Automate npm package releases with Vercel autoship and changesets

Problem

Publishing npm packages involves a tedious multi-step process: write a changeset, update the changelog, bump the version, open a release PR, merge it, and run npm publish. Each step is a chance for human error -- wrong version bump, forgotten changelog entry, publishing without building first, or forgetting to set the npm auth token.

# The manual dance nobody wants to do
npx changeset
npx changeset version
git add .
git commit -m "chore: version packages"
npm run build
npm publish
git push --follow-tags

Solution

Use Vercel's autoship package to fully automate the release pipeline from changeset creation to npm publish.

1. Install and configure autoship

npm install --save-dev autoship @changesets/cli
npx changeset init

2. Add the GitHub Actions workflow

# .github/workflows/release.yml
name: Release

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

concurrency: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}

jobs:
  release:
    name: Release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          registry-url: "https://registry.npmjs.org"

      - run: npm ci

      - name: Create Release PR or Publish
        uses: changesets/action@v1
        with:
          publish: npx autoship
          version: npx changeset version
          commit: "chore: release packages"
          title: "chore: release packages"
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

3. Create changesets with AI assistance

Add a skill so your AI agent creates properly formatted changesets:

<!-- skills/changeset.md -->
---
name: create-changeset
description: Create a changeset for the current changes
---

When asked to create a changeset:
1. Run `git diff main --name-only` to see changed packages
2. Determine the bump type (patch for fixes, minor for features, major for breaking)
3. Run `npx changeset` non-interactively by creating the file directly
4. Create `.changeset/{random-name}.md` with YAML frontmatter specifying the package and bump type

4. The automated flow

Developer/AI merges PR with changeset
  -> GitHub Action detects changeset files
  -> Creates a "Release" PR with version bumps and changelog
  -> On merge of Release PR:
     -> Builds the package
     -> Publishes to npm
     -> Creates GitHub release with notes
     -> Cleans up changeset files

Why It Works

Autoship wraps the changeset workflow into a single npx autoship command that handles version bumping, changelog generation, building, and publishing in the correct order. The GitHub Action creates a staging PR for releases, giving you a review step before packages go live. This eliminates the most common release errors: forgetting to build, wrong version bumps, and missing changelog entries. The changeset files serve as the source of truth for what changed and how to bump.

Context

Vercel uses this internally for their open-source packages including the Next.js ecosystem
The add-skill tool (npx add-skill) follows this exact release pattern
For monorepos, changesets handle multi-package version coordination automatically
AI agents can create changeset files directly without the interactive CLI
Pair with npm provenance for supply chain security on published packages
The Release PR pattern gives humans a final review before any package goes public