release-notes

name	release-notes
description	Auto-draft CHANGELOG entries and release notes from git commits. Use when preparing a new release, summarising what changed since last tag, drafting the CHANGELOG section, or generating GitHub Release body text. Triggers on: 'draft changelog', 'release notes', 'what changed', 'CHANGELOG entry', 'generate release notes', 'summarise commits'.
argument-hint	Optional: target version (e.g. 'v6.35.0') or commit range (e.g. 'v6.33.0..HEAD')

Release Notes — RegiLattice

Objective

Generate a well-structured CHANGELOG entry for docs/CHANGELOG.md and a concise GitHub Release body from the git commit log since the last tag.

Step 1 — Identify the commit range

# Find the most recent version tag
$LastTag = git.exe describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>$null
if (-not $LastTag) { $LastTag = 'v6.0.0' }

# List commits since last tag (one line each)
git.exe log "$LastTag..HEAD" --oneline

Step 2 — Categorise commits by Conventional Commits type

Group by the type prefix (feat, fix, perf, refactor, test, docs, chore, style):

Commit type	CHANGELOG section
feat	### Added
fix	### Fixed
perf	### Performance
refactor	### Changed
test	### Tests
docs	### Documentation
chore	(skip or Internal)
style	(skip)

Step 3 — Draft the CHANGELOG entry

## [X.Y.Z] — YYYY-MM-DD

### Added
- feat(tweaks): Sprint NNN — 50 new policy tweaks (PolicyBITS/PersonalizationPolicy/...)

### Fixed
- fix(engine): SnapshotManager.Save() no longer triggers live StatusMap on 7k+ tweaks

### Tests
- test(core): Split ExtendedCoverageTests monolith into 27 per-topic files

### Stats
- Tweaks: **X,XXX** | Categories: **NNN** | Modules: **NNN** | Tests: **N,NNN**

Step 4 — Get current stats

# Run the validate command to confirm stats
dotnet run --project src/RegiLattice.CLI -- --stats --no-color

Or use the counts script:

.\scripts\Sync-CopilotInstructions.ps1 -DryRun

Step 5 — Generate GitHub Release body

The GitHub Release body is a shortened version of the CHANGELOG entry:

## What's New in vX.Y.Z

**[Two-sentence summary of main changes]**

### Highlights
- Bullet 1 (most impactful change)
- Bullet 2
- Bullet 3

### Stats
7,XXX tweaks · NNN categories · NNN modules · N,NNN tests · 0 failures

### Download
- [RegiLattice-vX.Y.Z-win-x64.exe](…) — portable GUI (no install)
- [RegiLatticeCLI-vX.Y.Z-win-x64.exe](…) — portable CLI (no install)
- [RegiLattice-vX.Y.Z-win-x64.msi](…) — MSI installer

File Update Checklist (for each version bump)

The complete 28-file checklist is in lessons-learned.instructions.md (stats.svg section). Minimum required for every version bump:

☐ docs/CHANGELOG.md   — prepend new ## [X.Y.Z] section
☐ Directory.Build.props — all 4 version properties in sync
☐ installer/Package.wxs — Version="X.Y.Z"
☐ README.md            — version badge + tweak/test counts
☐ docs/assets/stats.svg — plain integers (7718, not 7,718)
☐ .github/copilot-instructions.md — tweak/test count in Quick Facts table

Run Sync-CopilotInstructions.ps1 to auto-update counts across all instruction files.

Common Mistakes

• Wrong CHANGELOG date: always use Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd" — never use planned/future dates
• Stale stats in body: run --stats just before publishing the release to get the live numbers
• Missing vX.Y.Z tag: the tag push is what triggers release.yml — never defer it