generate-release-notes

COG Generate Release Notes Skill

When to Invoke

• User wants to create release notes for a version, sprint, or cycle
• User says "release notes", "changelog", "what shipped", "write release notes"
• A new version or milestone has been completed
• End of sprint/cycle documentation

Agent Mode Awareness

Check agent_mode in 00-inbox/MY-PROFILE.md frontmatter:

• If agent_mode: team — use parallel agents to collect data from all active sources simultaneously
• If agent_mode: solo — collect data sequentially from the primary tracker

Command: /generate-release-notes

Pre-Flight Check

1. Read 00-inbox/MY-INTEGRATIONS.md to determine data sources and publishing options

2. Read 00-inbox/MY-PROFILE.md for active projects

3. Get current timestamp: Run date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M' using Bash

4. Ask the user (if not already provided):

   • What version/release/cycle is this for?
   • What is the date range? (or: which milestone/cycle/sprint?)
   • Which project? (if multiple active)
   • Audience: internal team, customers, or both?

---

Execution Strategy

Phase 1: Collect Release Data

Team Mode (parallel agents)

Launch data collection agents using the Task tool with run_in_background: true:

Agent: "github-release-collector" (if GitHub is active)

Collect all merged PRs and release data for the specified version/period.
Repository: [CUSTOMIZE: your-org/your-repo]
Period: [START_DATE] to [END_DATE]

1. Get merged PRs in the period:
   gh pr list --repo [CUSTOMIZE: your-org/your-repo] --state merged --search "merged:[START_DATE]..[END_DATE]" --json number,title,author,labels,body,mergedAt --limit 200

2. Check for existing GitHub release (if version tag exists):
   gh release view [VERSION_TAG] --repo [CUSTOMIZE: your-org/your-repo] --json name,body,tagName,createdAt 2>/dev/null

3. Get commits between tags (if applicable):
   gh api repos/[CUSTOMIZE: your-org/your-repo]/compare/[PREV_TAG]...[CURRENT_TAG] --jq '.commits[] | {sha: .sha[:7], message: .commit.message, author: .author.login}'

Categorize each PR by its labels or title prefix:
- "feat"/"feature"/"enhancement" labels → Enhancements
- "fix"/"bug"/"bugfix" labels → Bug Fixes
- "tech"/"refactor"/"chore"/"infrastructure" labels → Technical Improvements
- "docs"/"documentation" labels → Documentation
- "security" labels → Security
- "breaking"/"breaking-change" labels → Breaking Changes
- "deprecation" labels → Deprecations

Return: categorized list of changes with PR numbers, titles, authors, and descriptions

Agent: "linear-release-collector" (if Linear is active)

Collect completed issues for the specified cycle/period.

1. Use ToolSearch to load Linear tools
2. List cycles: mcp__claude_ai_Linear_2__list_cycles
3. Find the target cycle or filter by date range
4. List all completed issues in the cycle/period: mcp__claude_ai_Linear_2__list_issues
5. For each issue, get details including labels and project

Categorize by label or issue type:
- Feature/Enhancement labels → Enhancements
- Bug labels → Bug Fixes
- Technical/Infrastructure labels → Technical Improvements
- Documentation labels → Documentation

Return: categorized list of changes with issue IDs, titles, assignees, and descriptions

Agent: "jira-release-collector" (if Jira is active)

Collect issues for the specified version/sprint.
Project: [CUSTOMIZE: YOUR-PROJECT-KEY]

1. Search by fixVersion:
   JQL: project = "[CUSTOMIZE: YOUR-PROJECT-KEY]" AND fixVersion = "[VERSION]" AND status = Done ORDER BY issuetype, priority DESC

   OR search by sprint:
   JQL: project = "[CUSTOMIZE: YOUR-PROJECT-KEY]" AND sprint = "[SPRINT_NAME]" AND status = Done ORDER BY issuetype, priority DESC

2. For each issue, collect: key, summary, issuetype, priority, assignee, labels, description

Categorize by issue type:
- Story/Feature → Enhancements
- Bug → Bug Fixes
- Task/Technical Task → Technical Improvements
- Documentation → Documentation

Return: categorized list with issue keys, titles, assignees, types, and descriptions

Solo Mode

Run the primary tracker collection sequentially.

Manual Input Fallback

If no tracker is active or the user prefers manual input:

No project tracker detected. You can provide release items manually.

