release-notes

name	release-notes
description	Automated release workflow — reads version, categorizes unreleased commits, bumps semver, and updates CHANGELOG.md.

Release Notes

Automates version bumping and changelog generation for the Popcorn GuineaPig plugin.

When to use

• Preparing a new release
• Generating a changelog description for the latest unreleased changes
• Before publishing to Maven Central

Steps

1. Read current version

Read popcornguineapigplugin/version.properties:

VERSION=<current>

2. Find the previous version

Use the CHANGELOG.md as the source of truth (tags may not exist):

1. Read CHANGELOG.md
2. Extract the first ## [<version>] header — that is the previous released version

Fallback: if CHANGELOG.md has no version headers, use git describe --tags --abbrev=0.

3. Find the commit that last updated CHANGELOG.md

git log --oneline --diff-filter=M -- CHANGELOG.md | head -1

This gives the commit where the previous version's changelog entry was written.

4. List unreleased commits

git log <changelog-commit>..HEAD --oneline --no-merges

Exclude merge commits (they don't carry meaningful change descriptions).

5. Show changed files

git diff --stat <changelog-commit>..HEAD

Use this to understand the scope and identify areas affected (docs, source, tests, CI).

6. Categorize commits for semver bump

Prefix / Pattern	Bump	Category
breaking, BREAKING CHANGE, !	Major	Breaking
feat, feature, Add	Minor	Added
fix, patch, Fixed	Patch	Fixed
chore, Bump, Update, Merge	Patch	Changed
refactor, Refactor, improve	Patch	Changed
docs, Docs, update docs	Patch	Changed

• If any commit is breaking → major bump
• Else if any commit is a feature → minor bump
• Else → patch bump

7. Categorize changes for CHANGELOG

Review both the commit messages AND the git diff --stat output to write meaningful changelog entries. Group by category:

• Added — new features, tasks, DSL fields, skills
• Fixed — bug fixes
• Changed — refactors, docs updates, minor improvements, dependency bumps

Tips:

• Look at the diff of key source files to understand new features at the architectural level (domain/data/presentation)
• New files under docs/ → documentation updates
• New files under ai/skills/ → new AI skills
• Changes in ServiceLocator.kt → new dependencies wired in

8. Increment version

Update the VERSION property in popcornguineapigplugin/version.properties.

9. Update CHANGELOG.md

Prepend a new entry to CHANGELOG.md after the header line (before the previous version entry):

## [<new-version>]

### Added
- ...

### Fixed
- ...

### Changed
- ...

Omit sections that have no entries. Follow the existing format — no date suffix needed (unlike earlier versions).

10. Prompt user

After changes are made, prompt the user to:

git add popcornguineapigplugin/version.properties CHANGELOG.md
git commit -m "chore: bump to <new-version>; update CHANGELOG"
git tag v<new-version>

Do not commit or tag automatically — only present the commands.