changelog

Command: /changelog

Generate a changelog from git commits since the last release tag.

Usage

/changelog

Process

Step 1: Identify Range

LAST_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo "")
if [ -z "$LAST_TAG" ]; then
  echo "No previous tags found. Generating changelog for all commits."
  git log --oneline --no-merges
else
  git log "${LAST_TAG}..HEAD" --oneline --no-merges
fi

Step 2: Categorise Commits

Group commits by type using Conventional Commits prefixes:

• Breaking Changes — breaking: or commits with BREAKING CHANGE in body
• Features — feat:
• Bug Fixes — fix:
• Documentation — docs:
• Other — chore:, refactor:, test:, ci:, style:

Step 3: Generate Changelog Entry

Format using Keep a Changelog style:

## [X.Y.Z] — YYYY-MM-DD

### Breaking Changes
- Description of breaking change ([#PR](link)) — @contributor

### Added
- Description of new feature ([#PR](link)) — @contributor

### Fixed
- Description of bug fix ([#PR](link)) — @contributor

### Changed
- Description of change ([#PR](link)) — @contributor

### Documentation
- Description of docs update ([#PR](link)) — @contributor

Step 4: Polish

• Rewrite commit messages into user-friendly language. "fix: null deref in parser" becomes "Fixed crash when parsing empty configuration files."
• Credit contributors by their handle.
• Link to relevant PRs or issues.
• Remove internal-only changes (CI config, dev tooling) unless they affect contributors.

Step 5: Output

Prepend the new entry to CHANGELOG.md. If the file does not exist, create it with a header:

# 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).

Rules

• Changelogs are for users. Write in language they understand.
• Always credit contributors. Open source runs on recognition.
• Group related changes together rather than listing every commit individually.
• If a commit message is unclear, check the diff to understand what actually changed.