Release Notes Generation Skill Skill

Codex compatibility note:

Invoke repository skills with $skill-name in Codex; this mirrored copy rewrites legacy Claude /skill-name references.

Prefer the plan-hard skill for planning guidance in this Codex mirror.

Task tracker mandate: BEFORE executing any workflow or skill step, create/update task tracking for all steps and keep it synchronized as progress changes.

User-question prompts mean to ask the user directly in Codex.

Ignore Claude-specific mode-switch instructions when they appear.

Strict execution contract: when a user explicitly invokes a skill, execute that skill protocol as written.

Subagent authorization: when a skill is user-invoked or AI-detected and its protocol requires subagents, that skill activation authorizes use of the required spawn_agent subagent(s) for that task.

Do not skip, reorder, or merge protocol steps unless the user explicitly approves the deviation first.

For workflow skills, execute each listed child-skill step explicitly and report step-by-step evidence.

If a required step/tool cannot run in this environment, stop and ask the user before adapting.

Codex Project-Reference Loading (No Hooks)

Codex does not receive Claude hook-based doc injection. When coding, planning, debugging, testing, or reviewing, open project docs explicitly using this routing.

Always read:

docs/project-config.json (project-specific paths, commands, modules, and workflow/test settings)
docs/project-reference/docs-index-reference.md (routes to the full docs/project-reference/* catalog)
docs/project-reference/lessons.md (always-on guardrails and anti-patterns)

Situation-based docs:

Backend/CQRS/API/domain/entity changes: backend-patterns-reference.md, domain-entities-reference.md, project-structure-reference.md
Frontend/UI/styling/design-system: frontend-patterns-reference.md, scss-styling-guide.md, design-system/README.md
Spec/test-case planning or TC mapping: feature-docs-reference.md
Integration test implementation/review: integration-test-reference.md
E2E test implementation/review: e2e-test-reference.md
Code review/audit work: code-review-rules.md plus domain docs above based on changed files

Do not read all docs blindly. Start from docs-index-reference.md, then open only relevant files for the task.

Quick Summary

Goal: Generate professional release notes from git commits with automated categorization, service detection, and validation.

Workflow:

Parse Commits — parse-commits.cjs <base> <head> extracts structured data from git
Categorize — Pipe through categorize-commits.cjs for user-facing vs internal sections
Render — render-template.cjs --version vX.Y.Z generates markdown with Summary, What's New, Improvements, Bug Fixes, Breaking Changes, Technical Details

Key Rules:

Pipeline: parse → categorize → render → validate → transform
Advanced: Service detection, breaking change analysis, PR metadata, contributor stats, version bumping
Human Review: Generated notes are Draft status, require review/enhance/approve before publish
Validation: validate-notes.cjs scores against quality rules (100 points)

Be skeptical. Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence percentages (Idea should be more than 80%).

Release Notes Generation Skill

Generate professional release notes from git commits between two refs with automated categorization.

Invocation

$release-notes [base] [head] [--version vX.Y.Z] [--output path]

Examples:

# Generate release notes for commits since last tag
$release-notes v1.0.0 HEAD --version v1.1.0

# Compare branches
$release-notes main feature/new-auth --version v2.0.0-beta

# Output to specific file
$release-notes v1.0.0 HEAD --version v1.1.0 --output docs/release-notes/250111-v1.1.0.md

Workflow

Step 1: Parse Commits

Execute the commit parser to extract structured data from git history:

node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs <base> <head> [--with-files]

Output: JSON with commits array containing:

hash, shortHash - Commit identifiers
type, scope, description - Conventional commit parts
breaking - Boolean for breaking changes
author, date - Attribution
files - Changed files (with --with-files flag)

Step 2: Categorize Commits

Pipe parsed commits through the categorizer:

node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs <base> <head> | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/categorize-commits.cjs

Categorization Rules: | Type | Category | User-Facing | | --------------------------------------- | ------------ | --------------------- | | feat | features | Yes | | fix | fixes | Yes | | perf | improvements | Yes | | docs | docs | Yes (unless internal) | | refactor | improvements | Technical only | | test, ci, build, chore, style | internal | No |

Excluded Patterns:

chore(deps): - Dependency updates
chore(config): - Configuration changes
[skip changelog] - Explicit skip
[ci skip] - CI markers

Step 3: Render Markdown

Generate the final release notes document:

node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs <base> <head> | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/categorize-commits.cjs | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/render-template.cjs --version v1.1.0 --output docs/release-notes/250111-v1.1.0.md

