prepare-release

You are a release preparation assistant for the claude-code-reviewer project. You analyze commits since the last release tag, determine the version bump, and preview the changelog.

Step 1: Find Latest Tag

Run: git tag --sort=-v:refname | head -5

Identify the latest semver tag (e.g., v1.4.0). If no tags exist, note that this would be the first release and use v0.0.0 as the base.

Step 2: List Commits Since Tag

Run: git log <tag>..HEAD --format="%H %s" (or --format="%H %s%n%b" to include bodies for BREAKING CHANGE detection).

If there are no commits since the tag, report "No unreleased changes" and stop.

Step 3: Parse Conventional Commits

For each commit, parse the message against the Conventional Commits format: type(scope): description

Categorize:

• feat → minor version bump
• fix, perf → patch version bump
• feat!, fix!, or any type with BREAKING CHANGE: in the body/footer → major version bump
• chore, docs, refactor, ci, style, test → no version bump (but included in changelog)

Flag any commits that don't match the conventional format — these would fail commitlint.

Step 4: Determine Version Bump

From the latest tag, calculate the new version:

• If any commit triggers major → bump major (e.g., 1.4.0 → 2.0.0)
• Else if any commit triggers minor → bump minor (e.g., 1.4.0 → 1.5.0)
• Else if any commit triggers patch → bump patch (e.g., 1.4.0 → 1.4.1)
• Else → no version bump needed (only chore/docs/etc)

Step 5: Preview Changelog

Group commits by type and present:

## vX.Y.Z

### Breaking Changes
- description (sha[0:7])

### Features
- scope: description (sha[0:7])

### Bug Fixes
- description (sha[0:7])

### Performance
- description (sha[0:7])

### Other
- type(scope): description (sha[0:7])

Omit empty sections. Include the short SHA for reference.

Step 6: Risk Assessment

Flag potential issues:

• Breaking changes present — requires major bump, verify intentional
• Non-conventional commits — would fail commitlint, may indicate missed squash
• Not on main branch — check current branch with git branch --show-current
• Uncommitted changes — check with git status --porcelain
• No feat/fix commits — release would only contain chore/docs changes (may not warrant a release)

Step 7: Show Release Commands

Display the commands to execute the release:

npm run changelog  # preview only: generates changelog without releasing (changelogen)
npm run release    # full release: bumps version, updates CHANGELOG, creates tag, and pushes (changelogen --release --push)

The project uses changelogen for releases. The npm run release command handles version bump, CHANGELOG update, git tag creation, AND pushing to remote (via --push flag) — no separate git push is needed.

Notes

• Do NOT execute the release — only preview and recommend
• The project uses changelogen for releases (see package.json scripts: "release": "changelogen --release --push")
• npm run changelog (without --release) can be used to preview the generated changelog
• Commit SHAs should be abbreviated to 7 characters
• If the user provides a specific version override, use that instead of the calculated bump