Releaserator Skill Skill

Releaserator Skill

Automate the release process with semantic versioning, Keep A Changelog format, and GitHub release creation.

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Pre-flight Checks

Task: Verify repository state is clean and ready for release

Run these checks:

# Check git status (must be clean)
git status --porcelain

# Check current branch
git branch --show-current

# Check for plugin.json
test -f .claude-plugin/plugin.json && echo "EXISTS" || echo "MISSING"

# Check for gh CLI
command -v gh >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "INSTALLED" || echo "NOT_FOUND"

Validation:

Working directory MUST be clean (no uncommitted changes)
- If dirty: Error with message: "Working directory has uncommitted changes. Please commit or stash changes before creating a release."
Current branch SHOULD be main/master
- If not: Ask user to confirm creating release from current branch
plugin.json MUST exist
- If missing: Error with message: "File .claude-plugin/plugin.json not found. Are you in a plugin directory?"
gh CLI MUST be installed
- If missing: Error with message: "GitHub CLI (gh) not found. Install with: brew install gh"

Optional check: Verify docs/CONTEXT.md is recent (< 24 hours old)

If stale: Warn user and suggest running /session-wrapup first

Step 2: Determine Current Version and Last Release

Task: Read current version and find last release tag

# Read current version from plugin.json (use Read tool)
# Parse the "version" field

# Find last tag (if any)
git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "NO_TAGS"

# List all tags for reference
git tag --list --sort=-version:refname

Logic:

Parse version from plugin.json (e.g., "1.0.0")
If no tags exist, this is first release (baseline: use all commits)
If tags exist, use latest tag as baseline for commit collection

Store:

CURRENT_VERSION = version from plugin.json
LAST_TAG = latest git tag (or "NO_TAGS")
IS_FIRST_RELEASE = true if no tags exist

Step 3: Collect Commits Since Last Release

Task: Get all commits since last release for changelog generation

# If tags exist: commits since last tag
git log LAST_TAG..HEAD --oneline --no-merges

# If no tags: all commits (first release)
git log --oneline --no-merges

Parse each commit:

For each commit line, extract:

Commit hash (first 7 characters)
Commit type (feat, fix, docs, refactor, perf, chore, test, ci, build, style)
Scope (optional, in parentheses)
Breaking change indicator (exclamation mark before colon)
Description (after colon)
PR reference (look for PR number pattern)

Example parsing:

abc1234 feat(auth): add OAuth support (#42)
→ hash: abc1234
→ type: feat
→ scope: auth
→ breaking: false
→ description: add OAuth support
→ pr: 42

Check commit body for BREAKING CHANGE:

For commits that might have breaking changes, also check the full commit message:

git log LAST_TAG..HEAD --format="%H %s%n%b%n---" --no-merges

Look for BREAKING CHANGE: in commit body.

Store parsed commits in a data structure:

commits = [
  {hash, type, scope, breaking, description, pr},
  ...
]

Step 4: Determine Version Bump

Task: Analyze commits to determine MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH bump

Rules (Conventional Commits):

MAJOR bump if ANY commit has:
- BREAKING CHANGE in commit body/footer, OR
- Exclamation mark before colon (e.g., feat!, fix!)
MINOR bump if (and no MAJOR):
- ANY feat: commits exist
PATCH bump if (and no MAJOR/MINOR):
- ANY fix: or perf: commits exist
No bump if only:
- docs:, refactor:, chore:, test:, ci:, build:, style:

Calculate new version:

# Pseudocode for version bump
def bump_version(current, bump_type):
    major, minor, patch = map(int, current.split('.'))

    if bump_type == 'MAJOR':
        return f"{major + 1}.0.0"
    elif bump_type == 'MINOR':
        return f"{major}.{minor + 1}.0"
    elif bump_type == 'PATCH':
        return f"{major}.{minor}.{patch + 1}"
    else:
        return current  # No bump

Edge case: If no version bump needed (only docs/chore commits), ask user:

⚠️ No version bump needed (only documentation/chore commits).
Do you want to create a release anyway? (y/N)

