changelog-automation skill
Automate changelog generation from commits, PRs, and releases following Keep a Changelog format. Use when setting up release workflows, generating release notes, or standardizing commit conventions.
A100/100content scan
Is the changelog-automation skill safe?
Clean: nothing in its files matched our rules. We read 2 files in the folder on 2026-09-28.
No findings.
Install the changelog-automation skill
A skill is a folder. Copy it into your agent's skills folder and the agent loads it when the task matches its description.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wshobson/agents.git /tmp/agents mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills cp -r /tmp/agents/plugins/documentation-generation/skills/changelog-automation ~/.claude/skills/changelog-automation
available in every project
In the Claude apps, zip the folder and upload it from the Skills settings. The folder on GitHub
The instructions your agent would load
SKILL.md as published, without the frontmatter. Read it on GitHub
Changelog Automation
Patterns and tools for automating changelog generation, release notes, and version management following industry standards.
When to Use This Skill
- Setting up automated changelog generation
- Implementing Conventional Commits
- Creating release note workflows
- Standardizing commit message formats
- Generating GitHub/GitLab release notes
- Managing semantic versioning
Core Concepts
1. Keep a Changelog Format
# 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).
## Detailed patterns and worked examples
Detailed pattern documentation lives in `references/details.md`. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.
## Summary
This release introduces dark mode support and improves checkout performance
by 40%. It also includes important security updates.
## Highlights
### 🌙 Dark Mode
Users can now switch to dark mode from settings. The preference is
automatically saved and synced across devices.
### ⚡ Performance
- Checkout flow is 40% faster
- Reduced bundle size by 15%
## Breaking Changes
None in this release.
## Upgrade Guide
No special steps required. Standard deployment process applies.
## Known Issues
- Dark mode may flicker on initial load (fix scheduled for v2.1.1)
## Dependencies Updated
| Package | From | To | Reason |
| ------- | ------- | ------- | ------------------------ |
| react | 18.2.0 | 18.3.0 | Performance improvemCommit Message Examples
# Feature with scope
feat(auth): add OAuth2 support for Google login
# Bug fix with issue reference
fix(checkout): resolve race condition in payment processing
Closes #123
# Breaking change
feat(api)!: change user endpoint response format
BREAKING CHANGE: The user endpoint now returns `userId` instead of `id`.
Migration guide: Update all API consumers to use the new field name.
# Multiple paragraphs
fix(database): handle connection timeouts gracefully
Previously, connection timeouts would cause the entire request to fail
without retry. This change implements exponential backoff with up to
3 retries before failing.
The timeout threshold has been increased from 5s to 10s based on p99
latency analysis.
Fixes #456
Reviewed-by: @aliceBest Practices
Do's
- Follow Conventional Commits - Enables automation
- Write clear messages - Future you will thank you
- Reference issues - Link commits to tickets
- Use scopes consistently - Define team conventions
- Automate releases - Reduce manual errors
Don'ts
- Don't mix changes - One logical change per commit
- Don't skip validation - Use commitlint
- Don't manual edit - Generated changelogs only
- Don't forget breaking changes - Mark with ! or footer
- Don't ignore CI - Validate commits in pipeline
More skills from wshobson/agents
- Aairflow-dag-patternsBuild production Apache Airflow DAGs with best practices for operators, sensors, testing, and deployment. Use when creating data pipelines, orchestrating workflows, or scheduling batch jobs.
- Aangular-migrationMigrate from AngularJS to Angular using hybrid mode, incremental component rewriting, and dependency injection updates. Use when upgrading AngularJS applications, planning framework migrations, or modernizing legacy Angular code.
- Aanti-reversing-techniquesUnderstand anti-reversing, obfuscation, and protection techniques encountered during software analysis. Use this skill when analyzing malware evasion techniques, when implementing anti-debugging protections for CTF challenges, when reverse engineering packed binaries, or when building security research tools that need to detect virtualized environments.
- Aapi-design-principlesMaster REST and GraphQL API design principles to build intuitive, scalable, and maintainable APIs that delight developers. Use when designing new APIs, reviewing API specifications, or establishing API design standards.
- Aarchitecture-decision-recordsWrite and maintain Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) following best practices for technical decision documentation. Use when documenting significant technical decisions, reviewing past architectural choices, or establishing decision processes.
- Aarchitecture-patternsImplement proven backend architecture patterns including Clean Architecture, Hexagonal Architecture, and Domain-Driven Design. Use this skill when designing clean architecture for a new microservice, when refactoring a monolith to use bounded contexts, when implementing hexagonal or onion architecture patterns, or when debugging dependency cycles between application layers.
- Aasync-python-patternsMaster Python asyncio, concurrent programming, and async/await patterns for high-performance applications. Use when building async APIs, concurrent systems, or I/O-bound applications requiring non-blocking operations.
- Aauth-implementation-patternsMaster authentication and authorization patterns including JWT, OAuth2, session management, and RBAC to build secure, scalable access control systems. Use when implementing auth systems, securing APIs, or debugging security issues.
- Aavoid-ai-writingAudit and rewrite prose so it stops reading as machine-generated. Use this skill when asked to remove AI-isms, clean up AI writing, edit a draft for AI tells, audit a README, changelog, release note, PR description, or blog post for machine-sounding prose, or make text sound less like AI. Supports a detect-only mode, a rewrite mode, and an edit-in-place mode, with optional voice and context profiles.
- Abacktesting-frameworksBuild robust backtesting systems for trading strategies with proper handling of look-ahead bias, survivorship bias, and transaction costs. Use when developing trading algorithms, validating strategies, or building backtesting infrastructure.
- Abazel-build-optimizationOptimize Bazel builds for large-scale monorepos. Use when configuring Bazel, implementing remote execution, or optimizing build performance for enterprise codebases.
- Abefore-you-buildPre-build product and feature risk review for founders, product managers, and AI-assisted builders. Use this skill when the user is about to build a landing page, MVP, SaaS product, internal tool, agent workflow, or major feature and needs to check demand, positioning, monetization, retention, trust, distribution, and adoption risk before implementation starts.