`--with-commit` is part of the release when using `--bump`, but not when using `--tag`

[kristof-mattei]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Description of the bug

Using

git-cliff --output CHANGELOG.md --tag "v2.2.2-alpha.2" --with-commit "chore(release): Release v2.2.2-alpha.2" --github-token (gh auth token)

Makes the commit part of unreleased.

Using

git-cliff --output CHANGELOG.md --bump --with-commit "chore(release): Release v2.2.2-alpha.2" --github-token (gh auth token)

makes the commit part of the bumped version, but since bump doesn't support pre-release I can't use it.

Steps To Reproduce

git-cliff --output CHANGELOG.md --tag "v2.2.2-alpha.2" --with-commit "chore(release): Release v2.2.2-alpha.2" --github-token (gh auth token)

Observe the chore(release): Release v2.2.2-alpha.2 is not part of the v2.2.2-alpha.2 release.

Expected behavior

chore(release): Release v2.2.2-alpha.2 is is part of the v2.2.2-alpha.2 release.

Screenshots / Logs

Using --tag ...:

❯ git-cliff --output CHANGELOG.md --tag "v2.2.2-alpha.2" --with-commit "chore(release): Release v2.2.2-alpha.2" --github-token (gh auth token)
 WARN  git_cliff_core::changelog > 2560 commit(s) were skipped due to parse error(s) (run with `-vv` for details)

❯ cat CHANGELOG.md | head
<!-- header goes here -->
## [unreleased]

### ⚙️ Miscellaneous Tasks

- *(release)* Release v2.2.2-alpha.2
## [2.2.2-alpha.2](https://github.com/kristof-mattei/rust-testbench/compare/v2.2.2-alpha.1..v2.2.2-alpha.2) - 2026-03-03

### 🐛 Bug Fixes

Using --bump:

❯ git-cliff --output CHANGELOG.md --bump minor --with-commit "chore(release): Release v2.2.2-alpha.2" --github-token (gh auth token)
 WARN  git_cliff_core::changelog > 2560 commit(s) were skipped due to parse error(s) (run with `-vv` for details)

❯ cat CHANGELOG.md | head
<!-- header goes here -->
## [2.3.0](https://github.com/kristof-mattei/rust-testbench/compare/v2.2.2-alpha.1..v2.3.0) - 2026-03-03

### ⚙️ Miscellaneous Tasks

- *(release)* Release v2.2.2-alpha.2

Software information

❯ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 25.10
Release:        25.10
Codename:       questing

❯ rustc --version
rustc 1.93.0 (254b59607 2026-01-19)

❯ git-cliff --version
git-cliff 2.12.0

Additional context

No response

[kristof-mattei]

Okay, this one is on me. --tag doesn't do what I think it does. --tag specifies the version that is the latest, not the one we want to bump to.

I've been abusing tags (without knowing) in order to get pre-release versions working.

[kristof-mattei]

I think options are

1. Allow me to specify the version I want the codebase to be bumped to, like --bump-new-tag, which cannot be used together with --bump.
2. Support for pre-release: Support Pre‑release Versioning #1380