generating-changelogs

name	generating-changelogs
description	Transforms technical git commits into polished, user-friendly changelogs. Use when preparing release notes, creating product update summaries, documenting changes for customers, or maintaining a public changelog page.

Changelog Generator

Transforms technical git commits into polished, user-friendly changelogs that your customers and users will actually understand and appreciate.

When to use this skill

• Preparing release notes for a new version.
• Creating weekly or monthly product update summaries.
• Documenting changes for customers.
• Writing changelog entries for app store submissions.
• Maintaining a public changelog/product updates page.

Workflow

1. Analyze Git History: Use git log to get commits since the last tag or between dates.
2. Categorize Changes: Group commits into Features, Improvements, Fixes, Breaking Changes, and Security.
3. Translate to User-Friendly Language: Convert technical jargon into clear, benefit-driven descriptions.
4. Filter Noise: Exclude internal refactoring, tests, and CI/CD changes.
5. Format Output: Generate a clean Markdown document following the standard structure.

Instructions

Categorization

• ✨ New Features: New functionality added.
• 🔧 Improvements: Enhancements to existing features.
• 🐛 Fixes: Bug fixes and corrections.
• 💥 Breaking Changes: Changes requiring user action.
• 🔒 Security: Security-related updates.

Language Transformation Examples

• Before: feat: add redis cache layer for API responses
• After: Faster API: Responses now load 3x faster thanks to improved caching.
• Before: fix: resolve race condition in user sync
• After: Fixed issue where user data occasionally wouldn't sync across devices.

Resources

• Use git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD --oneline for analysis.