Generate Changelog

Automatically extract commit messages and generate formatted changelog entries for release notes and version history.

When to Use

• Preparing release notes
• Documenting version history
• Creating user-facing change summaries
• Generating development notes

Quick Reference

# Extract commits since last tag
git log v1.0.0..HEAD --pretty=format:"%h - %s (%an) %d"

# Group by conventional commit type
git log --pretty=format:"%h %s" | grep -E "^[a-f0-9]+ (feat|fix|docs|refactor|test):"

# Generate markdown changelog
git log --reverse --pretty=format:"- %s (%h)" > CHANGELOG.md

Workflow

1. Extract commits: Get commit messages since last release
2. Parse convention: Identify conventional commit types (feat, fix, docs, etc.)
3. Categorize changes: Group into sections (Features, Fixes, Documentation, etc.)
4. Format output: Create readable markdown or text format
5. Add context: Include version number, date, and links

Output Format

Changelog entry:

• Version number and release date
• Features section (new capabilities)
• Fixes section (bug fixes)
• Documentation section (doc updates)
• Breaking changes (if any)
• Contributors
• Version links (GitHub compare)

References

• See doc-update-blog skill for blog post updates
• See git documentation for commit message conventions
• See https://keepachangelog.com/ for changelog format standards