#molt status

Show what the next release would contain -- the pending changesets and the versions they project -- without changing anything.

#Synopsis

molt status [OPTIONS]

#Description

molt status reads the pending changesets, assembles the release plan, and reports it. It writes nothing, so it is safe to run any time. It has two jobs:

• A preview of the next molt version for a human, grouped by bump type. --verbose adds the projected new version and the source changeset for each package.
• A CI gate. When at least one versionable package has changed but no changeset covers it, molt status exits 1 with guidance to run molt add (or molt add --empty if the change needs no release). This is the check you run on every pull request.

--output json emits the plan as a machine-readable document to stdout, for tooling that decides what to do next. json is the only value it accepts: molt never writes the plan to a file, so redirect stdout when you want one. See Status checks.

#Options

On molt status, -v means --verbose, not --version -- a deliberate carry-over from changesets. Use the long --version on molt itself for the version string.

The rendered view and the CI gate's guidance go to stderr; only the --output json payload goes to stdout. That is what makes molt status --output json | jq work -- see the stream contract.

#Exit codes

#Examples

Rendered preview:

molt status

Packages to be bumped:
- minor
  - acme-core
- patch
  - acme-cli

Verbose, with projected versions and sources:

molt status --verbose

Packages to be bumped:
- minor
  - acme-core -> 1.1.0
    - .changeset/tidy-eels-return.md
- patch
  - acme-cli -> 0.4.2
    - .changeset/brave-mugs-sing.md

Machine-readable, for CI:

molt status --output json

{
  "changesets": [
    {
      "id": "tidy-eels-return",
      "summary": "Add streaming export.",
      "releases": [ { "name": "acme-core", "type": "minor" } ]
    }
  ],
  "releases": [
    {
      "name": "acme-core",
      "type": "minor",
      "old_version": "1.0.0",
      "new_version": "1.1.0",
      "changesets": [ "tidy-eels-return" ]
    }
  ]
}

As a pull-request gate:

molt status --since origin/main

Exclude the release branch, changeset-release/<base>; see Status checks.

#status or doctor?

Molt has two read-only commands and they answer different questions. Wiring the wrong one into a pull-request job leaves you with no changeset gate:

molt status is the gate for every pull request. molt doctor is what you run when something is wrong, after a migration, or before opening an issue.

#See also

• Status checks -- using status as a CI gate.
• molt doctor -- the setup diagnostic.
• CI: GitHub Action.
• The release plan -- the object --output json prints.