release-notes

Generate changelog entries and GitHub releases from git history.

Install

claude skill add --from https://github.com/thatrebeccarae/claude-skills/release-notes

When to Use

• Cutting a release: You have commits ready to ship and need a changelog entry and/or GitHub release.
• Monthly changelog update: You maintain a regular changelog cadence and need to capture everything since the last entry.
• Retroactive changelog: An existing project has no CHANGELOG.md and you want to generate one from the full git history.

Usage

Generate a changelog entry

/release-notes changelog [repo-path]

Reads commits since the last tag, categorizes them, and prepends a new entry to CHANGELOG.md.

Create a changelog entry and GitHub release

/release-notes release [repo-path] [version]

Does everything changelog does, then creates a GitHub release via gh release create. If version is omitted, a version is suggested based on the changes detected.

Retroactively generate a full changelog

/release-notes init [repo-path]

Walks the entire tag history (or full commit history if untagged) and generates a complete CHANGELOG.md from scratch.

Procedure

Step 1 — Find the last tag or release

Run git describe --tags --abbrev=0 to find the most recent tag. If no tags exist, use the initial commit as the starting point. Cross-reference with gh release list --limit 1 to check for GitHub releases that may differ from local tags.

Step 2 — Collect commits since last tag

git log <last-tag>..HEAD --pretty=format:"%H %s" --no-merges

Parse each commit message for conventional commit prefixes (type(scope): description). Record the raw message for commits that do not follow conventional format.

Step 3 — Check merged PRs

gh pr list --state merged --search "merged:>YYYY-MM-DD" --json number,title,labels,mergedAt --limit 200

Use the date of the last tag as the cutoff. Cross-reference PR titles with commit messages to avoid duplicates. PR titles often provide cleaner descriptions than commit messages — prefer the PR title when a commit is associated with a merged PR.

Step 4 — Categorize changes

Map each commit or PR to a changelog category:

Prefix / Signal	Category
feat, feature	Added
fix	Fixed
BREAKING CHANGE in body or ! suffix (e.g., feat!:)	Breaking Changes
docs	Documentation
refactor, perf	Changed
chore, ci, build	Maintenance
deprecate	Deprecated
remove	Removed
security	Security

When conventional commits are not used: Analyze commit message content to infer categories. Look for keywords like "add", "fix", "remove", "update", "refactor", "document". Group ambiguous commits under Changed and flag them for human review.

Step 5 — Suggest version bump

Apply semantic versioning rules:

• Major bump if any Breaking Changes are present.
• Minor bump if any Added entries exist and no breaking changes.
• Patch bump if only Fixed, Changed, or Maintenance entries.

Present the suggestion with reasoning. The human decides the final version.

Step 6 — Format the changelog entry

Use Keep a Changelog format:

## [X.Y.Z] — YYYY-MM-DD

### Breaking Changes
- Description of breaking change (#PR)

### Added
- Description of new feature (#PR)

### Fixed
- Description of bug fix (#PR)

### Changed
- Description of refactor or improvement (#PR)

### Documentation
- Description of docs change (#PR)

### Maintenance
- Description of chore (#PR)

Omit empty categories. Order categories as shown above — Breaking Changes always first.

Step 7 — Human review

Present the formatted entry and suggested version to the user. Wait for explicit approval before writing anything. Highlight any commits that were ambiguously categorized.

Step 8 — Write to CHANGELOG.md

Prepend the new entry after the file header. Never overwrite or reorder existing entries. If CHANGELOG.md does not exist, create it with a standard header:

# Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/),
and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).

Step 9 — Optionally create GitHub release

Only when the user invoked /release-notes release or explicitly requests it:

gh release create vX.Y.Z --title "vX.Y.Z" --notes "RELEASE_BODY"

Use the changelog entry as the release body. Never create a release without user confirmation.

Key Principles

1. Never auto-publish. Every release and changelog write requires explicit human approval.
2. Preserve existing entries. Never modify, reorder, or delete previous changelog entries.
3. Human-readable over machine-parseable. Write descriptions that make sense to a person reading the changelog, not a parser. Prefer plain language over commit hashes.
4. Attribute PRs and authors. Include PR numbers as links. For multi-contributor projects, consider noting first-time contributors.
5. When in doubt, ask. If a commit is ambiguous, surface it to the user rather than guessing the category.