release-notes

Release Notes Skill

Use this skill when the user wants to create release notes for a new version. This skill gathers all changes since a previous release, writes structured release notes following the project's established format, tags the repo, and pushes.

Input

The skill takes a version tag as input:

• Format: {major}.{minor}.{patch} (e.g., 1.24.0) - no v prefix, semver only
• Older releases (pre-1.23.0) used a v prefix (e.g., v1.0.22) - existing artifacts under docs/release-notes/v*.md and tags v1.0.x are preserved as-is, but new releases must use the bare-semver convention
• If the user provides a v-prefixed version for a new release, strip the prefix and confirm

Output

Creates a release notes file in docs/release-notes/ and tags the repo:

• docs/release-notes/{version}.md - Release notes markdown file (e.g., docs/release-notes/1.24.0.md)
• Git tag {version} pointing to the commit that includes the release notes

Workflow

Step 0: Confirm the Pre-Release Smoke Test Was Run (Gate)

Before doing any release-notes work, confirm the end-to-end release smoke test (tests/e2e_release_test.py) has been run against a live gateway and passed. This suite exercises the surface a release must not break: the registry is up, the built-in airegistry-tools server is healthy and its search tool works, servers/agents/skills support full CRUD, semantic search returns results, security scans run, and one real external MCP server (AWS knowledge base) is reachable end to end through the gateway proxy.

1. Ask the user, using AskUserQuestion, whether they have already run the release smoke test and it passed. Offer these options:

   • "Yes, it passed" (proceed to Step 1)
   • "No, run it now" (Recommended - run it for them, see below)
   • "Skip it" (proceed, but see the warning below)

2. If the user asks you to run it, run against the target gateway. It needs an admin/M2M bearer token file (Keycloak tokens expire in ~5 minutes, so regenerate first if unsure):

   # Local gateway with an admin token at ./.token
   uv run python tests/e2e_release_test.py --token-file .token --registry-url http://localhost
   
   # Remote gateway
   uv run python tests/e2e_release_test.py \
     --registry-url https://<gateway-host> --token-file .oauth-tokens/ingress.json
   

   The runner prints a pass/fail table and exits non-zero if any test fails.

   • If it exits non-zero (any FAILED), STOP. Do not proceed with the release. Report which tests failed and their messages, and help the user investigate. A release must not be cut with a failing smoke test.
   • SKIPPED is acceptable (e.g. the external AWS test skips on a network outage rather than failing) - only FAILED is a hard block.

3. If the user chooses to skip it, warn once that the release is being cut without an end-to-end verification, then proceed only if they confirm.

Only after this gate is resolved do you continue to Step 1.

Step 1: Determine the New Version Tag

1. Parse the version from user input. If not provided, ask the user what version to release.
2. Normalize to bare semver format (e.g., v1.24.0 becomes 1.24.0). Never prepend v for new releases.
3. Verify the tag does not already exist: git tag -l {version}.
4. If it exists, ask the user if they want to move it or choose a different version.

Step 2: Determine the Base Version (Ask User to Confirm)

The release notes are incremental from a previous version. Determine the base version:

1. List existing release notes files (covers both old v-prefixed and new bare-semver names):

   ls docs/release-notes/*.md
   

2. List existing git tags (any version-shaped tag, prefixed or bare):

   git tag --sort=-v:refname | grep -E '^v?[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+'
   

3. Find the most recent tag. Note that the project switched from v-prefixed (v1.0.22) to bare-semver (1.23.0, 1.24.0) - the most recent bare-semver tag is the right base for a new release.
4. Ask the user to confirm the base version using AskUserQuestion. Present the most recent tag as the recommended option and the 2-3 previous tags as alternatives. The user may want to skip intermediate tags (e.g., diff from 1.23.0 to 1.25.0, skipping 1.24.0).

