changelog

name

changelog

description

Use when asked to write, draft, or update the changelog for a NegPy release — e.g. "changelog for 0.42.0", "draft release notes since the last tag", "what changed since 0.41.0". Pulls every commit since the previous git tag, summarizes them into concise user-facing bullets, credits outside contributors by @handle, and drafts the entry into docs/CHANGELOG.md for approval. Keywords: changelog, release notes, CHANGELOG.md, version bump, since tag, PRs, contributors.

Draft a release changelog

Overview

Turn the commits since the last release tag into a docs/CHANGELOG.md entry: concise user-facing bullets, contributors credited, in the house style.

Core principle: always draft first and show the user — apply to docs/CHANGELOG.md only after they accept. The user asked for a draft to review, not an automatic edit.

Workflow

1. Get the target version from the request (e.g. 0.42.0) and find the range:

   git tag --sort=-v:refname        # newest tag first
   

   • Target is not yet a tag (drafting an unreleased version, the usual case) → range is <newest-tag>..HEAD.
   • Target is an existing tag → range is <tag-immediately-before-it>..<target-tag>.

2. List commits with authors + emails (email carries the GitHub handle):

   git log <range> --format='%h|%an|%ae|%s'
   

   For a commit whose body matters (root cause, what actually changed), read it:

   git show -s --format='%s%n%b' <hash>
   

3. Derive contributor handles from the author email:

   • [e-mail] → @handle (e.g. 175231748+linkmodo@... → @linkmodo).
   • Other emails: reuse the handle that person already got in earlier docs/CHANGELOG.md entries (git log/grep the file); ask the user if unknown.
   • Known map: Paul Glover=@paulglover, jboneng=@jboneng, Robin/light-sntchr=@light-sntchr, Henning Ullrich=@hullrich.
   • marcinz606 is the owner — never credit them.

4. Drop housekeeping commits — no changelog line for: README/badge edits, changelog typo fixes, merge/revert/"rogue file" cleanups, pure internal log-noise fixes, version bumps.

5. Drop fixes and tweaks to a feature added in the same range — a bug that never reached a build is not news. Fold anything the user should know into the feature's own New: bullet and write no Fix: line. Check every Fix: candidate against the range's New: bullets before keeping it, and check the entries already in the section too, not only the new commits.

6. Check what's already documented — the top ## section may already hold a few entries. Merge into it; don't duplicate.

7. Write one bullet per remaining commit in the house style (below), grouped New → Change → Fix.

8. Show the draft in the reply. On approval, insert into docs/CHANGELOG.md under the target ## X.X.X heading (create it if absent), merged with any entries already there.

House style

(Established preference — see the user's changelog-style memory.)

• One line per entry, no explanatory paragraphs: Prefix: **bold lead** — terse clause naming what was done. Skip the failure-mode/root-cause narrative even on fixes. The long multi-sentence bullets in old sections are not the target.
• Prefix each with New: / Change: / Fix: (use Change/Fix: if genuinely both). Group in that order.
• No PR/issue numbers ((#604)) — user-facing notes, not a dev index.
• US "color" in prose, matching the UI labels (Color Negative, colour spellings were swept out in 0.50.0).
• Plain, factual, non-salesy — it's an open-source project. No marketing framing, no dunking on other tools.
• Credit code/idea contributors with a trailing @handle; never credit whoever merely requested or reported it.

Example (0.41.0, accepted)

- New: **Manage Database…** — dialog to inspect and clear stored data; Clear Saved Edits or Reset Everything, both guarded. @linkmodo
- Change: **Bottom toolbar streamlined** — zoom slider removed, GPU/CPU toggle moved to the overflow menu, tooltips on every item; Before/After and Peak Flat are now mutually exclusive and survive rotate/flip. @linkmodo
- Fix: **Saved export destination restored on reopen** — the Folder mode no longer resets to "Subfolder of source". @paulglover

Gotcha

git log/git show output is piped through the RTK hook, which truncates long output and garbles it. If a log looks cut off, rerun with rtk proxy git … to bypass the filter, or dump to a file and open it with the Read tool (Read is unhooked). Trust exit codes over rendered text.