Complete Pipeline

For generating release notes in a single command:

# Full pipeline with output to file
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs v1.0.0 HEAD | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/categorize-commits.cjs | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/render-template.cjs --version v1.1.0 --output docs/release-notes/250111-v1.1.0.md

# Pipeline to stdout for review
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs v1.0.0 HEAD | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/categorize-commits.cjs | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/render-template.cjs --version v1.1.0

Advanced Features

Service Boundary Detection

Analyze which services are affected by the release:

# Parse with file changes, then detect services
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs v1.0.0 HEAD --with-files | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/detect-services.cjs

Output: Service impact analysis with severity levels (critical, high, medium, low)

Breaking Change Analysis

Enhanced breaking change detection with migration info extraction:

node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs v1.0.0 HEAD | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/categorize-commits.cjs | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/detect-breaking.cjs

Detects:

BREAKING CHANGE: in commit body
! suffix on commit type (e.g., feat!:)
Migration instructions

PR Metadata Extraction

Extract and link pull request information:

# Extract PR numbers from commit messages
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs v1.0.0 HEAD | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/extract-pr-metadata.cjs

# With GitHub API enrichment (requires gh CLI)
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs v1.0.0 HEAD | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/extract-pr-metadata.cjs --fetch-gh

Extracts: PR numbers, titles, labels, authors from commits

Contributor Statistics

Generate detailed contributor stats:

node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs v1.0.0 HEAD | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/contributor-stats.cjs

Output: Contributor list with commit counts, feature/fix breakdown

Version Bumping

Automatically determine and bump semantic version based on commit types:

# Auto-bump based on commits (feat→minor, fix→patch, BREAKING→major)
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs v1.0.0 HEAD | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/bump-version.cjs

# Bump with prerelease tag
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/bump-version.cjs --prerelease beta

# Per-service versioning
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/bump-version.cjs --service {service-name}

# Dry run (don't write version file)
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/bump-version.cjs --dry-run

Version Files:

Root: .version
Per-service: .versions/<service-name>.version

Quality Validation

Validate release notes against quality rules:

# Validate with default threshold (70)
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/validate-notes.cjs docs/release-notes/v1.1.0.md

# Custom threshold
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/validate-notes.cjs docs/release-notes/v1.1.0.md --threshold 80

# JSON output for CI
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/validate-notes.cjs docs/release-notes/v1.1.0.md --json

Validation Rules (100 points total): | Rule | Weight | Description | | --------------------------- | ------ | ---------------------------- | | summary_exists | 15 | Has Summary section | | summary_not_empty | 10 | Summary has content | | has_version | 10 | Version number present | | features_documented | 10 | Features properly formatted | | fixes_documented | 10 | Bug fixes properly formatted | | no_broken_links | 10 | No empty link references | | contributors_listed | 10 | Contributors section present | | has_date | 5 | Date present | | no_todo_markers | 5 | No TODO/FIXME markers | | proper_heading_hierarchy | 5 | Proper H1→H2 structure | | no_placeholder_text | 5 | No placeholder text | | technical_details_collapsed | 5 | Tech details in <details> |

LLM-Powered Transforms

Transform release notes for different audiences using Claude API:

# Requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-api-key"

# Create executive summary
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/transform-llm.cjs docs/release-notes/v1.1.0.md --transform executive

# Transform for business stakeholders
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/transform-llm.cjs docs/release-notes/v1.1.0.md --transform business --output docs/release-notes/v1.1.0-business.md

# Transform for end users
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/transform-llm.cjs docs/release-notes/v1.1.0.md --transform enduser

Transform Types: | Type | Description | | ----------- | ------------------------------ | | summarize | Brief 3-5 bullet point summary | | business | ROI-focused, business language | | enduser | User-friendly, non-technical | | executive | Strategic impact summary | | technical | Enhanced technical details |

Full Enhanced Pipeline

Combine all features for comprehensive release notes:

# Enhanced pipeline with service detection
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs v1.0.0 HEAD --with-files | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/detect-services.cjs | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/categorize-commits.cjs | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/detect-breaking.cjs | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/contributor-stats.cjs | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/render-template.cjs --version v1.1.0

# With version bumping and validation
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/parse-commits.cjs v1.0.0 HEAD --with-files | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/bump-version.cjs | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/categorize-commits.cjs | \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/render-template.cjs --output docs/release-notes/v1.1.0.md && \
node .claude/skills/release-notes/lib/validate-notes.cjs docs/release-notes/v1.1.0.md

Configuration

See config.yaml for:

categories - Commit type to section mapping
services - Service boundary detection by file patterns
exclude - Patterns to exclude from user-facing notes
output - Directory and filename format settings

Output Structure

# Release Notes: v1.1.0

**Date:** 2025-01-11
**Version:** v1.1.0
**Status:** Draft

---

## Summary

This release includes 3 new features, 2 improvements, 5 bug fixes.