Step 3: Gather All Changes Between Base and HEAD

Run these commands in parallel to gather change data:

# All commits (including merges) between base and HEAD
git log {base_tag}..HEAD --oneline

# Non-merge commits only (for detailed change analysis)
git log {base_tag}..HEAD --oneline --no-merges

# PR numbers in this release.
#
# DO NOT derive these from commit subjects. This repo is REBASE-AND-MERGE ONLY,
# so there are no "Merge pull request" commits and no "(#NNNN)" suffixes:
#   git log {base_tag}..HEAD --oneline --grep="Merge pull request"   -> 0 results
#   git log {base_tag}..HEAD --oneline | grep -oE "\(#[0-9]+\)$"     -> 0 results
# Those are the standard idioms on a squash-merge repo and they fail SILENTLY
# here, returning an empty list that reads like "no PRs in this release".
#
# Enumerate from the GitHub API by merge time instead, and see the base-window
# note below for which timestamp to use as the floor.
gh pr list --state merged --limit 200 \
  --json number,title,mergedAt,author,closingIssuesReferences \
  --jq "sort_by(.number) | reverse | .[] | select(.mergedAt > \"$BASE_WINDOW\") | \"#\(.number)|\(.author.login)|\(.title)\""

# Spot-check any individual PR's membership by ancestry, which is authoritative
# regardless of merge strategy. Find the PR's commit on main by subject, then:
#   git merge-base --is-ancestor <commit> {base_tag} && echo "already in {base_tag}"
# Use this whenever a contributor asks why their PR is or is not listed.

# Contributors -- direct authors of commits on main
# WARNING: this misses co-authors of squash-merged PRs (Step 4 #10 explains).
git log {base_tag}..HEAD --format="%aN" | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

# Contributors -- per-PR commit authors (catches squash-merge co-authors)
# Squash merges collapse N branch commits into 1 commit on main authored by
# the merger, so `git log` above will not show the actual code authors.
# `gh pr view --json commits` returns the original branch commits with their
# authors intact, which is the only reliable way to credit everyone.
# $PR_NUMBERS comes from the gh pr list call above, NOT from commit subjects.
for pr in $PR_NUMBERS; do
  gh pr view $pr --json number,author,commits \
    --jq '"PR #\(.number) | opener: \(.author.login) | commit_authors: \([.commits[].authors[].name] | unique | join(", "))"' 2>/dev/null
done

# Env var changes
git diff {base_tag}..HEAD -- .env.example

# Helm chart changes (any file change inside charts/ requires
# `helm dependency build/update` for stack-chart consumers, even if
# Chart.yaml dependency lists are unchanged - subchart templates,
# values, and helpers are repackaged into .tgz on dependency rebuild).
git diff {base_tag}..HEAD -- charts/ --stat

# If ANY of these report changes, the upgrade instructions MUST tell
# Helm/EKS users to run `helm dependency build` and `helm dependency update`:
git diff {base_tag}..HEAD --stat -- 'charts/registry/' 'charts/auth-server/' 'charts/mcpgw/' 'charts/mcp-gateway-registry-stack/' 'charts/mongodb-configure/' 'charts/keycloak-configure/'

# Helm chart dependency-list changes (separate signal: added/removed deps)
git diff {base_tag}..HEAD -- charts/registry/Chart.yaml charts/auth-server/Chart.yaml charts/mcp-gateway-registry-stack/Chart.yaml charts/mcpgw/Chart.yaml

# Establish the base window ONCE, and use the EARLIER of two timestamps.
# The tag commit can be timestamped AFTER the GitHub release was published (seen
# on 1.31.0: tag commit 2026-09-24T00:34:45Z, release published
# 2026-09-23T22:34:13Z), in which case the tag-commit floor silently drops PRs
# that belong in the new release. Taking the earlier of the two is inclusive, and
# anything wrongly included is caught by the ancestry check above.
BASE_TAG_DATE=$(git log -1 --format=%cI {base_tag})
RELEASE_DATE=$(gh release view {base_tag} --json publishedAt --jq .publishedAt)
BASE_WINDOW=$(printf '%s\n%s\n' "$BASE_TAG_DATE" "$RELEASE_DATE" | sort | head -1)
echo "base window: $BASE_WINDOW"
gh issue list --state closed --limit 200 --json number,title,closedAt,labels \
  --jq ".[] | select(.closedAt >= \"$BASE_WINDOW\") | \"\(.number) | \(.title) | \(.closedAt)\""

