Discussion: Automatic Releases

Issuing a new release currently requires manual maintainer intervention, as documented in [RELEASE.md](https://github.com/aboutcode-org/scancode.io/blob/main/RELEASE.md).

The packages (PyPI, Docker images) and the GitHub release entry (including changelog) are already generated automatically—only the version bump and release trigger remain manual.

### Proposal

Automate the release process based on commit history and heuristics, removing the need for manual intervention.

### Candidate Tools

**[semantic-release](https://github.com/semantic-release/semantic-release)**
> semantic-release uses the commit messages to determine the consumer impact of changes in the codebase. Following formalized conventions for commit messages, semantic-release automatically determines the next semantic version number, generates a changelog and publishes the release.
> Tools such as commitizen or commitlint can be used to help contributors and enforce valid commit messages.

**[python-semantic-release](https://github.com/python-semantic-release/python-semantic-release)**
> Python Semantic Release (PSR) provides an automated release mechanism determined by SemVer and Commit Message Conventions for your Git projects.

**[release-please](https://github.com/googleapis/release-please)**
> Rather than continuously releasing what's landed to your default branch, release-please maintains Release PRs.

**[commitizen](https://github.com/commitizen-tools/commitizen)**
Python-native tool for enforcing commit conventions and automating version bumps.

### Next Steps

Discuss and prototype an implementation for ScanCode.io. If successful, propagate to other repositories.

### Commit message format

https://github.com/semantic-release/semantic-release?tab=readme-ov-file#commit-message-format
https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/main/contributing-docs/commit-message-guidelines.md