# Release

> Creates a release PR from merged PRs — gathers merged PRs since last tag (plus any unmerged current-branch PR), calculates semver bump from conventional commit titles, generates changelog entries, and opens a release PR. Works from any branch: includes both main and current branch changes. Use when the user says "release", "cut a release", "create a release PR", "prepare a release", or "bump version".

- Skill: `codagent-ai/release-2` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add codagent-ai/release-2`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/codagent-ai/release-2/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: codagent-ai (https://skillmd.com/u/codagent-ai)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/codagent-ai/release-2

---


Create a release PR by gathering merged PRs, calculating the version bump, writing changelog entries, and opening the PR.

## Steps

### 1. Gather release info

Run the info script to collect merged PRs and calculate the version:

```bash
bash .claude/skills/release/scripts/release-info.sh
```

Capture the JSON output. If the output contains `"error"`, stop and report the message to the user.

### 2. Show the release summary and confirm classification

Display to the user:
- Version bump: `current_version` → `new_version`
- Number of PRs by category
- List each PR number and title, grouped by Major / Minor / Patch

Ask the user to confirm the classification is correct. The conventional commit prefix is a heuristic — internal changes (tooling, CI, skills used only by maintainers) should be patch-level even if prefixed with `feat:`. Adjust categories based on user feedback before proceeding.

### 3. Write changelog descriptions

For each PR in the JSON output, write a one-sentence description that is slightly more informative than the raw PR title. Strip the conventional commit prefix from the title (`feat:`, `fix:`, `chore:`, etc.) and expand it into a sentence that gives enough context to understand the change without clicking through.

If an entry has `"is_branch_commits": true` and `"number": 0`, it represents unmerged commits on the current branch. Read the commit messages (`git log origin/main..HEAD --oneline --no-merges`) and write a description summarizing those changes. Omit the PR link for these entries since they have no PR yet — just use a bullet with the description.

### 4. Format the changelog section

Build the changelog section for the new version. Only include sections that have entries. Sort entries by PR number ascending within each section.

Format:

```
## <new_version>

### Major Changes

- [#<number>](https://github.com/Codagent-AI/agent-skills/pull/<number>) <description>

### Minor Changes

- [#<number>](https://github.com/Codagent-AI/agent-skills/pull/<number>) <description>

### Patch Changes

- [#<number>](https://github.com/Codagent-AI/agent-skills/pull/<number>) <description>
- <description without link> (for branch-commit entries with no PR)
```

### 5. Write the changelog section to a temp file

Write the formatted changelog section (from step 4) to a temporary file:

```bash
TMPFILE=$(mktemp)
cat <<'CHANGELOG_EOF' > "$TMPFILE"
<paste the formatted changelog section here>
CHANGELOG_EOF
echo "$TMPFILE"
```

### 6. Create the release PR

Run the release script with the new version and temp file path:

```bash
bash .claude/skills/release/scripts/create-release-pr.sh <new_version> <tmpfile_path>
```

### 7. Report

Print the PR URL returned by the script.

Clean up the temp file:

```bash
rm -f "$TMPFILE"
```