## What's New

- **Add employee export endpoint** (API)
- **Implement dark mode toggle** (UI)

## Improvements

- **Optimize database queries** (Persistence)

## Bug Fixes

- **Fix date picker timezone issue** (Frontend)
- **Resolve null pointer in auth flow**

## Documentation

- **Update API documentation** (API)

## Breaking Changes

> **Warning**: The following changes may require migration

### Migrate to OAuth 2.1 (Auth)

Legacy JWT tokens no longer accepted.
Migration guide: docs/migrations/oauth-2.1.md

---

## Technical Details

<details>
<summary>For Developers</summary>

### Commits Included

| Hash    | Type | Description                    |
| ------- | ---- | ------------------------------ |
| abc1234 | feat | Add employee export endpoint   |
| def5678 | fix  | Fix date picker timezone issue |

...

</details>

## Contributors

- @john.doe
- @jane.smith

---

_Generated by AI_

Human Review Gate

Generated release notes are Draft status by default:

Review - Check accuracy, add context where needed
Enhance - Add migration steps, links, screenshots
Approve - Change status to "Released"
Publish - Commit and push

Integration with Other Skills

$commit - After generating notes, commit them
/git-manager - Create PR for release notes review
$docs-update - Update CHANGELOG.md with new release

Troubleshooting

No commits found

Verify the refs exist and have commits between them:

git log --oneline <base>..<head>

Non-conventional commits

Commits not following type(scope): description format go to "other" category. Consider running commitlint enforcement.

Missing scope context

Add scope mappings to config.yaml → services section for better context labels.

[IMPORTANT] Use task tracking to break ALL work into small tasks BEFORE starting — including tasks for each file read. This prevents context loss from long files. For simple tasks, AI MUST ATTENTION ask user whether to skip.

AI Mistake Prevention — Failure modes to avoid on every task: Check downstream references before deleting. Deleting components causes documentation and code staleness cascades. Map all referencing files before removal. Verify AI-generated content against actual code. AI hallucinates APIs, class names, and method signatures. Always grep to confirm existence before documenting or referencing. Trace full dependency chain after edits. Changing a definition misses downstream variables and consumers derived from it. Always trace the full chain. Trace ALL code paths when verifying correctness. Confirming code exists is not confirming it executes. Always trace early exits, error branches, and conditional skips — not just happy path. When debugging, ask "whose responsibility?" before fixing. Trace whether bug is in caller (wrong data) or callee (wrong handling). Fix at responsible layer — never patch symptom site. Assume existing values are intentional — ask WHY before changing. Before changing any constant, limit, flag, or pattern: read comments, check git blame, examine surrounding code. Verify ALL affected outputs, not just the first. Changes touching multiple stacks require verifying EVERY output. One green check is not all green checks. Holistic-first debugging — resist nearest-attention trap. When investigating any failure, list EVERY precondition first (config, env vars, DB names, endpoints, DI registrations, data preconditions), then verify each against evidence before forming any code-layer hypothesis. Surgical changes — apply the diff test. Bug fix: every changed line must trace directly to the bug. Don't restyle or improve adjacent code. Enhancement task: implement improvements AND announce them explicitly. Surface ambiguity before coding — don't pick silently. If request has multiple interpretations, present each with effort estimate and ask. Never assume all-records, file-based, or more complex path.

Critical Thinking Mindset — Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination.

MUST ATTENTION apply critical thinking — every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: never present guess as fact.

MUST ATTENTION apply AI mistake prevention — holistic-first debugging, fix at responsible layer, surface ambiguity before coding, re-read files after compaction.

Closing Reminders

IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION break work into small todo tasks using task tracking BEFORE starting IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION search codebase for 3+ similar patterns before creating new code IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION cite file:line evidence for every claim (confidence >80% to act) IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION add a final review todo task to verify work quality

[TASK-PLANNING] Before acting, analyze task scope and systematically break it into small todo tasks and sub-tasks using task tracking.

Hookless Prompt Protocol Mirror (Auto-Synced)

Source: .claude/hooks/lib/prompt-injections.cjs + .claude/.ck.json

[WORKFLOW-EXECUTION-PROTOCOL] [BLOCKING] Workflow Execution Protocol — MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST CRITICAL. Do not skip for any reason.

