release-note-generation

name	release-note-generation
description	Toolkit for generating PowerToys release notes from GitHub milestone PRs or commit ranges. Use when asked to create release notes, summarize milestone PRs, generate changelog, prepare release documentation, generate PR review summaries locally for release notes, update README for a new release, manage PR milestones, collect PRs between commits/tags, or prepare release assets (download installers and compute installer hashes).
license	Complete terms in LICENSE.txt

Release Note Generation Skill

Generate professional release notes for PowerToys milestones by collecting merged PRs, summarizing each PR with the local CLI agent, grouping by label, and producing user-facing summaries.

Output Directory

All generated artifacts are placed under Generated Files/ReleaseNotes/ at the repository root (gitignored).

Generated Files/ReleaseNotes/
├── milestone_prs.json           # Raw PR data from GitHub
├── sorted_prs.csv               # Sorted PR list with Copilot summaries
├── prs_with_milestone.csv       # Milestone assignment tracking
├── grouped_csv/                 # PRs grouped by label (one CSV per label)
├── grouped_md/                  # Generated markdown summaries per label
└── v{VERSION}-release-notes.md  # Final consolidated release notes

When to Use This Skill

• Generate release notes for a milestone
• Summarize PRs merged in a release
• Generate per-PR review summaries locally for release-notes copy
• Assign milestones to PRs missing them
• Collect PRs between two commits/tags
• Update README.md for a new version
• Prepare GitHub release assets (download installers/symbols + compute hashes)

Prerequisites

• GitHub CLI (gh) installed and authenticated — The collection script uses gh pr view and gh api graphql to fetch PR metadata and co-author information. Run gh auth status to verify; if not logged in, run gh auth login first. See Step 1.0.0 for details.
• MCP Server: github-mcp-server installed (used to fetch PR diffs/files for the local-agent review step)
• For prepare-release-assets.ps1 only: Azure CLI authenticated against the Microsoft tenant (az login) with the azure-devops extension; access to the microsoft/Dart ADO project

Required Variables

⚠️ Before starting, confirm {{ReleaseVersion}} with the user. If not provided, ASK: "What release version are we generating notes for? (e.g., 0.98)"

Variable	Description	Example
{{ReleaseVersion}}	Target release version	0.98

Workflow Overview

┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.0 Verify gh auth + MemberList │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.1 Collect PRs (stable range) │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.2 Assign Milestones           │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 2.1–2.4 Label PRs (auto+human)  │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.1 Local-agent PR summaries    │
│ (writes CopilotSummary)         │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.2 (Optional) Refresh PR data  │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.3 Group by label              │
│ (grouped_csv)                   │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 4.1 Summarize (grouped_md)      │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 4.2 Final notes (v{VERSION}.md) │
└────────────────────────────────┘

Step	Action	Details
1.0	Verify prerequisites	gh auth status must pass; generate MemberList.md
1.1	Collect PRs	From previous release tag on stable branch → sorted_prs.csv
1.2	Assign Milestones	Ensure all PRs have correct milestone
2.1–2.4	Label PRs	Auto-suggest + human label low-confidence
3.1–3.3	Reviews & Grouping	Local agent summarizes each PR diff into CopilotSummary → (optional refresh) → group by label
4.1–4.2	Summaries & Final	Generate grouped summaries, then consolidate

Detailed workflow docs

Do not read all steps at once—only read the step you are executing.

• Step 1: Collection & Milestones
• Step 2: Labeling PRs
• Step 3: Reviews & Grouping
• Step 4: Summarization

Available Scripts

Script	Purpose
dump-prs-since-commit.ps1	Fetch PRs between commits/tags
group-prs-by-label.ps1	Group PRs into CSVs
collect-or-apply-milestones.ps1	Assign milestones
diff_prs.ps1	Incremental PR diff
prepare-release-assets.ps1	Download installers + symbols from an ADO build, compute SHA256, emit the "Installer Hashes" markdown table for the GitHub release page

References

• Sample Output - Example summary formatting
• Detailed Instructions - Legacy full documentation

Conventions

• Terminal usage: Disabled by default; only run scripts when user explicitly requests
• Batch generation: Generate ALL grouped_md files in one pass, then human reviews
• PR order: Preserve order from sorted_prs.csv in all outputs
• Label filtering: Keeps Product-*, Area-*, GitHub*, *Plugin, Issue-*

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
gh command not found	Install GitHub CLI and add to PATH
No PRs returned	Verify milestone title matches exactly
Empty CopilotSummary for many PRs	Run Step 3.1 (local-agent summaries). Do not use mcp_github_request_copilot_review from a CLI/coding agent — the GitHub API rejects bot-initiated review requests, so the column will stay empty.
Many unlabeled PRs	Return to labeling step before grouping
prepare-release-assets.ps1 fails with "Failed to acquire ADO access token"	Run az login and ensure you have access to the microsoft/Dart ADO project