@mikinho/autover

Copyright (c) 2025-2026 Michael Welter me@mikinho.com

A strict SemVer build-metadata versioner for Node.js projects. Stamps every commit with a deterministic version derived from the author timestamp and short SHA, then amends the commit in place. Workspaces-aware (Yarn/NPM/PNPM) with staged- change gating and a reentrancy lock to prevent recursive hook loops.

Features

• Build Metadata (default): X.Y.Z+<minutesSinceJan1UTC>.<gitsha> — fully SemVer-compliant, sorts by commit time.
• Pre-release Mode: X.Y.<minutesSinceJan1UTC>-<gitsha> (--format pre) for channels that require a prerelease identifier.
• Workspace-Aware: Discovers packages via workspaces in package.json or recursive package.json scan; only versions packages with staged changes.
• Safe Amend: Preserves author date, committer date, and commit message. Guards against detached HEAD, in-progress merges, and rebases.
• Reentrancy Lock: Atomic O_EXCL lock file prevents recursive post-commit hook loops.
• CI-Friendly: skipOnCI silently exits when CI=true; --guard-unchanged returns exit code 4 for no-op runs.

Quick Start

# add to your project
npm install --save-dev @mikinho/autover

# install default .autoverrc.json
npx autover --init

# install hooks (respects core.hooksPath)
npx autover --install

# preview one-liner
npx autover --no-amend --dry-run --short

# typical dev flow: just commit; post-commit hook runs autover
git commit -sm "change";  # hook amends with version if needed

Version Formats

• Build (default): X.Y.Z+<minutesSinceJan1UTC>.<gitsha>
• Pre-release: X.Y.<minutesSinceJan1UTC>-<gitsha> (--format pre)

CLI

npx autover [--file PATH | --workspaces]
             [--format build|pre] [--patch N]
             [--guard-unchanged] [--no-amend] [--dry-run]
             [--verbose] [--quiet] [--short]
             [--init] [--install]

--file and --workspaces are mutually exclusive. --patch is not supported with --format pre. --patch must be a non-negative integer.

Config

.autoverrc.json enables build-metadata mode during dev:

{
    "format": "build",
    "workspaces": true,
    "guardUnchanged": true,
    "skipOnCI": true,
    "short": true,
    "quiet": false,
    "rootAlso": true,
    "tagOnChange": false,
    "lockPath": ".git/autover.lock",
    "patch": null,
    "verbose": false
}

Unknown keys in .autoverrc.json produce a warning at runtime. Config values are validated the same way CLI arguments are — invalid format or patch values will error with exit code 2.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success (files updated or nothing to do without --guard-unchanged)
1	Fatal error (no git, no repo, amend failed, etc.)
2	Bad arguments (--format, --patch, unknown flags, conflicting options)
4	--guard-unchanged active and no version changes needed

Troubleshooting

If autover silently does nothing on every commit, a stale lock file is the most likely cause. This can happen if a previous run was interrupted before cleanup. Delete the lock file to recover:

rm .git/autover.lock

Or the path configured via lockPath in .autoverrc.json.

Development

# install dependencies
npm install

# run unit tests (node:test, zero external deps)
npm run test:unit

# lint
npm run lint

# generate YUIDoc docs locally
npm run docs
npm run docs:open

# clean old docs
npm run docs:clean

Release

Use make release VERSION=patch|minor|major to publish a clean semver to npm.

License

MIT