Explain Branch Changes

Explain Branch Changes

Turn the current branch's changes into a briefing a person who has never seen code can read. The reader may be a product manager, designer, support agent, marketer, or executive. They care about what changes for users and the business — never about how the code does it.

Write the briefing in the language the user communicates in. If the user writes in Russian, the briefing is in Russian.

The process:

1. Collect the branch changes (git)
2. Mine the changes and project docs for product meaning
3. Translate to human language and deliver the briefing

Step 1: Collect the Changes

Detect the base branch and gather the raw material:

BASE=$(git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null | sed 's@^refs/remotes/origin/@@')
if [ -z "$BASE" ]; then
  BASE=$(git rev-parse --verify main >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo main || echo master)
fi
git log $BASE..HEAD --pretty=format:"%h %s%n%b"
git diff $BASE...HEAD --stat
git diff $BASE...HEAD

Include uncommitted work (git status --short, git diff HEAD) if present — the reader wants the state of the branch, not just its commits.

Handle the edge cases in the reader's terms, not git's:

• Not a git repository → say this folder has no change history to read, and stop.
• On the base branch / no changes → say there is no work-in-progress here; offer to describe what shipped recently (last ~10 commits on the base branch) instead.
• Huge diff (thousands of lines) → work from --stat, commit messages, and targeted reads of the most-changed and most user-facing files. Never skip Step 2 because the diff is big.

Step 2: Mine for Product Meaning

The diff says what changed; the surrounding context says why. Gather both:

• Commit messages and branch name — often contain the intent and ticket IDs.
• PR description — gh pr view if a PR exists (ignore errors if not).
• User-visible strings in the diff — UI labels, button texts, error messages, emails, notification texts, translation files. These are the single best source for a product summary: they show exactly what a user will see.
• Docs touched or nearby — README, CHANGELOG, docs/, design docs, .archcore/ or similar knowledge bases. If the project documents the changed area, read it to name features the way the project names them.
• Tell-tale files — migrations (data storage changed), feature flags (built but switched off), config/infra files, dependency manifests, test-only changes. See references/change-types.md for how to recognize and phrase each type.
• The code itself — read enough of the changed code to understand the actual behavior change. Use it for understanding only; none of it surfaces in the output.

Do not guess. If the diff shows a change whose purpose is unclear even after reading context, describe the observable effect and mark it as an assumption ("судя по всему" / "it looks like").

Step 3: Translate and Deliver

Consult references/change-types.md to phrase each kind of technical work in human terms, then write the briefing.

Hard rules

• No code artifacts. No file paths, function or class names, commit hashes, branch names, library names, or line references anywhere in the output.
• No jargon. Words like refactoring, endpoint, dependency, migration, API, backend, deploy, merge do not appear. Every such concept has a plain-language equivalent in the reference file.
• Every point answers "so what?" — what a person will notice, or why the business should care. A change with no observable or business effect is grouped under invisible work.
• Fact-lock. Describe only what the diff and context actually show. Never invent features, numbers, or motivations. Uncertainty is stated, not papered over.
• Separate visible from invisible. Users notice some changes (new screens, texts, fixed bugs); other work is internal (cleanup, groundwork, tooling). Present invisible work honestly as "you won't see this, but it matters because…" — never dress it up as a user feature.

Briefing format

Sensible default — adapt, drop empty sections, keep the whole thing readable in under a minute:

[One sentence: what this branch is about, as a headline]

What users will see — bullets of observable changes, each phrased as what a person will see or experience.

Invisible work — internal changes in benefit terms (stability, speed, easier future changes).

Worth knowing — status and caveats in plain terms: the feature is built but switched off; the work looks unfinished; part of the change touches how data is stored, so the release needs extra care.

Section titles go in the user's language (Russian: «Что увидят пользователи», «Невидимая работа», «Стоит знать»).

Writing style

Plain speech, not a press release and not a report:

• Everyday words, active verbs. "Теперь письмо приходит сразу", not "реализована оптимизация процесса отправки уведомлений".
• Concrete over abstract: name the screen, the button, the situation — as a user would name them.
• No empty amplifiers ("значительно улучшает", "ключевая функциональность") and no "не просто X, а Y" constructions.
• Short. 100–250 words for a typical branch. One small fix deserves two sentences, not a report.

Example

Diff shows: new PasswordResetController, an email template, rate-limiter middleware, 12 new UI strings, a DB migration adding a reset_tokens table, plus dependency bumps.

Briefing (user communicates in Russian):

В приложении появляется восстановление пароля.

Что увидят пользователи

• На экране входа появилась ссылка «Забыли пароль?». По ней приходит письмо со ссылкой для смены пароля.
• От слишком частых попыток восстановления стоит защита: после нескольких запросов подряд придётся подождать.

Невидимая работа

• Приложение запоминает выданные ссылки на смену пароля, чтобы каждая работала один раз и недолго. Это про безопасность.
• Обновлены готовые компоненты от сторонних разработчиков: плановая гигиена.

Стоит знать

• Меняется устройство хранения данных, поэтому выпуск этой версии потребует от команды чуть больше внимания, чем обычно.