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