# Closed issues referenced by merged PRs in this release (most reliable mapping)
# For each PR number, the PR body usually has "Closes #N" or "Fixes #N" -- gh
# resolves these via the closingIssuesReferences field.
for pr in $PR_NUMBERS; do
  gh pr view $pr --json number,title,closingIssuesReferences \
    --jq '"\(.number) | \(.title) | closes: \(.closingIssuesReferences | map("#\(.number)") | join(","))"' 2>/dev/null
done

Step 4: Categorize Changes

Analyze all commits and PRs to categorize them:

1. Major Features: New capabilities that warrant their own section with description and PR link. Look for commits with feat: prefix or PRs labeled enhancement/feature-request.

2. Breaking Changes: Changes that require user action during upgrade. Check for:

   • Helm chart dependency additions/removals (Chart.yaml changes)
   • Renamed or removed environment variables (.env.example diff)
   • Auth mechanism changes
   • API endpoint changes (removed or renamed routes)
   • Database schema changes

3. New Environment Variables: Extract from .env.example diff -- any new variables added.

4. Bug Fixes: Commits with fix: prefix or PRs labeled bug.

5. Security Fixes: Commits mentioning security, CVE, injection, bypass, XSS, etc.

6. Infrastructure/Helm Changes: Changes to charts/, terraform/, docker/.

7. Dependency Updates: Dependabot PRs and manual dependency bumps.

8. Documentation: Commits with docs: prefix.

9. Closed Issues: Issues closed in the release window. Build from the closingIssuesReferences of every merged PR in this release (most reliable - GitHub auto-closes issues referenced by Closes #N / Fixes #N in PR bodies), and supplement with manually-closed issues whose closedAt is between the base-tag commit date and HEAD. De-duplicate by issue number.

10. Contributors: Build the union of TWO sources, because neither alone is complete:

    • Direct authors on main: git log {base_tag}..HEAD --format="%aN" -- catches anyone who pushed commits directly or whose PR was rebase/merge- committed.
    • Per-PR commit authors: for every merged PR in this release, run gh pr view <num> --json commits --jq '[.commits[].authors[].name] | unique' and union the results -- catches co-authors of squash-merged PRs, whose branch commits get collapsed into a single commit on main authored by the merger. Without this step, every contributor on a squash-merged branch except the merger is silently dropped.

    Then for each unique contributor name, resolve to a GitHub username by looking up a PR they appeared on:

    • If they opened a PR: gh pr view <num> --json author --jq .author.login.
    • If they were a co-author only (no PR opened): gh pr view <num> --json commits --jq '.commits[].authors[] | select(.name == "<Display Name>") | .login' (the per-commit authors array carries the GitHub login).
    • As a final fallback verify with gh api users/<candidate>; a 404 means the guess is wrong. Never synthesize a username from a display name ("Amit Arora" -> "amitarora" was wrong; the actual login is aarora79).

Step 5: Write Release Notes

Create the file docs/release-notes/{version}.md following this exact structure (note: bare semver, no v prefix, e.g. docs/release-notes/1.24.0.md):

# Release {version} - {Short Title Summarizing Major Features}

**{Month} {Year}**

---

## Upgrading from {base_version}

This section covers everything you need to know to upgrade from {base_version} to {version}.

