Release Notes Generation Skill Skill

[IMPORTANT] Use TaskCreate 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.

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 with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)_

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.

Closing Reminders

IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION break work into small todo tasks using TaskCreate 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

Agent Skills: Release Notes Generation Skill

Install this agent skill to your local

Skill Files