How to update the package.json version using semantic-release/git?

What I want to do

Based on the FAQ

https://semantic-release.gitbook.io/semantic-release/support/faq#why-is-the-package.jsons-version-not-updated-in-my-repository

I want to update the package.json version number on a new release.

---

What I did

• Create a new empty private Github repository for an organization temp with a README.md and .gitignore for node
• Clone the repository
• Fix the first commit message via git rebase -i --root and change it to feat: initial commit
• Create a package.json with the content

{
  "name": "temp",
  "version": "0.0.0-development",
  "repository": {
    "type": "git",
    "url": "git+https://github.com/my-organization/temp.git"
  }
}

• Setup semantic-release

npm install semantic-release -D
npm install @semantic-release/git -D
npm install @semantic-release/changelog -D

• Create a .releaserc.json

{
    "plugins": [
      "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
      "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
      "@semantic-release/changelog",
      "@semantic-release/git"
    ]
}

• Create a new Github workflow release.yml

name: Release on push on main branch

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  release-on-push-on-main-branch:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Setup Node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v2
        with:
          node-version: 16.x

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        run: npx semantic-release --branches main

• Commit everything with the message feat: next commit
• Force push to origin

---

The problem

The package.json file won’t get updated by the semantic-release-bot. Even after modifying the README.md file and pushing with feat: this should trigger a new release.

How can I tell semantic-release to push the new package version?

Answer

Based on this issue

https://github.com/semantic-release/semantic-release/issues/1593

you also need the npm module.

• npm install @semantic-release/npm -D
• add "private": true, to your package.json if you don’t want to publish to npm
• add the npm plugin to the release configuration file (the order matters)

.

{
    "plugins": [
      "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
      "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
      "@semantic-release/changelog",
      "@semantic-release/npm",
      "@semantic-release/git"
    ]
}