changelog-automation

SKILL.md

Changelog Automation

Patterns and tools for automating changelog generation, release notes, and version management following industry standards.

When to Use This Skill

Setting up automated changelog generation

Implementing Conventional Commits

Creating release note workflows

Standardizing commit message formats

Generating GitHub/GitLab release notes

Managing semantic versioning

Core Concepts

1. Keep a Changelog Format

# Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog,
and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Summary

This release introduces dark mode support and improves checkout performance
by 40%. It also includes important security updates.

Highlights

🌙 Dark Mode

Users can now switch to dark mode from settings. The preference is
automatically saved and synced across devices.

⚡ Performance

Checkout flow is 40% faster

Reduced bundle size by 15%

Breaking Changes

None in this release.

Upgrade Guide

No special steps required. Standard deployment process applies.

Known Issues

Dark mode may flicker on initial load (fix scheduled for v2.1.1)

Dependencies Updated

Package
From
To
Reason

react
18.2.0
18.3.0
Performance improvements

lodash
4.17.20
4.17.21
Security patch

## Commit Message Examples

```bash
# Feature with scope
feat(auth): add OAuth2 support for Google login

# Bug fix with issue reference
fix(checkout): resolve race condition in payment processing

Closes #123

# Breaking change
feat(api)!: change user endpoint response format

BREAKING CHANGE: The user endpoint now returns `userId` instead of `id`.
Migration guide: Update all API consumers to use the new field name.

# Multiple paragraphs
fix(database): handle connection timeouts gracefully

Previously, connection timeouts would cause the entire request to fail
without retry. This change implements exponential backoff with up to
3 retries before failing.

The timeout threshold has been increased from 5s to 10s based on p99
latency analysis.

Fixes #456
Reviewed-by: @alice

Best Practices

Do's

Follow Conventional Commits - Enables automation

Write clear messages - Future you will thank you

Reference issues - Link commits to tickets

Use scopes consistently - Define team conventions

Automate releases - Reduce manual errors

Don'ts

Don't mix changes - One logical change per commit

Don't skip validation - Use commitlint

Don't manual edit - Generated changelogs only

Don't forget breaking changes - Mark with ! or footer

Don't ignore CI - Validate commits in pipeline

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