Store:

BUMP_TYPE = "MAJOR" | "MINOR" | "PATCH" | "NONE"
NEW_VERSION = calculated new version

Step 5: Generate Changelog Entry

Task: Create Keep A Changelog formatted entry for this release

Group commits by section:

| Commit Type | Changelog Section | Variable | |-------------|-------------------|----------| | feat: | Added | ADDED | | refactor: (behavior change) | Changed | CHANGED | | Mentions "deprecat" | Deprecated | DEPRECATED | | Mentions "remov" | Removed | REMOVED | | fix: | Fixed | FIXED | | Mentions "security" or "CVE" | Security | SECURITY |

Format each commit line:

- Description ([#PR](https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/pull/PR)) ([hash](https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/commit/hash))

If no PR reference, omit PR link. Always include commit hash link.

Breaking changes:

Collect all breaking changes (commits with exclamation mark or BREAKING CHANGE) and add to the top of the relevant section with ⚠️:

- ⚠️ **BREAKING**: Description of breaking change

Extract repo info:

# Get remote URL and parse owner/repo
git remote get-url origin
# Parse: git@github.com:owner/repo.git → owner/repo
# Or: https://github.com/owner/repo.git → owner/repo

Load template: Read skills/releaserator/templates/changelog-entry.md

Substitute variables:

{{VERSION}} → NEW_VERSION
{{DATE}} → today's date (ISO format: YYYY-MM-DD)
{{ADDED}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
{{CHANGED}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
{{DEPRECATED}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
{{REMOVED}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
{{FIXED}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
{{SECURITY}} → formatted commit lines (or empty if none)
{{BREAKING}} → breaking changes summary (or omit section if none)

Remove empty sections: If a section has no commits, remove the entire section heading and content.

Store: CHANGELOG_ENTRY = generated markdown

Step 6: Update or Create CHANGELOG.md

Task: Prepend new version entry to CHANGELOG.md

Check if CHANGELOG.md exists:

test -f CHANGELOG.md && echo "EXISTS" || echo "MISSING"

If CHANGELOG.md exists:

Read existing CHANGELOG.md
Find insertion point:
- If ## [Unreleased] exists, insert after it
- Otherwise, insert after the header (before first version)
Insert CHANGELOG_ENTRY
Update comparison links at bottom:
- Add new version link: [VERSION]: https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/releases/tag/vVERSION
- Update Unreleased link: [Unreleased]: https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/compare/vVERSION...HEAD

If CHANGELOG.md doesn't exist:

Load template: skills/releaserator/templates/CHANGELOG.md
Substitute variables:
- {{VERSION}} → NEW_VERSION
- {{DATE}} → today's date
- {{REPO}} → owner/repo from git remote
- {{ADDED}}, {{CHANGED}}, etc. → from CHANGELOG_ENTRY
Write new CHANGELOG.md

Use Write tool to create/update CHANGELOG.md

Step 7: Update plugin.json Version

Task: Write new version to .claude-plugin/plugin.json

Read .claude-plugin/plugin.json
Parse JSON
Update "version" field to NEW_VERSION
Write back with proper formatting (2-space indentation, trailing newline)

Use Read and Write tools (or Edit tool for simple replacement)

Step 8: Commit Version Bump

Task: Create commit for version and changelog changes

# Stage files
git add .claude-plugin/plugin.json CHANGELOG.md

# Create commit
git commit -m "chore: bump version to NEW_VERSION"

Commit message format: chore: bump version to X.Y.Z

This follows conventional commits (type: chore, as it's a release task).

