changelog does not include body or footer information #746

Activity

1. jlanzarotta

   added

   type: bug

   on May 11, 2023
2. AGiantSquid commented on Jun 4, 2024

   

   AGiantSquid

   on Jun 4, 2024

   Last edited by AGiantSquid

   More actions

   It is possible to add the body and footer information by customizing the config_parser regex and the template.

   For example, set up a cz.yaml file with something like this:

   ---
   commitizen:
     customize:
       commit_parser: ^((?P<change_type>feat|fix|refactor|perf|BREAKING CHANGE)(?:\((?P<scope>[^()\r\n]*)\)|\()?(?P<breaking>!)?|\w+!):\s(?P<subject>[^\n]*)(?P<body>(?:\n(?!Refs:|:\s#)[^\n]*)*)(?:\n(?P<footer>(?:Refs:[\s\S]*)?))?$
     name: cz_customize
     tag_format: v$version
     update_changelog_on_bump: true
     version_provider: npm
     version_scheme: semver
     template: CHANGELOG.md.j2
   

   The commit_parser will parse your commit, and make the capture groups available to your formatter. In the regex string above, we're getting a section after the subject and labeling it "body", and getting any content that starts "Refs: " and labeling it footer.

   You can then create a template CHANGELOG.md.j2 like this:

   {% for entry in tree %}
   {% set entry_title -%}
   {{ entry.version }}{% if entry.date %} ({{ entry.date }}){% endif -%}
   {%- endset %}
   
   {{ entry_title }}
   {{ "=" * entry_title|length }}
   
   {% for change_key, changes in entry.changes.items() %}
   {% if change_key %}
   {{ change_key }}
   {{ "-" * change_key|length }}
   {% endif %}
   
   {% for change in changes %}
   {% if change.footer %}
   {% set ticket = change.footer.split('#')[1] %}
   {% endif %}
   {% set ticket_link = "[[" + ticket + "](https://blah.atlassian.net/browse/" + ticket + ")] " if ticket else ""  %}
   {% set commit_link = "[" + change.sha1[:7] + "](" + change.sha1 + ")" %}
   {% set scope = "**" + change.scope + "**: " if change.scope else ""  %}
   - {{ ticket_link }}{{ scope }}{{ change.subject }} {{commit_link}}
   {% if change.body %}
   {% set lines = change.body.split('\n') %}
   {% for line in lines %}
   {% set stripped_line = line.strip() -%}
   {% if stripped_line.startswith('-') %}
       {{ stripped_line }}
   {% elif stripped_line %}
       - {{ stripped_line }}
   {% endif %}
   {% endfor %}
   {% endif %}
   {% endfor %}
   
   {% endfor %}
   {% endfor %}
   

   Which will use the capture groups subject body and footer from the commit_parser is the cz.yaml.

   Adjust the regex according to your commit formatting:

   

   🎉React with 🎉2Reacted by Dominic Bortmes and Tuukka Mustonen
3. bearomorphism commented on May 9, 2026

   

   bearomorphism

   on May 9, 2026

   Collaborator

   More actions

   Triage from #1964: Body and footer aren't included by default — only the title is captured by cz_conventional_commits's default commit_parser. To include them, you can write a custom changelog_message_builder_hook or override commit_parser to capture body groups. Suggesting we relabel as type: feature (changelog template support for body/footer) or close as documented limitation.
4. bearomorphism commented on May 9, 2026

   

   bearomorphism

   on May 9, 2026

   Collaborator

   More actions

   Verification update (re #1964)

   Reproduced against current master (4.15.1):

   Made a commit with the form

   feat: add new feature
   
   This is the body explaining the feature in detail.
   It spans multiple lines.
   
   Refs: TICKET-123
   Reviewed-by: someone
   

   cz changelog --dry-run output:

   ## Unreleased
   
   ### Feat
   
   - add new feature

   The body and footer are dropped — only the title's subject (after the type) appears.

   Verdict: STILL VALID as documented behaviour, but I'd argue this is a reasonable feature gap rather than a bug.

   The default commit_parser in cz_conventional_commits only captures the type, scope, and subject. To include body/footer, users currently need to:

   1. Override commit_parser with a regex that captures body / footer named groups, AND
   2. Use a custom Jinja template (or changelog_message_builder_hook) that renders those groups.

   A small UX win would be to add a top-level config option like changelog_include_body = true that automatically swaps in a richer parser + template, so non-Python users don't need to write a hook just to render full commit info.

   Suggesting we relabel as type: feature and either implement the convenience flag, or close with a docs link to the customization guide.