Release Impact Analyzer for Go projects - catch breaking API changes, docs updates & important file diffs - fast.
- API Diff – Track breaking public API changes (structs, interfaces, functions, constants, variables) to prevent surprises for your users.
- Docs Diff – Section-aware, heading-aware Markdown diff to highlight meaningful content changes, not noisy line diffs.
- Other Files Diff – Group file changes by extension (.sh, .sql, .json, etc.) to surface important migrations, scripts, and auxiliary file updates.
- Designed for Release PR reviews – Helps reviewers quickly see the real impact of changes at a glance.
- Human-friendly Markdown Reports – Ready to paste into GitHub Releases, Slack, or changelogs.
- Works in GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or locally – Integrates easily into your CI pipelines or local release process.
- No server required – Pure CLI tool. No services to deploy or manage - works entirely from your Git repo and terminal.
relimpact --old=v1.0.0 --new=HEAD > release-impact.md
Expanded sections
PR Comment Generated
See also docs for more examples.
name: Release Impact on PR
on:
pull_request:
branches: [ master ]
types: [ opened, synchronize, reopened ]
jobs:
release-impact:
name: Generate Release Impact Report
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
fetch-depth: 0
- name: Determine previous tag
id: prevtag
run: |
git fetch --tags
TAG_LIST=$(git tag --sort=-version:refname)
PREV_TAG=$(echo "$TAG_LIST" | head -n2 | tail -n1)
echo "Previous tag: $PREV_TAG"
# Fallback to first tag if no previous
if [ -z "$PREV_TAG" ]; then
PREV_TAG=$(echo "$TAG_LIST" | head -n1)
echo "Fallback to first tag: $PREV_TAG"
fi
echo "prev_tag=$PREV_TAG" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
- name: Determine new ref
id: newref
run: |
if [ "${{ github.event_name }}" = "pull_request" ]; then
echo "new_ref=${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
else
echo "new_ref=HEAD" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
fi
# Cache restore for old ref
- name: Cache API snapshot (old ref)
uses: actions/cache/restore@v4
id: cache-old
with:
path: .cache/relimpact-api-cache
key: relimpact-api-${{ steps.prevtag.outputs.prev_tag }}
restore-keys: |
relimpact-api-
# Cache restore for new ref
- name: Cache API snapshot (new ref)
uses: actions/cache/restore@v4
id: cache-new
with:
path: .cache/relimpact-api-cache
key: relimpact-api-${{ steps.newref.outputs.new_ref }}
restore-keys: |
relimpact-api-
# Run your relimpact-action (this runs SnapshotAPI and writes cache)
- uses: hashmap-kz/relimpact-action@main
with:
old-ref: ${{ steps.prevtag.outputs.prev_tag }}
new-ref: ${{ steps.newref.outputs.new_ref }}
output: release-impact.md
env:
RELIMPACT_API_CACHE_DIR: ${{ github.workspace }}/.cache/relimpact-api-cache
# Cache save for old ref — only if not already restored
- name: Save API snapshot cache (old ref)
if: steps.cache-old.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
uses: actions/cache/save@v4
with:
path: .cache/relimpact-api-cache
key: relimpact-api-${{ steps.prevtag.outputs.prev_tag }}
# Cache save for new ref — only if not already restored
- name: Save API snapshot cache (new ref)
if: steps.cache-new.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
uses: actions/cache/save@v4
with:
path: .cache/relimpact-api-cache
key: relimpact-api-${{ steps.newref.outputs.new_ref }}
# Upload the release impact report
- name: Upload Release Impact Report
uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
with:
name: release-impact-${{ github.run_id }}-${{ github.run_attempt }}
path: release-impact.md
# Post release impact to PR comment
- name: Post Release Impact to PR
if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
uses: marocchino/sticky-pull-request-comment@v2
with:
recreate: true
path: release-impact.md
Docker images are available at quay.io/hashmap_kz/relimpact
docker pull quay.io/hashmap_kz/relimpact:latest
- Download the latest binary for your platform from the Releases page.
- Place the binary in your system's
PATH
(e.g.,/usr/local/bin
).
(
set -euo pipefail
OS="$(uname | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')"
ARCH="$(uname -m | sed -e 's/x86_64/amd64/' -e 's/\(arm\)\(64\)\?.*/\1\2/' -e 's/aarch64$/arm64/')"
TAG="$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/hashmap-kz/relimpact/releases/latest | jq -r .tag_name)"
curl -L "https://github.com/hashmap-kz/relimpact/releases/download/${TAG}/relimpact_${TAG}_${OS}_${ARCH}.tar.gz" |
tar -xzf - -C /usr/local/bin && \
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/relimpact
)
brew tap hashmap-kz/homebrew-tap
brew install relimpact
sudo apt update -y && sudo apt install -y curl
curl -LO https://github.com/hashmap-kz/relimpact/releases/latest/download/relimpact_linux_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i relimpact_linux_amd64.deb
apk update && apk add --no-cache bash curl
curl -LO https://github.com/hashmap-kz/relimpact/releases/latest/download/relimpact_linux_amd64.apk
apk add relimpact_linux_amd64.apk --allow-untrusted
relimpact
helps you understand what really changed between Git refs, in a way that is:
Human-friendly / Structured / Noise-free / Release-ready
-
Tracks changes to your public exported API:
struct
fieldsinterfaces
and their methodsfunctions
methods
constants
variables
-
Built on top of Go type system and AST parsing:
- Uses
golang.org/x/tools/go/packages
to understand the real API, not just text diffs. - Ignores formatting changes, reordering, comments -> only tracks semantic API impact.
- Detects breaking changes, such as:
- method signature changes
- removed fields
- removed types
- changed constants
- new API elements.
- Uses
-
Tracks changes in Markdown files:
- any
.md
in your repo.
- any
-
Uses Markdown AST parsing:
- Based on
goldmark
parser. - Understands:
- Headings (added / removed)
- Links (added / removed)
- Images (added / removed)
- Section-level word count diffs -> detect real content changes -> not noisy line diffs.
- Based on
-
Provides a highly readable report:
- No messy raw
git diff
output. - Clear "Section X: 142 -> 155 words" style diffs.
- Great for docs-heavy projects and libraries.
- No messy raw
-
Tracks other file changes, grouped by extension:
.sh
,.sql
,.json
,.yaml
,.conf
,.ini
,.txt
, etc.
-
Built on top of Git diff:
- Uses
git diff --name-status
under the hood. - Groups files per extension -> clean, easy to review.
- Uses
MIT License. See LICENSE for details.