Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: Changelog Generator

Automatically creates user-facing changelogs from git commits by analyzing commit history, categorizing changes, and transforming technical commits into clear, customer-friendly release notes. Turns hours of manual changelog writing into minutes of automated generation.

UncategorizedID: dedalus-erp-pas/foundation-skills/changelog-generator

Repository

dedalus-erp-pas/foundation-skills
Dedalus-ERP-PASLicense: MIT
2

Install this agent skill to your local

pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/Dedalus-ERP-PAS/foundation-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/changelog-generator

Skill Files

Browse the full folder contents for changelog-generator.

Download Skill

Loading file tree…

skills/changelog-generator/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
changelog-generator
Description
Automatically creates user-facing changelogs from git commits by analyzing commit history, categorizing changes, and transforming technical commits into clear, customer-friendly release notes. Turns hours of manual changelog writing into minutes of automated generation.

Changelog Generator

This skill transforms technical git commits into polished, user-friendly changelogs that your customers and users will actually understand and appreciate.

When to Use This Skill

  • Preparing release notes for a new version
  • Creating weekly or monthly product update summaries
  • Documenting changes for customers
  • Writing changelog entries for app store submissions
  • Generating update notifications
  • Creating internal release documentation
  • Maintaining a public changelog/product updates page

What This Skill Does

  1. Scans Git History: Analyzes commits from a specific time period or between versions
  2. Categorizes Changes: Groups commits into logical categories (features, improvements, bug fixes, breaking changes, security)
  3. Translates Technical → User-Friendly: Converts developer commits into customer language
  4. Formats Professionally: Creates clean, structured changelog entries
  5. Filters Noise: Excludes internal commits (refactoring, tests, etc.)
  6. Follows Best Practices: Applies changelog guidelines and your brand voice

How to Use

Basic Usage

From your project repository:

Create a changelog from commits since last release

Generate changelog for all commits from the past week

Create release notes for version 2.5.0

With Specific Date Range

Create a changelog for all commits between March 1 and March 15

With Custom Guidelines

Create a changelog for commits since v2.4.0, using my changelog 
guidelines from CHANGELOG_STYLE.md

Instructions

When creating a changelog:

  1. Analyze Git History

    • Use git log to retrieve commit messages for the specified time period
    • Default to commits since the last tag if no range specified
    • Look for commit conventions (Conventional Commits, semantic versioning tags)

  2. Categorize Commits

    • ✨ New Features: New capabilities or functionality
    • 🔧 Improvements: Enhancements to existing features
    • 🐛 Bug Fixes: Corrections to defects
    • ⚠️ Breaking Changes: Changes that require user action
    • 🔒 Security: Security-related fixes or improvements
    • 📚 Documentation: Documentation updates (usually exclude from user-facing changelog)
    • 🧹 Internal: Refactoring, tests, build changes (exclude from user-facing changelog)

  3. Transform Technical → User Language

    • Focus on what changed for the user, not how it was implemented
    • Use active voice and present tense
    • Explain the benefit, not the implementation
    • Replace technical jargon with plain language

    Examples:

    • ❌ "Refactored authentication service to use JWT tokens"

    • ✅ "Faster, more secure login experience"

    • ❌ "Added Redis caching layer to API endpoints"

    • ✅ "Pages load 50% faster"

    • ❌ "Implemented debounce on search input component"

    • ✅ "Search now responds instantly as you type"

  4. Format the Changelog

    • Use clear section headers with emojis for visual scanning
    • Start with most impactful changes (features, breaking changes)
    • Use bold for the feature name, then explain in plain language
    • Keep entries concise (1-2 sentences)
    • Group related changes together

  5. Apply Filters

    • Exclude commits marked as chore:, test:, docs:, refactor: (unless user-facing)
    • Skip merge commits and version bump commits
    • Combine multiple commits about the same feature into one entry
    • Remove developer-only changes

  6. Add Context

    • Include the date or version number in the title
    • Add a brief introduction if it's a major release
    • Link to detailed documentation for breaking changes
    • Include migration guides when relevant

Example

User: "Create a changelog for commits from the past 7 days"

Output:

# Updates - Week of March 10, 2024

## ✨ New Features

- **Team Workspaces**: Create separate workspaces for different 
  projects. Invite team members and keep everything organized.

- **Keyboard Shortcuts**: Press ? to see all available shortcuts. 
  Navigate faster without touching your mouse.

## 🔧 Improvements

- **Faster Sync**: Files now sync 2x faster across devices
- **Better Search**: Search now includes file contents, not just titles

## 🐛 Fixes

- Fixed issue where large images wouldn't upload
- Resolved timezone confusion in scheduled posts
- Corrected notification badge count

Inspired by: Manik Aggarwal's use case from Lenny's Newsletter

Changelog Best Practices

Writing Style

  • User-focused: Explain what changed for the user, not the code
  • Benefit-oriented: Lead with why this matters
  • Concise: Keep entries to 1-2 sentences
  • Scannable: Use formatting to help users find what they care about

Structure

  • Consistent categorization: Use the same categories every time
  • Most important first: Features and breaking changes before bug fixes
  • Chronological within categories: Newest changes first
  • Visual hierarchy: Use headers, bold text, and emojis effectively

Content Guidelines

  • Be specific: "Fixed login issues" → "Fixed issue where login failed with Google accounts"
  • Quantify when possible: "Faster loading" → "Pages load 50% faster"
  • Include context: Explain why changes were made for major updates
  • Link to details: Reference documentation or migration guides for complex changes

Tips

  • Run from your git repository root
  • Specify date ranges for focused changelogs
  • Use your CHANGELOG_STYLE.md for consistent formatting
  • Review and adjust the generated changelog before publishing
  • Save output directly to CHANGELOG.md

Related Use Cases

  • Creating GitHub release notes
  • Writing app store update descriptions
  • Generating email updates for users
  • Creating social media announcement posts

Example Transformations

Technical Commit → User-Friendly Entry

| Technical Commit | User-Friendly Entry | |-----------------|---------------------| | "Add OAuth2 support for SSO integration" | "Single Sign-On: Log in with your company account" | | "Optimize database queries with indexes" | "Dashboard loads 3x faster" | | "Implement WebSocket connection for real-time updates" | "See changes instantly without refreshing" | | "Add validation for email input fields" | "Helpful error messages when entering invalid emails" | | "Fix memory leak in background sync worker" | "Improved app stability during long sessions" |

Category Examples

✨ New Features

  • New capabilities that didn't exist before
  • Major additions to functionality
  • New integrations or platform support

🔧 Improvements

  • Performance enhancements
  • UI/UX refinements
  • Expanded existing functionality
  • Better error messages

🐛 Bug Fixes

  • Corrections to existing features
  • Resolution of reported issues
  • Fixes to edge cases

⚠️ Breaking Changes

  • Changes requiring user action
  • Removed features or APIs
  • Changes to default behavior
  • Migration steps required

🔒 Security

  • Security patches
  • Permission improvements
  • Authentication enhancements
  • Data protection updates