generating-release-notes

User-Friendly Release Notes (with Executive Summary + Links)

Inputs

• repo: GitHub org/repo (e.g., NASA-PDS/doi-service)
• tag/version: e.g., v1.6.0
• date: ISO or human date (e.g., 2025-11-05)
• changes: structured list of merged PRs/issues (title, labels, number, URL, author)
  • Each item SHOULD have: title, labels[], number, html_url, and OPTIONAL area, component, breaking, deprecation, security, runtime_requirements, upgrade_steps, impact, perf_metrics.
• compare_url: GitHub compare link for "Full changelog".
• upload (optional): boolean, if true upload the generated notes to GitHub release using gh CLI.
• compat_matrix (optional): component/version/requirements table for multi-component releases.
• known_issues (optional): items with link + workaround.
• docs_links (optional): docs, migration guide, artifacts, support channel.

Prerequisites

• For upload functionality: GitHub CLI (gh) must be installed and authenticated
  • Install: brew install gh (macOS) or see https://cli.github.com
  • Authenticate: gh auth login
  • Verify: gh auth status

Output

• Markdown formatted Release Notes with sections in this order (omit empties):
  1. ⚠️ Breaking Changes (ALWAYS FIRST if present; bold; clear impact statement + required migration steps; link)
  2. Highlights (3–6 bullets, outcome-focused, each bullet ends with a link)
  3. New
  4. Improvements
  5. Fixes
  6. Security
  7. Deprecations
  8. Compatibility (runtimes; optional matrix)
  9. Known issues
  10. Links (installation/upgrade docs, migration guide, artifacts, support, Full changelog)
• All bullets MUST include a GitHub link to the source PR/issue (or docs).
• CRITICAL: If ANY breaking changes exist, they MUST appear as the first section with prominent warning emoji (⚠️)
• If upload: true, upload the generated notes to the GitHub release using gh release create (if release doesn't exist) or gh release edit (if it exists).

Style Rules

• Breaking changes come FIRST. If any exist, they are the absolute first section with ⚠️ emoji.
• Breaking change format: State what changed, who is affected, what breaks, and how to fix. Always bold the title.
• Start with users. Highlights = outcomes/benefits, not implementation.
• One idea per bullet, ≤ ~15 words if possible, link at the end.
• Label the audience where useful: Data providers, API consumers, Admins.
• Numbers beat adjectives (e.g., "~25% faster ingestion").
• Use code fences for commands/config when needed.
• Prefer present tense: "Adds…", "Fixes…", "Improves…".
• No empty sections; consistent order across releases.

Label → Section Mapping

• breaking-change, backwards-incompatible, breaking → ⚠️ Breaking Changes (HIGHEST PRIORITY)
• Titles starting with "BREAKING:", "Breaking Change:", etc. → ⚠️ Breaking Changes
• feature, enhancement, requirement → New
• improvement, perf, refactor(user-visible) → Improvements
• bug, fix → Fixes
• security → Security
• deprecation → Deprecations
• docs → (link under Links unless user-visible)
• Unlabeled but user-visible → Improvements (fallback)

Algorithm (what to do with inputs)

1. FIRST: Detect Breaking Changes (CRITICAL - do this before anything else)
   • Scan ALL changes for labels: breaking-change, backwards-incompatible, breaking
   • Scan ALL PR/issue titles for patterns: "BREAKING:", "Breaking Change:", "[BREAKING]"
   • If ANY found, create "⚠️ Breaking Changes" as the FIRST section
   • For each breaking change: describe impact, affected users, what breaks, migration steps
   • Bold the change title and include clear "How to migrate:" instructions
2. Categorize all remaining changes by labels → sections.
3. Detect Security/Deprecations regardless of other labels; promote to dedicated sections.
4. Assemble Highlights
   • Pick 3–6 biggest user-visible changes across ALL sections (including breaking changes)
   • Write benefit-first bullets; append the canonical PR/issue link.
   • NOTE: Breaking changes already have their own section, so Highlights is a summary
5. Add Compatibility
   • Include "Requires: Java 17+, Python 3.12" or a table if compat_matrix exists.
   • Highlight any compatibility breaks here as well
6. Known issues (if any): symptom → workaround → link.
7. Links: Installation/upgrade docs (from docs_links), migration guide, artifacts, support, and Full changelog (compare_url).
8. Validate link coverage: every bullet ends with at least one https://github.com/... link.
9. Upload (if requested):
   • Check if GitHub CLI (gh) is installed and authenticated
   • Check if the release already exists: gh release view <tag> --repo <repo>
   • If release exists: gh release edit <tag> --notes-file <file> --repo <repo>
   • If release doesn't exist: gh release create <tag> --notes-file <file> --repo <repo>
   • Confirm upload success and provide the release URL

Edge Cases

• Breaking changes detection:
  • Even if not labeled, infer breaking changes from title patterns or PR/issue descriptions
  • Check for terms like "removed", "deprecated API", "incompatible", "requires migration"
  • Major version bumps (e.g., v1.x → v2.0) often indicate breaking changes
  • If uncertain whether a change is breaking, err on the side of caution and flag it
• If a change has multiple links, keep one canonical link (the merged PR).
• For multi-repo rollups, create a top-level Highlights + table of component versions; link out to each component's release.
• If input lacks labels, infer from title (e.g., starts with fix: → Fixes, BREAKING: → Breaking Changes).
• Upload edge cases:
  • If gh is not installed or not authenticated, display error and provide setup instructions
  • If release exists but is a draft, edit the draft instead of creating new release
  • If upload fails, save notes locally and provide manual upload command
  • Always show the user what command will be executed before running it

Example (abbreviated)

Input changes (3 items):

• title: "BREAKING: Remove deprecated API v1 endpoints" labels: [breaking-change, api] number: 99 html_url: https://github.com/ORG/REPO/pull/99 impact: "API consumers using v1 endpoints"
• title: "Add dataset-level filters to Registry API" labels: [feature, api] number: 123 html_url: https://github.com/ORG/REPO/pull/123 impact: "API consumers"
• title: "Fix: validation crash on missing schema" labels: [bug, validation] number: 456 html_url: https://github.com/ORG/REPO/pull/456

Output excerpt:

## ⚠️ Breaking Changes
- **API v1 endpoints removed** — All applications using `/api/v1/*` endpoints will break.
  **How to migrate:**
  1) Update base URL from `/api/v1/` to `/api/v2/`
  2) Review API v2 documentation for parameter changes
  3) Test with new endpoints before deploying
  ([#99](https://github.com/ORG/REPO/pull/99))

## Highlights
- API v1 deprecated endpoints removed; migrate to v2 for continued support ([#99](https://github.com/ORG/REPO/pull/99))
- Query datasets faster with new API filters for large catalogs ([#123](https://github.com/ORG/REPO/pull/123))

## New
- Registry API: dataset-level filters for complex queries ([#123](https://github.com/ORG/REPO/pull/123))

## Fixes
- Validation: no longer crashes on missing schema ([#456](https://github.com/ORG/REPO/pull/456))

## Links
- **Documentation:** https://nasa-pds.github.io/REPO/
- **Full changelog:** https://github.com/ORG/REPO/compare/v1.5.0...v1.6.0

Additional Resources

• Label Mapping Reference - Complete PDS GitHub label to release notes section mapping
• Release Notes Template - Standard template structure
• Summary Template - Condensed format for blog/email announcements