Please list the changes in this release. I'll categorize them for you.
Format: one change per line, optionally prefix with [feature], [fix], [tech], [docs], [security], [breaking]

Phase 2: Categorize and Organize

Organize collected items into standard categories:

1. Breaking Changes (always first if present)
2. New Features & Enhancements
3. Bug Fixes
4. Technical Improvements
5. Security Updates
6. Documentation
7. Deprecations
8. Known Issues (if any remain)

Within each category, order by:

1. Priority (highest first)
2. User impact (most impactful first)

Phase 3: Generate Release Notes

For Customer/External Audience:

---
type: release-notes
project: [project-name]
version: [version]
date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
created: [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM]
audience: external
tags: ["#release-notes", "#[project-name]", "#v[version]"]
items_count: [total count]
categories:
  enhancements: [count]
  bug_fixes: [count]
  technical: [count]
  security: [count]
  breaking_changes: [count]
---

# Release Notes — [Project Name] [Version]

**Release Date:** [Date]

## What's New

[2-3 sentence executive summary of the most important changes in this release]

---

### Breaking Changes

> **Action Required:** The following changes may require updates to your workflow.

- **[Change title]** — [User-friendly description of what changed and what to do]

---

### New Features & Enhancements

- **[Feature title]** — [User-friendly description focused on the benefit to users]
- **[Feature title]** — [User-friendly description]

### Bug Fixes

- **[Fix title]** — [What was broken and how it's fixed, in user terms]
- **[Fix title]** — [Description]

### Security Updates

- **[Update title]** — [Description without exposing vulnerability details]

### Deprecations

- **[Deprecated feature]** — [What's being deprecated, timeline, and migration path]

---

### Known Issues

- [Known issue description] — [Workaround if available]

---

*For questions or feedback, [CUSTOMIZE: contact info or link]*

For Internal/Team Audience:

---
type: release-notes
project: [project-name]
version: [version]
date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
created: [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM]
audience: internal
tags: ["#release-notes", "#[project-name]", "#v[version]"]
source_tracker: [github/linear/jira/manual]
---

# Release Notes — [Project Name] [Version] (Internal)

**Release Date:** [Date]
**Cycle/Sprint:** [Name if applicable]

## Summary
[Executive summary with key stats: N features, N fixes, N tech improvements]

---

### Breaking Changes
- **[Title]** ([PR/Issue #link]) — [Technical description] — @[author]

### New Features & Enhancements
- **[Title]** ([PR/Issue #link]) — [Description] — @[author]

### Bug Fixes
- **[Title]** ([PR/Issue #link]) — [Description] — @[author]

### Technical Improvements
- **[Title]** ([PR/Issue #link]) — [Description] — @[author]

### Documentation
- **[Title]** ([PR/Issue #link]) — [Description] — @[author]

---

### Stats
- **Total items:** [N]
- **Contributors:** [list of contributors]
- **PRs merged:** [N]
- **Issues resolved:** [N]

---

### Known Issues & Follow-ups
- [ ] [Issue description] — Owner: [name]

Phase 4: Review Gate

Present the generated release notes to the user:

Release notes draft is ready for [Project] [Version].

Summary:
- [N] New Features & Enhancements
- [N] Bug Fixes
- [N] Technical Improvements
- [N] other items

Audience: [external/internal]

Would you like to:
a) Review the full release notes
b) Save as-is to the vault
c) Make changes
d) Publish to [active platform] (requires your approval)

NEVER auto-publish. Always wait for explicit user approval.

Phase 5: Save to Vault

Save to: 04-projects/[project]/release-notes/release-[version]-YYYY-MM-DD.md

mkdir -p "04-projects/[project]/release-notes"

Phase 6: Publish (Optional, requires approval)

Only proceed if the user explicitly approves.

GitHub Release

gh release create [VERSION_TAG] \
  --repo [CUSTOMIZE: your-org/your-repo] \
  --title "[Project] [Version]" \
  --notes-file [path-to-release-notes]

Confluence

Use WebFetch to publish via Confluence REST API:
- Space: [CUSTOMIZE: YOUR-SPACE-KEY]
- Parent page: [CUSTOMIZE: Release-Notes-parent-page-id]
- Title: "Release Notes — [Project] [Version]"

Notion

1. Use ToolSearch to load Notion tools
2. Use mcp__claude_ai_Notion__notion-create-pages

HackMD

Use WebFetch to publish via HackMD API

After publishing, update the vault copy with the published URL.

---

Fallback Behavior

Scenario	Behavior
No tracker active	Accept manual input, or scan git log for commits in the date range
Tracker API fails	Fall back to git log analysis: git log --oneline [PREV_TAG]..[CURRENT_TAG]
No version tag specified	Use date range instead, or list recent completed work
Mixed sources	Merge and deduplicate items from multiple trackers
No publishing platform	Save to vault only
Very large release	Split into "Highlights" section + full changelog

Error Handling

• Too many items: If >100 items, auto-summarize minor changes and list only significant ones in detail
• Missing PR descriptions: Use PR title and commit messages as fallback
• Duplicate items across trackers: Deduplicate by matching titles/descriptions
• Context overflow: Paginate data collection, summarize per-batch