### Breaking Changes

{List each breaking change with clear explanation and remediation steps.
If no breaking changes, write: "There are no breaking changes in this release."}

### New Environment Variables

| Variable | Default | Description |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| {VAR_NAME} | {default} | {description} |

{If no new env vars, write: "No new environment variables in this release."}

### Upgrade Instructions

#### Docker Compose

```bash
cd mcp-gateway-registry
git pull origin main
git checkout {version}

# Review new env vars in .env.example and update your .env if needed
# Then rebuild and restart:
./build_and_run.sh

Kubernetes / Helm (EKS)

cd mcp-gateway-registry
git pull origin main
git checkout {version}

# {If helm dependency changes: "REQUIRED: Rebuild dependencies"}
cd charts/mcp-gateway-registry-stack
helm dependency build
helm dependency update

# Update values.yaml if needed, then upgrade:
helm upgrade mcp-gateway . -f your-values.yaml

{CRITICAL: Include the helm dependency build and helm dependency update commands whenever ANY file under charts/ changes between base and HEAD, not just Chart.yaml dependency-list changes. The packaged subchart .tgz files inside charts/mcp-gateway-registry-stack/charts/ are gitignored and only get repackaged when consumers run helm dependency build/update. If subchart templates/values/helpers changed, a plain git pull followed by helm upgrade will use the OLD packaged subcharts, missing the changes.

Only omit helm dependency build/update if git diff {base_tag}..HEAD --stat -- charts/ shows ZERO files changed.}

Terraform / ECS

cd mcp-gateway-registry
git pull origin main
git checkout {version}

# Update your .tfvars with any new variables
cd terraform/aws-ecs
terraform plan
terraform apply

---

Major Features

{Feature Name}

{Description of the feature -- what it does, why it matters, key capabilities as bullet points.}

PR #{number}

{Repeat for each major feature.}

---

What's New

{Group changes by category using subsections. Use bullet points with PR/commit references.}

{Category Name}

• {Change description} (#{pr_number})
• {Change description} (#{pr_number})

{Common categories: Deployment, Helm Chart Improvements, Security Fixes, Authentication, Infrastructure, Frontend Improvements, Documentation. Only include categories that have changes.}

---

Bug Fixes

• {Bug fix description} (#{pr_number})
• {Bug fix description} (#{pr_number})

---

Closed Issues

Issue	Title	Closed By
#{issue_number}	{issue_title}	{PR #{pr_number} or "manual"}

{List all issues closed in the release window, sorted by issue number descending. "Closed By" is the PR that closed the issue (via closingIssuesReferences) or "manual" for issues closed without a PR reference. If no issues were closed in this window, write: "No issues were closed in this release window."}

---

Pull Requests Included

PR	Title
#{number}	{title}

{List ALL merged PRs between base and HEAD, sorted by PR number descending.}

---

Security Dependency Updates

Package	Previous	Updated	Scope
{package}	{old_version}	{new_version}	{scope}

{Only include this section if there are dependency version bumps.}

---

Contributors

Thank you to all contributors for this release:

• {Full Name} (@{github_username})

{List all contributors from the UNION of (a) direct authors on main and (b) per-PR commit authors via gh pr view --json commits (Step 4 #10). Resolve every GitHub username from a real PR -- via .author.login if they opened a PR, or via .commits[].authors[].login if they were a co-author only. Never synthesize usernames from display names. Sort by commit count descending.}

---

Support

• GitHub Issues
• GitHub Discussions
• Documentation

---

Full Changelog: {base_version}...{version}

### Step 6: Present Draft for User Review

After writing the release notes file:

1. Tell the user the file has been created at `docs/release-notes/{version}.md`
2. Present a brief summary:
   - Number of major features
   - Number of PRs included
   - Number of bug fixes
   - Number of closed issues
   - Any breaking changes
   - Contributor count
3. Ask the user to review the file and confirm it looks good, or request changes

### Step 7: Commit, Tag, and Push

Once the user confirms the release notes are ready:

1. **No navigation file needs editing.** There is no `mkdocs.yml` at the repo root; the only
   one in the tree is under `.scratchpad/`, which is gitignored and unrelated. The published
   site is built by `scripts/build_landing_page.py` (see `.github/workflows/docs.yml`), driven
   by `README.md` and `landing/`, so a new `docs/release-notes/{version}.md` is picked up with
   no nav change. Do NOT add `mkdocs.yml` to the release commit: it does not exist and `git add`
   will fail.

2. **Add a highlight entry and rotate the README's "What's New" (regrowth prevention).** The
   README's `## What's New` section holds **exactly the 5 most-recent highlights**; the full
   history lives in `docs/overview/feature-release-highlights.md`. On a release with a notable
   user-facing feature:
   - **Prepend** one curated highlight entry (headline + 1-3 sentences + doc links) to the top of
     `docs/overview/feature-release-highlights.md`, just under its intro, matching the existing
     bullet format.
   - **Rotate the README:** add that same highlight as the new first bullet under `## What's New`
     in `README.md`, then **delete the now-sixth bullet** so exactly five remain (the dropped one
     already lives in the archive, so this is a delete, not a re-copy). Keep the
     "Older highlights → Feature & Release Highlights" line in place.
   - This is the ONLY change the release cut makes to `README.md`. **Never add a new `##` section,
     never let What's New exceed 5 bullets, and never touch any other part of the README**. Those
     require their own dedicated PR. The README has a CI line-budget (350 lines) that will fail the
     build otherwise. A patch release with no user-facing feature skips this step entirely.

3. **Open a PR; do not commit to `main`.** AGENTS.md requires branching first, and a direct
   push to `main` bypasses the ~26 CI checks that gate everything else, including the README
   line budget and the prose linter. Those are exactly the checks a release commit should face.
   ```bash
   git checkout -b release/{version}
   git add docs/release-notes/{version}.md docs/overview/feature-release-highlights.md README.md
   git commit -m "docs: add {version} release notes"
   git push -u origin release/{version}
   gh pr create --base main --title "docs: add {version} release notes" --body-file <(...)

