Command Line Reference#

The following options can be passed to all of the commands that explained below:

--config FILE_PATH#

Pass a custom config file at FILE_PATH.

Default: towncrier.toml or pyproject.toml file. If both files exist, the first will take precedence

--dir PATH#

The command is executed relative to PATH. For instance with the default config news fragments are checked and added in PATH/newsfragments and the news file is built in PATH/NEWS.rst.

Default: current directory.

towncrier build#

Build the combined news file from news fragments. build is also assumed if no command is passed.

If there are no news fragments (including an empty fragments directory or a non-existent directory), a notice of “no significant changes” will be added to the news file.

By default, the processed news fragments are removed using git, which will also remove the fragments directory if now empty.

--draft#

Only render news fragments to standard output. Don’t write to files, don’t check versions. Only renders the news fragments without the surrounding template.

--name NAME#

Use NAME as project name in the news file. Can be configured.

--version VERSION#

Use VERSION in the rendered news file. Can be configured or guessed (default).

This option requires the build command to be explicitly passed.

--date DATE#

The date in ISO format to use in the news file.

Default: today’s date

--yes#

Do not ask for confirmations. Useful for automated tasks.

--keep#

Don’t delete news fragments after the build and don’t ask for confirmation whether to delete or keep the fragments.

towncrier create#

Create a news fragment in the directory that towncrier is configured to look for fragments:

$ towncrier create 123.bugfix.rst

towncrier create will enforce that the passed type (e.g. bugfix) is valid.

If the fragments directory does not exist, it will be created.

If the filename exists already, towncrier create will add (and then increment) a number after the fragment type until it finds a filename that does not exist yet. In the above example, it will generate 123.bugfix.1.rst if 123.bugfix.rst already exists.

--content, -c CONTENT#

A string to use for content. Default: an instructive placeholder.

--edit#

Create file and start $EDITOR to edit it right away.

towncrier check#

To check if a feature branch adds at least one news fragment, run:

$ towncrier check

The check is automatically skipped when the main news file is modified inside the branch as this signals a release branch that is expected to not have news fragments.

By default, towncrier compares the current branch against origin/main (and falls back to origin/master with a warning if it exists, for now).

--compare-with REMOTE-BRANCH#

Use REMOTE-BRANCH instead of origin/main:

$ towncrier check --compare-with origin/trunk