Feature: Pre-release Channels and Branch-based Versioning

Goal

Enable automatic pre-release generation from feature branches while preserving ChangeSharp's changelog-driven versioning model.

A pre-release version should: * Include the branch name as a SemVer pre-release identifier. * Automatically increment a pre-release counter. * Preserve chronological ordering of changesets. * Derive the base version from the aggregated changesets in the branch.

Examples

changesharp prerelease --branch feature/payment-api

Produces: 1.4.0-feature-payment-api.1

Subsequent executions: 1.4.0-feature-payment-api.2 1.4.0-feature-payment-api.3

Version Derivation Rules

The base version continues to be calculated from the unreleased changesets.

Detected Changes	Base Version
Fixed / Security only	1.3.1-feature-x.1
Added / Changed / Deprecated	1.4.0-feature-x.1
Breaking Changes / Removed	2.0.0-feature-x.1

This ensures that pre-release versions remain fully aligned with the final release version that will eventually be published.

Chronological Ordering

Changesets use timestamp-based filenames with millisecond precision: 20260624143005123-add-payment-api.md.

This allows deterministic ordering by filename:

Directory.GetFiles(path)
    .OrderBy(x => x);

without relying on filesystem metadata.

Pre-release Storage

.changesharp/
├── unreleased/
├── prereleases/
│   ├── feature-payment-api/
│   ├── feature-auth/
│   └── hotfix-123/

Each branch maintains its own pre-release history and counter.

Configuration

{
  "PreRelease": {
    "Enabled": true,
    "BranchAsIdentifier": true,
    "SanitizeBranchName": true,
    "MaxIdentifierLength": 30
  }
}

Examples: * feature/payment-api → feature-payment-api * feature/JIRA-123/payment-api → feature-jira-123-payment-api

CLI Commands

Generate a pre-release using the current Git branch: changesharp prerelease

Generate a pre-release for a specific branch: changesharp prerelease --branch feature/payment-api

List all active pre-releases: changesharp prerelease --list

Example output: * 1.4.0-feature-payment-api.3 * 1.4.0-feature-auth.2 * 1.3.2-hotfix-123.1

Promote the latest pre-release to a final release: changesharp prerelease --promote

Example: 1.4.0-feature-payment-api.3 → 1.4.0

Preview without making changes: changesharp prerelease --dry-run

The final version is calculated from current fragments (not from the pre-release snapshot).

Release Channels

Prepend a channel label to the pre-release identifier (combined with the branch slug): * changesharp prerelease --channel alpha * changesharp prerelease --channel beta * changesharp prerelease --channel rc

Examples (on branch feature/payment-api): * 1.4.0-feature-payment-api.alpha.1 * 1.4.0-feature-payment-api.beta.1 * 1.4.0-feature-payment-api.rc.1