I am using googleapis/release-please-action@v4 with a custom configuration to manage releases based on Conventional Commits.

Goal: Only feat (minor) and fix (patch) commits should result in a version bump. Commits like chore, docs, refactor, etc., should not trigger a release PR when they are the only changes since the last version. They should, however, be included in the CHANGELOG.md when a release is created by a feat or fix.

Observed Behavior: A recent chore commit to main triggered the creation of a release PR (proposing v1.3.1). This suggests that release-please is treating chore as a patch-level change.

• Repo: https://github.com/mandy8055/data-structures
• Triggering PR: chore(main): release 1.3.1 mandy8055/data-structures#49 (proposing 1.3.1 with a chore commit)
• Latest Commit on Main: ac03cf928323a2dbc4cb1f5d7b3a733b2c7b835d

What I have tried/am considering:

• My configuration includes the chore type (and other non-feature types like perf, refactor, etc.) in the changelog-sections array, grouped under "✅ Others". I did this to ensure they appear in the changelog.

• I suspect that the presence of chore in the changelog-sections array might be implicitly causing a patch bump.

• I also use the extra-files configuration to update the version in deno.json, which might be forcing a release even if the commit type is considered non-releasing.

Configuration Files:

release-please-config.json

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googleapis/release-please/main/schemas/config.json",
  "release-type": "simple",
  "include-component-in-tag": false,
  "changelog-sections": [
    { "type": "feat", "section": "✨ Features", "hidden": false },
    { "type": "fix", "section": "🐛 Bug Fixes", "hidden": false },
    { "type": "docs", "section": "📝 Documentation", "hidden": false },
    { "type": "perf", "section": "✅ Others", "hidden": false },
    { "type": "refactor", "section": "✅ Others", "hidden": false },
    { "type": "test", "section": "✅ Others", "hidden": false },
    { "type": "build", "section": "✅ Others", "hidden": false },
    { "type": "ci", "section": "✅ Others", "hidden": false },
    { "type": "chore", "section": "✅ Others", "hidden": false }
  ],
  "extra-files": [
    {
      "type": "json",
      "path": "deno.json",
      "jsonpath": "$.version"
    }
  ],
  "packages": {
    ".": {}
  }
}

Question for Maintainers:

What is the recommended configuration to prevent non-bumping commit types (chore, docs, etc.) from triggering a version bump and release PR, while ensuring they still populate the CHANGELOG.md when a release is made?