| name | release-ping-dashboard |
| description | Find commits on `master` that have not been released yet, map each author to their Slack user ID via email, and draft a Slack message pinging them for prod-release sign-off. Use when the user asks to "check unreleased commits", "ping authors before prod release", or "who hasn't signed off on the release yet" for a GitLab-hosted repo (e.g. dashboard-v4).
|
Release Ping
Finds commits on master past the latest release tag, looks up each author on
Slack, and drafts a message asking each one to confirm their change is safe to
ship to prod.
Precondition
- Run from the repo root (the skill uses local
git log, not the GitLab API).
- Slack MCP (
mcp__claude_ai_Slack__*) must be authenticated.
- A git tag exists on
master marking the last release (semantic-release convention).
Defaults
| Parameter | Default | Override when |
|---|
| Release cutoff | Latest git tag reachable from HEAD | User wants a specific tag or SHA |
| Slack channel | C0135RE8U1Y (#eng-dashboard-core) | Running for a different repo/team |
| Mention style | <@USER_ID> (triggers notifications) | Never use @name — it renders as grey text and pings no one |
Steps
1. Find the release cutoff
git describe --tags --abbrev=0
This resolves to the latest tag (e.g. v0.287.0). If this fails, the repo
has no tags — stop and ask the user what cutoff to use.
2. List unreleased commits with authors
git log <LATEST_TAG>..HEAD --pretty=format:"%h|%an|%ae|%s"
Pipe-separated fields: short-hash | author name | author email | subject.
Keep the raw output in the working context — every row becomes a line in the
Slack message.
If the list is empty, the tag is the head. Tell the user "already at the
latest release" and stop.
3. Resolve each unique email to a Slack user
For each unique email in the commit list, call:
mcp__claude_ai_Slack__slack_search_users(query: "<email>", limit: 3, response_format: "concise")
Run these in parallel (single message, multiple tool calls).
- Fallback 1: if the email returns zero results, retry with just the
author's full name (handles
ext- prefix mismatches or name-only commits).
- Fallback 2: if still zero, keep the author's plain name in the message
and warn the user: "Couldn't resolve on Slack — tag manually."
- Transient proxy errors (
Invalid content from server) are retry-once
situations, not a reason to abandon the query.
4. Draft the Slack message
Use slack_send_message_draft (never slack_send_message on the first
pass — Slack mentions are not easily reversible).
The message has fixed mechanics and variable flavor. The mechanics
never change; the flavor MUST change every run (see the variety rule).
Fixed mechanics — always present, in this order:
- A bold, single-line headline naming the count
N and the tag <LATEST_TAG>.
- A short intro line that asks committers to confirm their change is safe to ship.
- The bullet list — one bullet per commit:
• \` — <@USER_ID> — `
- A sign-off line stating the reaction contract: react :shipit: = safe to
ship, :no_entry: = hold the release.
Flavor — vary it every run (this is the whole point of the skill):
- The persona is constant: you are the :shipit: Squirrel King of Releases —
playful, regal, squirrel-flavored,
:shipit: used liberally (open, close,
reactions), sign off with :crown:.
- Tailor the decree to THIS release's commits — this is the main driver of a
unique message. Read the actual commit subjects, group them by theme/area
(features vs fixes, which surface each touches), and weave concrete references
to the real changes into the King's narrative — e.g. "a chatbot that now
scrolls itself, a Salesforce burrow bolted shut, tidier
:root tokens." Every
release is different, so every decree should be. Do the weaving in the
headline/intro; keep the per-commit bullets clean and unglossed for
traceability, and put the color in the narrative.
- The scenario and wording must be fresh each time. Do NOT reproduce a
previous run's headline, intro, or sign-off verbatim. Rewrite them. The
scenario bank below is a fallback frame for the narrative — the commit content
is what fills it.
- Before drafting, look at what was sent last. Skim the channel's recent
history for the previous release ping:
slack_read_channel(channel_id: <CHANNEL_ID>, limit: 15, response_format: "concise")
Pick a scenario clearly different from the most recent one — do not repeat its
opening image.
- Rotate the scenario. A non-exhaustive bank to draw from (invent your own too):
| Scenario | Sample framing |
|---|
| Tribute | "The Squirrel King demands tribute — N acorns stockpiled past <TAG>" |
| Winter hoard | "By royal decree — N nuts must pass inspection before the prod hoard" |
| Autumn harvest | "The harvest is in: N acorns gathered since <TAG>, ready for the store" |
| Royal caravan | "The caravan to prod is loading — N acorns need a forager's blessing" |
| Royal feast | "A feast is proclaimed — N acorns on the table before they hit prod" |
| Great Acorn Audit | "The Great Acorn Audit — N nuts await the royal sniff-test" |
- Keep it fun but still actionable: the four mechanics above stay intact no
matter which scenario you pick.
Formatting rules:
- One bullet per commit (do not collapse multi-commit authors into one
row — per-commit traceability matters when someone says "hold commit X").
- Slack re-uses the same notification for duplicate
<@USER_ID> mentions,
so repeating the tag costs nothing.
- Inline-code the hash with backticks to make it copy-pasteable.
5. Show the preview, then send on confirmation
After drafting, print:
- The Slack web URL of the draft (from
channel_link).
- The
draft_id returned.
- A rendered preview of the message with
@Name substituted back for each
<@USER_ID> so the user can spot missing / wrong pings.
Wait for the user's go-ahead ("send it", "lgtm", etc.).
On confirmation, call:
mcp__claude_ai_Slack__slack_send_message(
channel_id: <CHANNEL_ID>,
draft_id: <DRAFT_ID>,
message: <same body as the draft>
)
Passing draft_id auto-deletes the draft when the message sends.
6. Return the message timestamp
After sending, surface the message_ts (e.g. 1776680211.911449). Save it
for follow-ups: passing it as thread_ts to slack_send_message posts a
reply in-thread ("bump — still waiting on X") instead of creating a new
parent message.
Gotchas
- Private channels: if the channel is private, tagged users who aren't
members will still receive a DM-style notification but can't see the
thread. Worth sanity-checking membership for
ext- accounts.
Co-authored-by: trailers are ignored by %an/%ae. If you need
to ping co-authors, parse the raw commit bodies separately — not in
scope for the default flow.- Mixed-case author names (e.g.
Pierre Goutheraud vs Pierre Gouthéraud)
come from different git config user.name values across machines. Both
resolve to the same Slack ID via email, so the dedupe is safe — but if
you ever group by name instead of email, you'll double-count.
- Multiple tags on one commit (hotfix re-tagging):
git describe picks
the most recent, which is what you want for "what's unreleased".
Related skills
gitlab-create-merge-request — complementary; opens the MR that eventually
lands on master and becomes a commit this skill will surface later.
