changelog-generator

Changelog Generator Skill

When to activate

• Preparing a release and need to update CHANGELOG.md
• Turning a list of commits or PRs into human-readable release notes
• Auditing what changed between two versions
• Deciding the next semver bump based on the types of changes

When NOT to use

• Fully automated CI changelogs — use conventional-changelog-cli or release-please instead
• Single-commit patches where the commit message is sufficient
• Internal development notes that don't need public changelog entries

Instructions

Keep a Changelog format

## [Unreleased]

## [1.2.0] - 2026-05-15
### Added
- New feature descriptions (for `feat` commits)

### Changed
- Behaviour changes that aren't breaking (for `refactor`, `perf`)

### Deprecated
- Features that will be removed in a future version

### Removed
- Features removed in this version

### Fixed
- Bug fix descriptions (for `fix` commits)

### Security
- Security fix descriptions

Semver guidance from commit types

Commit type	Semver bump
fix, perf, docs, style, test, chore	Patch (1.0.X)
feat, refactor	Minor (1.X.0)
Any commit with BREAKING CHANGE or ! (e.g. feat!:)	Major (X.0.0)

Workflow

From git log:

git log v1.1.0..HEAD --oneline --no-merges

Paste the output and ask Claude to generate changelog entries.

From a range:

Generate CHANGELOG.md entries for version 1.3.0 from these commits:

feat(auth): add OAuth2 Google login
feat(api): add bulk export endpoint
fix(billing): correct proration calculation for mid-cycle upgrades
fix(ui): fix date picker z-index on Safari
perf(db): add index on orders.user_id
chore(deps): upgrade SQLAlchemy to 2.0.36
docs: update API reference for export endpoint

Suggest the semver bump from 1.2.0.

Claude will:

1. Categorise each commit into Added / Changed / Fixed / Security
2. Rewrite each entry in user-facing language (not developer jargon)
3. Group related entries
4. Strip internal-only entries (chore, style, test) from the public changelog
5. Recommend the semver bump and explain why

Writing style for entries

• User-facing: "Add Google login" not "feat(auth): add OAuth2 Google login provider via passport.js"
• Past tense for the changelog body: "Fixed date picker on Safari"
• Imperative is acceptable: "Fix date picker z-index on Safari"
• No implementation details — "Improve database query performance" not "Add btree index on orders.user_id"
• Include the user impact for breaking changes: "Breaking: API responses now paginate by default. Pass ?per_page=1000 to restore previous behaviour."

Example

Input commits:

feat(export): add CSV bulk export for orders
feat!: remove deprecated /v1/users endpoint (use /v2/users)
fix(checkout): prevent double-charge on payment retry
fix(ui): sidebar collapse animation on mobile
perf: cache user permissions in Redis
chore: upgrade Node.js to 22.x
test: add e2e tests for checkout flow

Expected output:

## [2.0.0] - 2026-05-15

### Added
- Bulk CSV export for orders via the new `/orders/export` endpoint

### Changed
- User permissions are now cached, reducing API response times by ~40ms on average

### Removed
- **Breaking:** The deprecated `/v1/users` endpoint has been removed. Use `/v2/users` instead.

### Fixed
- Double-charge prevented when a payment retry occurs at checkout
- Sidebar collapse animation now works correctly on mobile devices

---
**Semver bump:** 1.x.x → 2.0.0 (MAJOR — breaking removal of /v1/users endpoint)

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