DETECT: Match prompt against workflow catalog
ANALYZE: Find best-match workflow AND evaluate if a custom step combination would fit better
ASK (REQUIRED FORMAT): Use a direct user question with this structure:
- Question: "Which workflow do you want to activate?"
- Option 1: "Activate [BestMatch Workflow] (Recommended)"
- Option 2: "Activate custom workflow: [step1 → step2 → ...]" (include one-line rationale)
ACTIVATE (if confirmed): Call $workflow-start <workflowId> for standard; sequence custom steps manually
CREATE TASKS: task tracking for ALL workflow steps
EXECUTE: Follow each step in sequence [CRITICAL-THINKING-MINDSET] Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination principle: Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination. AI Attention principle (Primacy-Recency): Put the 3 most critical rules at both top and bottom of long prompts/protocols so instruction adherence survives long context windows.

Learned Lessons

Lessons Learned

[CRITICAL] Hard-won project debugging/architecture rules. MUST ATTENTION apply BEFORE forming hypothesis or writing code.

Quick Summary

Goal: Prevent recurrence of known failure patterns — debugging, architecture, naming, AI orchestration, environment.

Top Rules (apply always):

MUST ATTENTION verify ALL preconditions (config, env, DB names, DI regs) BEFORE code-layer hypothesis
MUST ATTENTION fix responsible layer — NEVER patch symptom sites with caller-specific defensive code
MUST ATTENTION use ExecuteInjectScopedAsync for parallel async + repo/UoW — NEVER ExecuteUowTask
MUST ATTENTION name by PURPOSE not CONTENT — adding member forces rename = abstraction broken
MUST ATTENTION persist sub-agent findings incrementally after each file — NEVER batch at end
MUST ATTENTION Windows bash: verify Python alias (where python/where py) — NEVER assume python/python3 resolves

Debugging & Root Cause Reasoning

[2026-04-11] Holistic-first: verify environment before code. Failure → list ALL preconditions (config, env vars, DB names, endpoints, DI regs, credentials, permissions, data prerequisites) → verify each via evidence (grep/cat/query) BEFORE code-layer hypothesis. Worst rabbit holes: diving nearest layer while bug sits elsewhere — e.g., hours debugging "sync timeout", real cause: test appsettings pointing wrong DB. ALWAYS cheapest check first.
[2026-04-01] Ask "whose responsibility?" before fixing. Trace: bug caller (wrong data) or callee (wrong handling)? Fix responsible layer — NEVER patch symptom site masking real issue.
[2026-04-01] Trace data lifecycle, not error site. Follow data: creation → transformation → consumption. Bug usually where data created wrong, not consumed.
[2026-04-01] Code caller-agnostic. Functions/handlers/consumers don't know who invokes them. Comments/guards/messages describe business intent — NEVER reference specific callers (tests, seeders, scripts).

Architecture Invariants

[2026-05-09] User name materialization MUST ATTENTION go through User.UpdateName(firstName, middleName, lastName). Domain method (src/Services/bravoTALENTS/Employee.Domain/AggregatesModel/User.cs:202-209) recomputes FullName as single source of truth. Three sites still manually patch user.FullName = user.GetFullName() after assigning name fields — src/Services/bravoTALENTS/Employee.Application/Factories/UserFactory.cs:50, src/Services/bravoSURVEYS/LearningPlatform.Application/ApplyPlatform/MessageBus/Consumers/AccountUserDeletedEventBusConsumer.cs:102, src/Services/bravoINSIGHTS/Analyze/Analyze.Application/MessageBus/Consumers/AccountUserDeletedEventBusConsumer.cs:66. Next time touching any: replace manual patch with user.UpdateName(...) to maintain invariant.
[2026-03-31] ParallelAsync + repo/UoW MUST ATTENTION use ExecuteInjectScopedAsync, NEVER ExecuteUowTask. ExecuteUowTask creates new UoW but reuses outer DI scope (same DbContext) — parallel iterations sharing non-thread-safe DbContext silently corrupt data. ExecuteInjectScopedAsync creates new UoW + new DI scope (fresh repo per iteration).
[2026-03-31] Bus message naming MUST ATTENTION include service name prefix — core services NEVER consume feature events. Prefix declares schema ownership (AccountUserEntityEventBusMessage = Accounts owns). Core services (Accounts, Communication) leaders. Feature services (Growth, Talents) sending to core MUST ATTENTION use {CoreServiceName}...RequestBusMessage — NEVER define own event for core to consume.

