What changed in commitlint from 20 to 21

21.2.2 (2026-08-13)

Bug Fixes

• parse: require colon after note keywords (conventional-commits-parser 7.1.2) (#4927) (b83c515), closes conventional-changelog/conventional-changelog#1517
• fix(container): resolve packages from TypeScript configs by @Guflly in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4914
• fix(resolve-extends): support Yarn Plug'n'Play by @Guflly in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4933

Chore, docs, etc.

• docs: fix typos in comments and JSDoc by @maxtaran2010 in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4880
• docs: fix Deno setup without package.json by @awnoa in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4896
• chore: repair broken lockfile from #4939 and add merge queue CI support by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4941
• docs(config-conventional): document rules that go beyond the spec by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4910

New Contributors

• @maxtaran2010 made their first contribution in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4880
• @awnoa made their first contribution in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4896
• @Guflly made their first contribution in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4914

Full Changelog: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/compare/v21.2.1...v21.2.2

21.2.0 (2026-06-30)

Features

• resolve-extends: resolve pure-ESM presets (conventional-changelog v7/v9/v10) (#4859) (fdb566f)

Chore, doc, etc.

• chore(read): replace deprecated git-raw-commits with git-client by @igordanchenko in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4860
• docs(issue-template): ask for package manager and version by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4867

New Contributors

• @igordanchenko made their first contribution in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4860

Full Changelog: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/compare/v21.2.0...v21.2.1

21.2.0 (2026-06-30)

Features

• feat(resolve-extends): resolve pure-ESM presets (conventional-changelog v7/v9/v10) by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4859

Chore

• ci: install git in stock-Ubuntu baseline job by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4847

Full Changelog: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/compare/v21.1.0...v21.2.0

21.1.0 (2026-06-23)

Bug Fixes

• fix: remove duplicate es-toolkit@1.47.1 keys from lockfile by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4833

Features

• feat(cli): add --default-config flag to lint without a config file by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4805
• feat(lint): allow for custom commit parser function by @esatterwhite in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4829

Docs, chore, etc.

• test(cli): verify --cwd redirects config resolution #997 by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4796
• docs: add ai agent support (skill, guide, llms.txt) by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4804
• docs: add TDD commit flow and review expectations for contributors by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4836

New Contributors

• @esatterwhite made their first contribution in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4829

Full Changelog: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/compare/v21.0.2...v21.1.0

21.0.2 (2026-05-29)

Bug Fixes

• fix: emit actionable error when --edit cannot find COMMIT_EDITMSG (#589) by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4755
• fix: apply oxfmt formatting to get-edit-commit.ts by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4768
• fix(read): fail when --from and --to share no merge-base #4555 by @CervEdin in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4754
• fix: disallow same commit hash for --from and --to by @knocte in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4773

Chore/CI

• ci: have renovate rebase stale PRs before merging by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4782
• chore: have renovate hold PRs for 3 days after release by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4788
• chore: anchor vite 8 by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4790
• ci: run commitlint once per same-repo PR by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4795

New Contributors

• @CervEdin made their first contribution in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4754

Full Changelog: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/compare/v21.0.1...v21.0.2

21.0.1 (2026-05-12)

Bug Fixes

• fix(load): only resolve relative formatter paths by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4761
• fix(types): add presetConfig to ParserPreset interface by @SAY-5 in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4749

CI

• ci: stop spawning schedule jobs on contributors' forks by @knocte in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4753
• ci: add weekly non-blocking pnpm audit by @escapedcat in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4766

New Contributors

• @SAY-5 made their first contribution in https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/pull/4749

Full Changelog: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/compare/v21.0.0...v21.0.1

Heads-up: --legacy-output is a transitional escape hatch. It will be removed in a future major release. Plan to migrate your parsers / snapshots to the new format during the v21 lifecycle.

21.0.0 (2026-05-08)

Breaking

• chore!: minimum node version v22 by @escapedcat in #4679
• feat!: show input from a new line by @knocte in #4727 (adds --legacy-output flag)

Fixes

• fix: widen cz-commitlint inquirer peer dep to support v9–v12 by @escapedcat in #4682 — closes #4554

Internals (Node 22 cleanup)

• chore: replace dependencies with Node 22 built-ins by @escapedcat in #4681 — drops glob, fast-glob, import-meta-resolve, minimist, fs-extra
• refactor: replace read-pkg with native fs.readFile + JSON.parse by @escapedcat in #4742
• chore: update dependency yargs to v18 by @escapedcat in #4686
• chore: remove cross-env, move env vars to vitest config by @escapedcat in #4684

Dependency updates

• chore: update dependency @types/node to v22.19.17 by @renovate[bot] in #4739
• chore: update dependency @swc/core to v1.15.33 by @renovate[bot] in #4743

Full Changelog: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/compare/v20.5.3...v21.0.0