Wait for CI to pass, then merge. This repo is rebase-and-merge only, so a branch carrying a merge commit cannot be merged; rebase and force-push instead.

4. Wait for the image-tag bump PR before you tag. Do not tag as soon as the notes PR merges.

   Merging the notes PR causes helm-chart-update.yml to open a second PR, chore: update image tags to {version}, on the branch release-update-{version}. It rewrites every charts/*/values.yaml image tag and the Terraform image defaults in terraform/aws-ecs/variables.tf and terraform/aws-ecs/modules/mcp-gateway/variables.tf from the previous version to this one. It always lands AFTER the notes PR.

   Tag before it merges and the tag points at a commit whose charts and Terraform still reference the PREVIOUS release's images. An operator who follows the upgrade instructions and runs git checkout {version} then helm upgrade or terraform apply installs the previous release. This happened on 1.32.1.

   So: watch for that PR, merge it, pull main, and only then tag.

   gh pr list --state open --json number,title,headRefName \
     --jq '.[] | select(.headRefName == "release-update-{version}") | "#\(.number) \(.title)"'
   

   helm-release-retag.yml is meant to force-move the tag onto that commit if you tagged early, so it reads like a safety net. Do not rely on it. Its branch-prefix gate had drifted from the branch helm-chart-update.yml actually creates, so the job silently skipped on every release through 1.32.1 (fixed in #1857). Earlier releases looked correct only because whoever cut them happened to tag after the bump PR merged.

   This also changes what you write in Step 5. The git diff {base_tag}..HEAD -- charts/ check runs before the bump PR exists, so it reports zero chart changes and tempts you to write "you do not need to rebuild chart dependencies". That is wrong on any release where the bump PR lands, because it rewrites five chart values files. Whenever that PR is part of the release, the Helm upgrade instructions MUST include helm dependency build and helm dependency update. Re-run the charts diff after the bump PR merges, and correct the notes before tagging if you already wrote the "no chart changes" wording.

5. Tag only after both PRs are merged, so the tag points at a commit on main that contains the release notes AND the updated image references:

   # If tag already exists, delete it locally and remotely first
   git tag -d {version} 2>/dev/null || true
   git push origin :refs/tags/{version} 2>/dev/null || true
   
   # Tag the merged commit on main (bare semver, no v prefix)
   git checkout main && git pull origin main
   git tag {version}
   
   # Push tag
   git push origin {version}
   

   Create a LIGHTWEIGHT tag, as above. Do not pass -m or -a: that makes an annotated tag object, which every release tag in this repo is not. Pushing the tag triggers release-images.yml, which builds and pushes the release images to ECR Public.

