diff --git a/action.yml b/action.yml
index b4a1e60..268e5b0 100644
--- a/action.yml
+++ b/action.yml
@@ -8,7 +8,14 @@ branding:
 
 inputs:
   scheme:
-    description: 'Versioning scheme - semver, or, calver (defaults to semver)'
+    description: |
+      Versioning scheme - semver, calver or conventional_commits (defaults to semver).
+
+      `conventional_commits` Will parse the last commit message to determine the increment type.
+      Supports the following increment types:
+      - patch (build, chore, ci, docs, fix, perf, refactor, revert, style, test)
+      - minor (feat)
+      - Major (any of the above types with an '!' or 'BREAKING CHANGE:' in commit body)
     required: false
     default: 'semver'
   pep440:
@@ -36,14 +43,14 @@ outputs:
     description: 'Current normal version detected'
     value: ${{ steps.version-lookup.outputs.CURRENT_VERSION }}
   current-v-version:
-    description: 'Current normal version detected, prefixed with a `v` charatcter'
+    description: 'Current normal version detected, prefixed with a `v` character'
     value: ${{ steps.version-lookup.outputs.CURRENT_V_VERSION }}
   version:
     description: 'Incremented version calculated'
     value: ${{ steps.version-increment.outputs.VERSION }}
   v-version:
     description: 'Incremented version calculated, prefixed with a `v` charatcter'
-    value: ${{ steps.version-increment.outputs.V_VERSION }}  
+    value: ${{ steps.version-increment.outputs.V_VERSION }}
   major-version:
     description: 'Major number of the incremented version'
     value: ${{ steps.version-increment.outputs.MAJOR_VERSION }}
diff --git a/shared.sh b/shared.sh
index e1c97e6..d9f529f 100644
--- a/shared.sh
+++ b/shared.sh
@@ -11,13 +11,21 @@ pcre_master_ver='^(?P<major>0|[1-9]\d*)\.(?P<minor>0|[1-9]\d*)\.(?P<patch>0|[1-9
 pcre_allow_vprefix="^v{0,1}${pcre_master_ver:1}"
 pcre_old_calver='^(?P<major>0|[1-9]\d*)-0{0,1}(?P<minor>0|[0-9]\d*)-R(?P<patch>0|[1-9]\d*)$'
 
+##==----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+## Conventional commit regexes
+## see: https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0/
+
+pcre_conventional_commit_patch='^(build|chore|ci|docs|fix|perf|refactor|revert|style|test)(\([a-zA-Z0-9-]+\))?:\s.*'
+pcre_conventional_commit_minor='^(feat)(\([a-zA-Z0-9-]+\))?:\s.*'
+pcre_conventional_commit_breaking='^(build|chore|ci|docs|feat|fix|perf|refactor|revert|style|test)(\([a-zA-Z0-9-]+\))?!:.*|BREAKING CHANGE:'
+
 ##==----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ##  Input validation
 
 input_errors='false'
 scheme="${scheme:-semver}"
-if [[ "${scheme}" != 'semver' && "${scheme}" != 'calver' ]] ; then
-    echo "🛑 Value of 'scheme' is not valid, choose from 'semver' or 'calver'" 1>&2
+if [[ "${scheme}" != 'semver' && "${scheme}" != 'calver' && "${scheme}" != 'conventional_commits' ]] ; then
+    echo "🛑 Value of 'scheme' is not valid, choose from 'semver', 'calver' or 'conventional_commits" 1>&2
     input_errors='true'
 fi
 
@@ -40,7 +48,6 @@ if [[ "${use_api}" == 'true' ]] ; then
     fi
 fi
 
-
 ##==----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ##  MacOS compatibility - for local testing
 
diff --git a/version-increment.sh b/version-increment.sh
index 7036524..66e8c06 100755
--- a/version-increment.sh
+++ b/version-increment.sh
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ fi
 default_branch='main'
 # use release_branch if not empty
 if [[ -n "${release_branch:-}" ]] ; then
-    default_branch="${release_branch}" 
+    default_branch="${release_branch}"
 elif [[ -z "${BATS_VERSION:-}" ]] ; then
     # if we're _not_ testing, then _actually_ check the origin
     if [[ "${use_api:-}" == 'true' ]] ; then
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ elif [[ -z "${BATS_VERSION:-}" ]] ; then
 fi
 
 current_ref="${GITHUB_REF:-}"
+git_commit_sha=${GITHUB_SHA:-}
 
 if [[ "${use_api:-}" == 'true' ]] ; then
     # because we cannot use `rev-parse` with the API, we'll take a punt that 9 characters is enough for uniqueness
@@ -55,7 +56,33 @@ if [[ "${use_api:-}" == 'true' ]] ; then
     git_commit="$(echo "${GITHUB_SHA:0:9}" | sed 's/0*//')"    # Also, trim leading zeros, because semver doesn't allow that in
 else                                                           # the 'pre-release version' part, but we can't use the + char
     git_commit="$(git rev-parse --short HEAD | sed 's/0*//')"  # to make it 'build metadata' as that's not supported in K8s
-fi                                                             # labels
+    git_commit_sha="$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"             # labels
+fi
+
+##==----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+##  Conventional commits
+# If calver is set, raise a warning
+if [[ "${scheme}" == 'conventional_commits' ]] ; then
+    # Get message from given commit
+    commit_message=$(git log -1 --pretty=format:%B "${git_commit_sha}")
+
+    # Check commit message header
+    found_match='false'
+    if [[ -n "$(echo "${commit_message}" | ${grep} -P "${pcre_conventional_commit_breaking}")" ]] ; then
+        increment='major'
+        found_match='true'
+    elif [[ -n "$(echo "${commit_message}" | ${grep} -P "${pcre_conventional_commit_minor}")" ]] ; then
+        increment='minor'
+        found_match='true'
+    elif [[ -n "$(echo "${commit_message}" | ${grep} -P "${pcre_conventional_commit_patch}")" ]] ; then
+        increment='patch'
+        found_match='true'
+    fi
+
+    if [[ "${found_match}" == 'false' ]] ; then
+        echo "⚠️ No conventional commit found, defaulting to ${increment} increment" 1>&2
+    fi
+fi
 
 ##==----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ##  Version increment
diff --git a/version-lookup.sh b/version-lookup.sh
index 130ca89..3957688 100755
--- a/version-lookup.sh
+++ b/version-lookup.sh
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ if [[ -z "${current_version:-}" ]] ; then
     echo "⚠️ No previous release version identified in git tags"
     # brand new repo! (probably)
     case "${scheme}" in
-        semver)
+        semver | conventional_commits)
             current_version="0.0.0"
         ;;
         calver)