release-notes

Release Notes Generator

Generate a release note draft for this repository by analyzing git changes since the previous release. The output is a Markdown code block ready to paste into a GitHub release — do NOT create the release itself.

The version number is provided as an argument (e.g. /release-notes 0.11.0). If no version is given, ask for one before proceeding.

Step 1: Determine the previous release

The "previous release" depends on the version type being drafted:

• Stable version (no -preview): Find the most recent stable tag, skipping all prereleases. This is because stable release notes cover everything since the last stable release — they aggregate all prerelease changes into one cohesive set of notes.
• Prerelease (-preview.N): Find the most recent tag of any kind (stable or prerelease). Prerelease notes only cover the incremental delta since the last tag.

Use git tag --sort=-v:refname to list tags and pick the right one. Confirm the previous tag to the user before continuing (e.g. "Previous release: v0.10.2 — generating notes for changes since then.").

Step 2: Gather information

Run these in parallel where possible:

1. Commit log: git log {prev_tag}..HEAD --oneline — the list of changes
2. Diff stat: git diff --stat {prev_tag}..HEAD — which files changed
3. Actual diffs: Read the diffs of changed source files (src/, styles.css, manifest.json, etc.) to understand what each change actually does at the code level. This is critical — commit messages alone are not enough to write accurate user-facing descriptions.
4. Issue numbers: Extract #NNN references from commit messages. Note: commit messages often contain PR numbers (from merge commits), not the original issue numbers. Use whatever #NNN is in the commit message as-is — the author will verify and correct these during review.
5. New contributors: Compare authors before and after the previous tag:

   git log --format='%aN' {prev_tag} | sort -u        # existing contributors
   git log --format='%aN' {prev_tag}..HEAD | sort -u   # contributors in this range
   

   Anyone in the second set but not the first is a new contributor. To find their GitHub username and PR number, use git log --format='%aN <%aE>' {prev_tag}..HEAD and cross-reference with #NNN in their commit messages. The GitHub username may differ from the git author name — check the commit on GitHub if needed.
6. Previous prerelease notes (stable releases only): If drafting a stable release and there were prereleases in the range, read their release notes with gh release view {tag}. This helps identify bugs that were introduced and fixed within the prerelease cycle — those should be excluded from the stable release notes since they never affected stable users.