Create Release and Upload Build Artifact on GitHub from the Command Line

Tue 21 July 2015 by Thomas Sileo

I was looking for a way to create new releases and upload binaries on GitHub from the command line.

I stumbled upon github-release, a small CLI tool written in Go that call the GitHub Release API. Perfect for the job!

First, you need to generate a personal access token on GitHub with public_repo (and/or repo) scope.

Then, you need to build or download a release of github-release (uploaded with github-release for the win).

Start by creating a tag, and push it to GitHub:

$ git tag v0.1.0
$ git push --tags

Now you can create the release and upload build artifacts without leaving the command line:

# Set your GitHub token
$ export GITHUB_TOKEN=...
# Create the release
$ github-release release --user readratio --repo socialactivity --tag v0.1.0 --name "v0.1.0" --description "v0.1.0"
# Upload the binary
$ github-release upload --user readratio --repo socialactivity --tag v0.1.0 --name "socialactivity-linux-amd64" --file socialactivity

Finally, I'll share with you the the Makefile I use to upload the minified version of socialactivity.js:

V=$(shell git describe --tags)

release:
        github-release release --user readratio --repo socialactivity.js --tag $(V) --name "$(V)" --description "$(V)"
        github-release upload --user readratio --repo socialactivity.js --tag $(V) --name "socialactivity.min.js" --file embed.min.js

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