description                                                               |
 | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

package/dist/esm/bin/release-kit.js

@@ -142,7 +142,8 @@ function showCreateGithubReleaseHelp() {
     console.info(`
 Usage: release-kit create-github-release [options]
 
-Create GitHub Releases from changelog.json for tags on HEAD.
+Create GitHub Releases from changelog.json for tags on HEAD. Private
+(package.json#private) workspaces are skipped with a warning and get no Release.
 
 Options:
   --dry-run              Preview without creating releases
@@ -241,7 +242,8 @@ Usage: release-kit publish [options]
 
 Publish packages that have release tags on HEAD. Operates only on workspaces where
 package.json#private is absent or false. Without --tags, unpublishable workspaces are
-silently filtered out. With --tags, naming an unpublishable tag is an error.
+silently filtered out. With --tags, an unpublishable tag is skipped with a warning while
+any publishable tags still publish.
 
 Options:
   --dry-run              Preview without publishing

package/dist/esm/createGithubReleaseCommand.js

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { parseArgsOrExit, reportError } from '@williamthorsen/nmr-core';
 import { createGithubReleases } from "./createGithubRelease.js";
+import { formatPrivateSkip } from "./formatPrivateSkip.js";
 import { parseRequestedTags } from "./parseRequestedTags.js";
 import { resolveCommandTags } from "./resolveCommandTags.js";
 import { resolveReleaseNotesConfig } from "./resolveReleaseNotesConfig.js";
@@ -12,10 +13,19 @@ export async function createGithubReleaseCommand(argv) {
     const { dryRun } = parsed.flags;
     const requestedTags = parseRequestedTags(parsed.flags.tags);
     const resolvedTags = await resolveCommandTags(requestedTags);
+    const publishableTags = resolvedTags.filter((resolvedTag) => resolvedTag.isPublishable);
+    for (const resolvedTag of resolvedTags) {
+        if (!resolvedTag.isPublishable) {
+            console.warn(formatPrivateSkip(resolvedTag));
+        }
+    }
+    if (publishableTags.length === 0) {
+        return;
+    }
     const { changelogJsonOutputPath, sectionOrder } = await resolveReleaseNotesConfig({ strictLoad: true });
     let outcome;
     try {
-        outcome = createGithubReleases(resolvedTags, changelogJsonOutputPath, dryRun, sectionOrder);
+        outcome = createGithubReleases(publishableTags, changelogJsonOutputPath, dryRun, sectionOrder);
     }
     catch (error) {
         reportError(`Failed to create GitHub Releases: ${error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error)}`);

package/dist/esm/formatPrivateSkip.d.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+import type { ResolvedTag } from './resolveReleaseTags.js';
+export declare function formatPrivateSkip(resolvedTag: Pick<ResolvedTag, 'tag' | 'workspacePath'>): string;

package/dist/esm/formatPrivateSkip.js

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+export function formatPrivateSkip(resolvedTag) {
+    return `Skipping ${resolvedTag.tag} (${resolvedTag.workspacePath}): package.json#private is true.`;
+}

package/dist/esm/publishCommand.js

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import { join } from 'node:path';
 import { parseArgsOrExit, reportError } from '@williamthorsen/nmr-core';
 import { assertCleanWorkingTree } from "./assertCleanWorkingTree.js";
 import { detectPackageManager } from "./detectPackageManager.js";
+import { formatPrivateSkip } from "./formatPrivateSkip.js";
 import { injectReleaseNotesIntoReadme, resolveReadmePath } from "./injectReleaseNotesIntoReadme.js";
 import { parseRequestedTags } from "./parseRequestedTags.js";
 import { publishPackage } from "./publish.js";
@@ -82,11 +83,10 @@ function filterPublishableTags(resolvedTags, isExplicit) {
     for (const tag of resolvedTags) {
         (tag.isPublishable ? publishable : unpublishable).push(tag);
     }
-    if (isExplicit && unpublishable.length > 0) {
-        for (const { tag, workspacePath } of unpublishable) {
-            reportError(`${tag} (${workspacePath}) cannot be published: package.json#private is true.`);
+    if (isExplicit) {
+        for (const resolvedTag of unpublishable) {
+            console.warn(formatPrivateSkip(resolvedTag));
         }
-        process.exit(1);
     }
     return publishable;
 }

package/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@williamthorsen/release-kit",
-  "version": "8.0.0",
+  "version": "8.0.1",
   "description": "Version-bumping and changelog-generation toolkit for release workflows",
   "keywords": [],
   "homepage": "https://github.com/williamthorsen/node-monorepo-tools/tree/main/packages/release-kit#readme",