Skill: Release Notes

What This Skill Does

Generates publish-ready release notes from git log. Parses conventional commits, groups by type, extracts PR numbers, highlights breaking changes, and produces a document ready for GitHub Releases, CHANGELOG, or team communication.

When to Use

• Before creating a GitHub Release
• When the user says "what changed since last release?"
• After merging a release branch
• When updating CHANGELOG.md for a new version

Execution Model

• Always: the primary agent runs this skill directly.
• Token budget: ~2-4k tokens.
• Output: chat-based release notes + optional write to CHANGELOG.md or GitHub Release.

Workflow

Step 1: Determine Range

Identify the git range to analyze:

# Find latest tag
git describe --tags --abbrev=0

# List recent tags
git tag --sort=-version:refname | head -5

Range options:

• Tag to HEAD: git log v1.0.0..HEAD
• Between tags: git log v1.0.0..v1.1.0
• Custom range: user-specified

Step 2: Collect Commits

git log <range> --oneline --no-merges

For each commit, extract:

• Type: from conventional commit prefix (feat, fix, docs, ci, chore)
• Scope: from conventional commit scope (if present)
• Description: the commit message
• PR number: from merge commit or commit body

Step 3: Group by Category

Category	Prefix	Description
Features	feat	New functionality
Bug Fixes	fix	Fixed issues
Documentation	docs	Documentation changes
Maintenance	chore, ci, build	Internal improvements
Breaking Changes	! or BREAKING CHANGE	Require migration

Step 4: Detect Breaking Changes

Scan for breaking change indicators:

• feat!: or fix!: prefix
• BREAKING CHANGE: in commit body
• Removed exports or changed public APIs (if detectable from commits)

Step 5: Generate Release Notes

# <version> — YYYY-MM-DD

## Breaking Changes

- <description> (#PR)

## Features

- <description> (#PR)
- <description> (#PR)

## Bug Fixes

- <description> (#PR)

## Documentation

- <description> (#PR)

## Maintenance

- <description> (#PR)

---

**Full Changelog**: <compare-url>

Step 6: Publish Options

Ask the user:

1. GitHub Release: gh release create <tag> --notes-file /tmp/release-notes.md
2. CHANGELOG.md: prepend to the changelog file
3. Chat only: just show the notes

Rules

1. Conventional commits are the source: if the project doesn't use conventional commits, fall back to grouping by changed files (source vs tests vs docs).
2. Breaking changes are prominent: always list breaking changes first with clear migration guidance.
3. PR references where possible: link to PRs for traceability.
4. Concise entries: one line per change. Details belong in the PR, not in release notes.
5. No built-in explore agent: do NOT use the built-in explore subagent type.