6. Verify:

   git log --oneline -1
   git tag -l {version} --format="%(refname:short) -> %(objectname:short)"
   
   # The tag must carry THIS version's image references, not the previous one's
   git show {version}:charts/registry/values.yaml | grep -m1 'tag:'
   git show {version}:terraform/aws-ecs/variables.tf | grep -m1 'registry:'
   

7. Tell the user the release notes are committed and the tag is created and pushed.

Important Rules

• Always run the Step 0 smoke-test gate first. Confirm the end-to-end release smoke test (tests/e2e_release_test.py) was run and passed, or offer to run it. If it reports any FAILED test, STOP and do not cut the release. Only a user's explicit decision to skip may bypass this, and it must be warned about once.
• Never tag before the release-update-{version} PR merges. Merging the notes PR opens a second PR that rewrites the chart and Terraform image references, and it lands afterward. Tagging early produces a tag whose charts and Terraform deploy the PREVIOUS release, which is what went wrong on 1.32.1. Do not treat helm-release-retag.yml as a safety net: it skipped silently on every release through 1.32.1. Because that PR changes files under charts/, the Helm upgrade instructions always need helm dependency build and helm dependency update on a release where it lands, even though the Step 3 charts diff reports nothing before it exists.
• Never skip the user confirmation for base version in Step 2. The user may want to create release notes that span multiple versions.
• Never include emojis in the release notes file. The project CLAUDE.md prohibits emojis in documentation.
• Never include Claude Code attribution or "Co-Authored-By" lines in commits.
• Always use the docs/release-notes/ directory for the output file.
• Always include upgrade instructions for all three deployment methods (Docker Compose, Helm/EKS, Terraform/ECS).
• Always list breaking changes first in the upgrade section -- this is the most critical information for operators.
• Always verify Helm Chart.yaml diffs to detect dependency additions/removals -- these are the most common breaking changes for EKS users.
• Always check the full charts/ tree diff, not just Chart.yaml. If ANY file under charts/ changed between base and HEAD, the upgrade instructions MUST include helm dependency build and helm dependency update for stack-chart consumers. The packaged .tgz subcharts inside charts/mcp-gateway-registry-stack/charts/ are gitignored and only repackage when those commands run -- a plain git pull + helm upgrade will silently use stale subcharts.
• Never enumerate PRs from commit subjects. This repo is rebase-and-merge only, so there are no Merge pull request commits and no (#NNNN) suffixes. Both standard idioms return an EMPTY list rather than an error, which reads like "no PRs in this release" and is how a whole release nearly went out undercounted. Enumerate with gh pr list --state merged filtered on mergedAt, and verify any individual PR with git merge-base --is-ancestor <commit> <base_tag>.
• Take the earlier of the tag-commit date and the release publication date as the base window. They are not the same and the tag commit can be the later of the two (1.31.0: tag commit 2026-09-24T00:34:45Z, release published 2026-09-23T22:34:13Z), so using the tag commit alone drops PRs that belong in the new release.
• Check whether the version already exists before planning it. gh release list is the source of truth, not the v1.0.x tags in the local repo, which are from the older scheme and look like the latest when sorted naively. A request to "release 1.31.0" may be a request for the version after it.
• Always credit squash-merge co-authors. git log {base}..HEAD only sees the squashed commit's single author, so co-authors on the source branch get dropped. Always also iterate every merged PR with gh pr view <num> --json commits --jq '[.commits[].authors[].name] | unique' and union the results into the contributor list.
• Never synthesize GitHub usernames from display names. Resolve every login from a real PR (gh pr view <num> --json author for openers, or .commits[].authors[].login for co-authors), and verify uncertain ones with gh api users/<candidate> (404 = wrong guess). Past mistakes: "Amit Arora" -> amitarora (wrong; actual: aarora79); "Nathan Fernandes Pedroza" -> nathanfernandes (wrong; actual: nathanzilgo).

Example Usage

User: /release-notes v1.0.16