Store commit hash for later reference:

git rev-parse HEAD

Step 9: Create Git Tag

Task: Create annotated git tag for release

# Create annotated tag (not lightweight)
git tag -a vNEW_VERSION -m "Release vNEW_VERSION"

Tag format: v prefix + semantic version (e.g., v1.2.3)

Annotated tags are used (not lightweight) so they contain:

Tagger name and email
Tag date
Tag message

Step 10: Push Changes and Tag

Task: Push commit and tag to remote

Ask user for confirmation:

Ready to push release v1.2.3 to remote?
- Commit: abc1234 "chore: bump version to 1.2.3"
- Tag: v1.2.3

This will:
1. Push commit to main branch
2. Push tag v1.2.3
3. Trigger any CI/CD workflows

Continue? (y/N)

If confirmed:

# Push commit to current branch
git push origin $(git branch --show-current)

# Push tag
git push origin vNEW_VERSION

If not confirmed: Stop here and report that release is ready locally but not pushed.

Step 11: Create GitHub Release

Task: Create GitHub release using gh CLI

Prepare release notes file (temporary file):

Load template: skills/releaserator/templates/release-notes.md
Substitute variables:
- {{VERSION}} → NEW_VERSION
- {{CHANGELOG_ENTRY}} → the changelog entry content
- {{REPO}} → owner/repo
Write to temporary file (e.g., /tmp/release-notes-NEW_VERSION.md)

Create GitHub release:

gh release create vNEW_VERSION --title "vNEW_VERSION" --notes-file /tmp/release-notes-NEW_VERSION.md

Flags explained:

vNEW_VERSION: Tag name (must already exist from step 9)
--title: Release title shown on GitHub
--notes-file: Release body (our changelog entry + links)

Capture release URL:

# Get release URL
gh release view vNEW_VERSION --json url --jq .url

Store: RELEASE_URL = GitHub release URL

Step 12: Report Success

Task: Display release information to user

Output a summary:

✅ Release vNEW_VERSION created successfully!

**Changes**:
- Updated plugin.json (OLD_VERSION → NEW_VERSION)
- Created/updated CHANGELOG.md with entry for vNEW_VERSION
- Committed changes (abc1234: "chore: bump version to NEW_VERSION")
- Created git tag vNEW_VERSION
- Pushed commit and tag to remote
- Created GitHub release: RELEASE_URL

**Release includes**:
- X features added
- Y bugs fixed
- Z changes made

**Next steps**:
- Announce release to users
- Update plugin registry (if applicable)
- Monitor for issues in new release
- Continue development

View release: RELEASE_URL
View changelog: https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md

Template Variables

Templates use {{VARIABLE}} substitution syntax:

| Variable | Description | Example | |----------|-------------|---------| | {{VERSION}} | New version number | "1.2.3" | | {{VERSION_TAG}} | Version with v prefix | "v1.2.3" | | {{OLD_VERSION}} | Previous version | "1.2.2" | | {{DATE}} | Release date (ISO) | "2026-01-11" | | {{REPO}} | GitHub owner/repo | "owner/repo" | | {{ADDED}} | Added section content | "- New feature\n- Another feature" | | {{CHANGED}} | Changed section content | "- Updated behavior" | | {{DEPRECATED}} | Deprecated section | "- Old API deprecated" | | {{REMOVED}} | Removed section | "- Dropped support for X" | | {{FIXED}} | Fixed section | "- Bug fix" | | {{SECURITY}} | Security section | "- CVE fix" | | {{BREAKING}} | Breaking changes summary | "⚠️ BREAKING: API changed" | | {{CHANGELOG_ENTRY}} | Full changelog entry | (entire entry content) |

Error Handling

Dirty Working Directory

Error: Git status shows uncommitted changes

Message:

❌ Working directory has uncommitted changes.
Please commit or stash changes before creating a release.

Run: git status

Action: Exit without making any changes

No gh CLI

Error: gh command not found

Message:

❌ GitHub CLI (gh) not found.

Install with: brew install gh

After installing, run: gh auth login

Action: Exit without making any changes

Version Conflict

Error: Tag vX.Y.Z already exists

Message:

❌ Version X.Y.Z already exists as git tag.
Current version in plugin.json: X.Y.Z
Existing tag: vX.Y.Z

Please update plugin.json manually to a higher version,
or delete the tag if it was created in error:
  git tag -d vX.Y.Z
  git push origin :refs/tags/vX.Y.Z

Action: Exit without making any changes

No Commits Since Last Release

Error: No new commits found

Message:

⚠️ No commits found since last release vX.Y.Z

Current HEAD: abc1234
Last release tag: vX.Y.Z (abc1234)

These are the same commit. Nothing to release.

