· javascript
Varlock Releases Bumpy: A File-Based Versioning Alternative to Changesets
First unveiled in April 2026 via a Show HN post from creator Theo Ephraim, the project now ships under the @varlock/bumpy package and claims to address more than 120 open issues from its predecessor.
Bumpy follows the familiar changesets workflow. Contributors drop a small markdown "bump file" into .bumpy/ that declares which packages should be released, at what level, with a changelog description.
The files are reviewable in the PR diff, consolidated into a release PR by CI, and consumed when that PR merges. An example looks like this: --- '@myorg/core': minor '@myorg/utils': patch --- Added user lang prefs to core config.
Fixed locale fallback logic in utils. Where the two tools diverge is beneath that surface. Bumpy ships with full support for workspace: and catalog: protocols across npm, pnpm, Yarn and Bun, per-package custom publish commands for VS Code extensions, Docker images or JSR targets, and a configurable three-phase dependency propagation algorithm that lets teams decide how peer dep bumps cascade through their graph.
