Release Note Generation Skill

Generate professional release notes for PowerToys milestones by collecting merged PRs, requesting Copilot code reviews, grouping by label, and producing user-facing summaries.

Output Directory

All generated artifacts are placed under Generated Files/ReleaseNotes/ at the repository root (gitignored).

Generated Files/ReleaseNotes/
├── milestone_prs.json           # Raw PR data from GitHub
├── sorted_prs.csv               # Sorted PR list with Copilot summaries
├── prs_with_milestone.csv       # Milestone assignment tracking
├── grouped_csv/                 # PRs grouped by label (one CSV per label)
├── grouped_md/                  # Generated markdown summaries per label
└── v{VERSION}-release-notes.md  # Final consolidated release notes

When to Use This Skill

Generate release notes for a milestone
Summarize PRs merged in a release
Request Copilot reviews for milestone PRs
Assign milestones to PRs missing them
Collect PRs between two commits/tags
Update README.md for a new version

Prerequisites

GitHub CLI (gh) installed and authenticated — The collection script uses gh pr view and gh api graphql to fetch PR metadata and co-author information. Run gh auth status to verify; if not logged in, run gh auth login first. See Step 1.0.0 for details.
MCP Server: github-mcp-server installed
GitHub Copilot code review enabled for the org/repo

Required Variables

⚠️ Before starting, confirm {{ReleaseVersion}} with the user. If not provided, ASK: "What release version are we generating notes for? (e.g., 0.98)"

Variable	Description	Example
`{{ReleaseVersion}}`	Target release version	`0.98`

Workflow Overview

┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.0 Verify gh auth + MemberList │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.1 Collect PRs (stable range) │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.2 Assign Milestones           │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 2.1–2.4 Label PRs (auto+human)  │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.1 Request Reviews (Copilot)  │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.2 Refresh PR data             │
│ (CopilotSummary)                │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.3 Group by label              │
│ (grouped_csv)                   │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 4.1 Summarize (grouped_md)      │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 4.2 Final notes (v{VERSION}.md) │
└────────────────────────────────┘

Step	Action	Details
1.0	Verify prerequisites	`gh auth status` must pass; generate MemberList.md
1.1	Collect PRs	From previous release tag on `stable` branch → `sorted_prs.csv`
1.2	Assign Milestones	Ensure all PRs have correct milestone
2.1–2.4	Label PRs	Auto-suggest + human label low-confidence
3.1–3.3	Reviews & Grouping	Request Copilot reviews → refresh → group by label
4.1–4.2	Summaries & Final	Generate grouped summaries, then consolidate

Detailed workflow docs

Do not read all steps at once—only read the step you are executing.

Available Scripts

Script	Purpose
dump-prs-since-commit.ps1	Fetch PRs between commits/tags
group-prs-by-label.ps1	Group PRs into CSVs
collect-or-apply-milestones.ps1	Assign milestones
diff_prs.ps1	Incremental PR diff

References

Sample Output - Example summary formatting
Detailed Instructions - Legacy full documentation

Conventions

Terminal usage: Disabled by default; only run scripts when user explicitly requests
Batch generation: Generate ALL grouped_md files in one pass, then human reviews
PR order: Preserve order from sorted_prs.csv in all outputs
Label filtering: Keeps Product-*, Area-*, GitHub*, *Plugin, Issue-*

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
`gh` command not found	Install GitHub CLI and add to PATH
No PRs returned	Verify milestone title matches exactly
Empty CopilotSummary	Request Copilot reviews first, then re-run dump
Many unlabeled PRs	Return to labeling step before grouping

release-note-generation