Introduction

The Conventional Commits preset teaches conventional-changelog how to read commits that follow the Conventional Commits specification and turn them into a changelog. It parses each commit’s type, scope, and breaking-change markers, then groups the entries into sections like Features and Bug Fixes.

Installation

Install the preset alongside conventional-changelog:

pnpm

pnpm add -D conventional-changelog conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits

npm

npm i -D conventional-changelog conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits

yarn

yarn add -D conventional-changelog conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits

Use it with the CLI

Pass the preset name to --preset (-p). The conventionalcommits alias resolves to the package you just installed:

npx conventional-changelog -p conventionalcommits

Given these commits since the last release:

feat(api): add async write() generator
fix(cli): resolve config path relative to cwd
perf(parser): cache compiled header regex

the preset produces:

CHANGELOG.md

## [1.2.0](https://github.com/acme/app/compare/v1.1.0...v1.2.0) (2026-07-01)

### Features

* **api:** add async write() generator ([0f7e2c1](https://github.com/acme/app/commit/0f7e2c1a9d3e4b5c6f7089abcdef0123456789ab))

### Bug Fixes

* **cli:** resolve config path relative to cwd ([a3b9d84](https://github.com/acme/app/commit/a3b9d8472e1f0c9b8a7d6e5f4c3b2a1908f7e6d5))

### Performance Improvements

* **parser:** cache compiled header regex ([c1d2e3f](https://github.com/acme/app/commit/c1d2e3f4a5b6c7d8e9f0a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0))

See the conventional-changelog CLI page for the full list of flags.

Use it with the JS API

Load the preset by name for its defaults:

import { ConventionalChangelog } from 'conventional-changelog'

const generator = new ConventionalChangelog()
  .readPackage()
  .loadPreset('conventionalcommits')

To configure it, pass an object with the preset name and its options — loadPreset forwards the extra properties to the preset:

const generator = new ConventionalChangelog()
  .readPackage()
  .loadPreset({
    name: 'conventionalcommits',
    // preset options…
  })

The package’s default export is also a createPreset(config?) factory returning the preset config ({ commits, parser, writer, whatBump }), which you can hand to .config() directly:

import { ConventionalChangelog } from 'conventional-changelog'
import createPreset from 'conventional-changelog-conventionalcommits'

const generator = new ConventionalChangelog()
  .readPackage()
  .config(createPreset({
    // preset options…
  }))

See Options for everything the preset accepts.

Default commit types

Out of the box the preset shows these commit types, each under its own section:

Type	Section
feat	Features
fix	Bug Fixes
perf	Performance Improvements
revert	Reverts

Other standard types — docs, style, chore, refactor, test, build, ci — are parsed but hidden from the changelog by default. Use the types option to show them, rename sections, or add your own types; see Options.

Breaking changes

Commits marked breaking — with a ! after the type/scope or a BREAKING CHANGE: footer — are collected into a dedicated section at the top of the release:

feat!: drop callback support

BREAKING CHANGE: callbacks are replaced with async iterators.

CHANGELOG.md

## [2.0.0](https://github.com/acme/app/compare/v1.2.0...v2.0.0) (2026-07-01)

### ⚠ BREAKING CHANGES

* callbacks are replaced with async iterators.

### Features

* drop callback support ([9f8e7d6](https://github.com/acme/app/commit/9f8e7d6b5a4c3d2e1f0a9b8c7d6e5f4a3b2c1d0e))