Action: Exit without making any changes

No Version Bump Needed

Warning: Only docs/chore commits

Message:

⚠️ No version bump needed (only documentation/chore commits).

Commits since v1.2.3:
- docs: update README
- chore: fix typo in comment

Do you want to create a release anyway? This will keep version at 1.2.3. (y/N)

Action: Ask user to confirm, proceed if yes

Plugin Not in GitHub

Error: Remote URL is not GitHub

Message:

❌ This plugin is not hosted on GitHub.

Remote URL: https://gitlab.com/owner/repo.git

The releaserator currently only supports GitHub.
GitLab and Gitea support coming soon!

Action: Exit without making any changes

Platform Abstraction

Current implementation: GitHub-only

GitHub-specific code is isolated in:

skills/releaserator/platforms/github.md

Platform interface (for future expansion):

detect_platform() - Detect hosting platform from git remote
create_release(version, notes) - Create platform release
get_pr_link(number) - Format PR link URL
get_commit_link(hash) - Format commit link URL
check_cli() - Check for platform CLI tool

Platform detection logic:

REMOTE_URL=$(git remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null)

if echo "$REMOTE_URL" | grep -q "github.com"; then
    PLATFORM="github"
elif echo "$REMOTE_URL" | grep -q "gitlab.com"; then
    PLATFORM="gitlab"
elif echo "$REMOTE_URL" | grep -qE "gitea|codeberg"; then
    PLATFORM="gitea"
else
    PLATFORM="unknown"
fi

To add GitLab support:

Create skills/releaserator/platforms/gitlab.md
Implement same interface methods for GitLab
Update SKILL.md to load platform-specific code based on detection
No changes needed to core logic (commit parsing, version bumping, changelog generation)

Benefits:

GitHub implementation doesn't need refactoring when adding platforms
Each platform has dedicated documentation file
Core logic (steps 1-7, 9-12) stays unchanged
Only step 8 (create release) and link formatting is platform-specific

Common Issues and Solutions

Issue: Tag already exists

Cause: Version bump calculation matched an existing tag

Solution: This shouldn't happen if logic is correct. If it does:

Check if plugin.json version was manually changed
Verify last tag detection works correctly
Ask user if they want to skip tagging or delete old tag

Issue: Commit parsing fails

Cause: Commit messages don't follow Conventional Commits format

Solution:

Parse commits that do follow format
Group unparsed commits under "Other changes" section
Warn user about non-standard commits

Issue: Push fails (no permission)

Cause: User doesn't have push access to remote

Solution:

Check git push output for authentication errors
Suggest running gh auth login or setting up SSH keys
Report that release is ready locally but not pushed

Issue: GitHub release fails

Cause: gh CLI not authenticated

Solution:

❌ GitHub CLI authentication failed.

Run: gh auth login

Then try creating the release again.

Issue: Can't determine repo owner/name

Cause: Git remote URL in unexpected format

Solution:

Try multiple parsing patterns:
- git@github.com:owner/repo.git
- https://github.com/owner/repo.git
- https://github.com/owner/repo
Ask user to manually provide owner/repo if parsing fails

Success Criteria

After running releaserator, verify:

✅ CHANGELOG.md created or updated with new entry
✅ CHANGELOG.md follows Keep A Changelog format
✅ plugin.json version field updated correctly
✅ Git commit created with conventional commit message
✅ Annotated git tag created (not lightweight)
✅ Tag pushed to remote
✅ GitHub release created with correct notes
✅ Release URL accessible and displays correctly
✅ All links in changelog work (commit hashes, PR numbers)
✅ Changelog sections correctly categorized (Added/Fixed/etc)
✅ Breaking changes marked with ⚠️ if present
✅ No errors or warnings during execution

Agent Skills: Releaserator Skill

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Skill Files