Allow towncrier to traverse back up directories looking for the configuration file

src/towncrier/_settings/load.py

@@ -65,26 +65,59 @@ def __init__(self, *args: str, **kwargs: str):
 def load_config_from_options(
     directory: str | None, config_path: str | None
 ) -> tuple[str, Config]:
+    """
+    Load the configuration from the given directory or specific configuration file.
+
+    Returns a tuple of the base directory and the parsed Config instance.
+    """
     if config_path is None:
         if directory is None:
-            directory = os.getcwd()
+            # Neither a directory or explicit config path was given so traverse for a
+            # config.
+            return traverse_for_config(None)
 
+        # Since no explicit config path was provided, we'll look for a config in the
+        # given directory.
         base_directory = os.path.abspath(directory)
         config = load_config(base_directory)
     else:
+        # If an explicit config path was provided, we'll use that.
         config_path = os.path.abspath(config_path)
+        config = load_config_from_file(os.path.dirname(config_path), config_path)
+
+        # If a directory was also provided, we'll use that as the base directory
+        # otherwise we'll use the directory containing the config file.
         if directory is None:
             base_directory = os.path.dirname(config_path)
         else:
             base_directory = os.path.abspath(directory)
-        config = load_config_from_file(os.path.dirname(config_path), config_path)
 
     if config is None:
         raise ConfigError(f"No configuration file found.\nLooked in: {base_directory}")
 
     return base_directory, config
 
 
+def traverse_for_config(path: str | None) -> tuple[str, Config]:
+    """
+    Search for a configuration file in the current directory and all parent directories.
+
+    Returns the directory containing the configuration file and the parsed configuration.
+    """
+    start_directory = directory = os.path.abspath(path or os.getcwd())
+    while True:
+        config = load_config(directory)
+        if config is not None:
+            return directory, config
+
+        parent = os.path.dirname(directory)
+        if parent == directory:
+            raise ConfigError(
+                f"No configuration file found.\nLooked back from: {start_directory}"
+            )
+        directory = parent
+
+
 def load_config(directory: str) -> Config | None:
     towncrier_toml = os.path.join(directory, "towncrier.toml")
     pyproject_toml = os.path.join(directory, "pyproject.toml")

src/towncrier/newsfragments/601.feature.rst

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Running ``towncrier`` will now traverse back up directories looking for the configuration file.

src/towncrier/test/test_build.py

@@ -121,11 +121,21 @@ def test_in_different_dir_dir_option(self, runner):
         self.assertEqual(0, result.exit_code)
         self.assertTrue((project_dir / "NEWS.rst").exists())
 
+    @with_project()
+    def test_traverse_up_to_find_config(self, runner):
+        """
+        If the current directory doesn't contain the configuration file, Towncrier
+        should traverse up the directory tree until it finds it.
+        """
+        os.chdir("foo")
+        result = runner.invoke(_main, ["--draft", "--date", "01-01-2001"])
+        self.assertEqual(0, result.exit_code, result.output)
+
     @with_project()
     def test_in_different_dir_config_option(self, runner):
         """
         The current working directory and the location of the configuration
-        don't matter as long as we pass corrct paths to the directory and the
+        don't matter as long as we pass correct paths to the directory and the
         config file.
         """
         project_dir = Path(".").resolve()