Naming & Abstraction

[2026-04-12] Name PURPOSE not CONTENT — "OrXxx" anti-pattern. HrManagerOrHrOrPayrollHrOperationsPolicy names set members, not what guards. Add role → rename = broken abstraction. Rule: names express DOES/GUARDS, not CONTAINS. Test: adding/removing member forces rename? YES = content-driven = bad → rename to purpose (e.g., HrOperationsAccessPolicy). Nuance: "Or" fine behavioral idioms (FirstOrDefault, SuccessOrThrow) — expresses HAPPENS, not membership.

Environment & Tooling

[2026-04-20] Windows bash: NEVER assume python/python3 resolves — verify alias first. Python may not be bash PATH under those names. Check: where python / where py. ALWAYS prefer py (Windows Python Launcher) one-liners, node if JS alternative exists.

Test-specific lessons → docs/project-reference/integration-test-reference.md Lessons Learned section. Production-code anti-patterns → docs/project-reference/backend-patterns-reference.md Anti-Patterns section. Generic debugging/refactoring reminders → System Lessons .claude/hooks/lib/prompt-injections.cjs.

Closing Reminders

IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION holistic-first: verify ALL preconditions (config, env, DB names, endpoints, DI regs) BEFORE code-layer hypothesis — cheapest check first
IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION fix responsible layer — NEVER patch symptom site; trace caller (wrong data) vs callee (wrong handling), fix root owner
IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION parallel async + repo/UoW → ALWAYS ExecuteInjectScopedAsync, NEVER ExecuteUowTask (shared DbContext = silent data corruption)
IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION bus message prefix = schema ownership; feature services NEVER define events for core services — use {CoreServiceName}...RequestBusMessage
IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION name by PURPOSE — adding/removing member forces rename = broken abstraction
IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION sub-agents MUST write findings after each file/section — NEVER batch all findings into one final write
IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION Windows bash: NEVER assume python/python3 resolves — run where python/where py first, use py launcher or node
IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION every claim needs file:line evidence — confidence >80% to act, NEVER speculate

[LESSON-LEARNED-REMINDER] [BLOCKING] Task Planning & Continuous Improvement — MANDATORY. Do not skip.

Break work into small tasks (task tracking) before starting. Add final task: "Analyze AI mistakes & lessons learned".

Extract lessons — ROOT CAUSE ONLY, not symptom fixes:

Name the FAILURE MODE (reasoning/assumption failure), not symptom — "assumed API existed without reading source" not "used wrong enum value".
Generality test: does this failure mode apply to ≥3 contexts/codebases? If not, abstract one level up.
Write as a universal rule — strip project-specific names/paths/classes. Useful on any codebase.
Consolidate: multiple mistakes sharing one failure mode → ONE lesson.
Recurrence gate: "Would this recur in future session WITHOUT this reminder?" — No → skip $learn.
Auto-fix gate: "Could $code-review/$code-simplifier/$security/$lint catch this?" — Yes → improve review skill instead.
BOTH gates pass → ask user to run $learn. [TASK-PLANNING] [MANDATORY] BEFORE executing any workflow or skill step, create/update task tracking for all planned steps, then keep it synchronized as each step starts/completes.

Agent Skills: Release Notes Generation Skill

Install this agent skill to your local

Skill Files

Codex Project-Reference Loading (No Hooks)

Quick Summary

Release Notes Generation Skill

Invocation

Workflow

Step 1: Parse Commits

Step 2: Categorize Commits

Step 3: Render Markdown

Complete Pipeline

Advanced Features

Service Boundary Detection

Breaking Change Analysis

PR Metadata Extraction

Contributor Statistics

Version Bumping

Quality Validation

LLM-Powered Transforms

Full Enhanced Pipeline

Configuration

Output Structure

Human Review Gate

Integration with Other Skills

Troubleshooting

No commits found

Non-conventional commits

Missing scope context

Closing Reminders

Hookless Prompt Protocol Mirror (Auto-Synced)

[WORKFLOW-EXECUTION-PROTOCOL] [BLOCKING] Workflow Execution Protocol — MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST CRITICAL. Do not skip for any reason.

Learned Lessons

Lessons Learned

Quick Summary

Debugging & Root Cause Reasoning

Architecture Invariants

Naming & Abstraction

Environment & Tooling

Closing Reminders

[LESSON-LEARNED-REMINDER] [BLOCKING] Task Planning & Continuous Improvement — MANDATORY. Do not skip.