Changelog Automation

---
name: changelog-automation
description: Automate changelog generation from commits, PRs, and releases following Keep a Changelog format. Use when setting up release workflows, generating release notes, or standardizing commit conventions.
---

# 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

```markdown
# Changelog

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

The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/),
and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).

## 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

Run this skill on a real model without leaving the page. Every run is saved to your history for this skill.

How to use

1. 1Save the content below as SKILL.md in your agent's skills directory (e.g. .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md).
2. 2Or paste it directly into the conversation as context before asking the agent to do the task.
3. 3Adjust any project-specific paths or conventions mentioned in the skill to match your setup.