Draft Release Notes

Draft release notes

This skill fires inside a release cut (stable or RC-line, both published under latest). The release-cutting agent runs it from the release/<version> worktree that publish-npm-version created, with the target version already known, and produces the committed notes file that is the GitHub Release body (the publish workflow ships it verbatim via gh release create --notes-file docs/releases/v<version>.md). There is no --generate-notes fallback — the file you author here is what every consumer reads.

The skill is prose-driven: there is no codemod or script to run. You — the agent — do the enumeration, the Linear-context lookup, the triage, and the writing directly, the same way record-upgrade-instructions walks you through authoring an upgrade entry rather than running one for you.

When to use

Run this skill when all of the following hold:

• A release is being cut (stable or 8.0.0-rc.N) — the target version $NEXT is known (computed by publish-npm-version step 1, e.g. 8.0.0-rc.2).
• You are in the release/<version> worktree checked out at the bump commit (HEAD carries the bumped root version).
• docs/releases/v$NEXT.md does not exist yet (the PR-mode release-notes gate, pnpm check:release-notes --mode pr, fails the release PR until it does).

Do not run it for -dev.N or -beta.N builds: those create no GitHub Release and are not gated. Do not run it to backfill notes for an already-shipped release — the convention starts from the first release cut after it landed.

The two hard rules

These are project requirements, not style preferences. A draft that violates either is wrong even if everything else is perfect.

Rule 1 — Never copy Linear content verbatim

Linear is a summarization-context input only. You read a ticket to understand the user-facing outcome of an opaque PR title, then you write a fresh, public, user-facing sentence describing that outcome. You never paste ticket prose into the notes. Specifically, the following must never appear in docs/releases/*.md or CHANGELOG.md:

• Customer names, account names, or any identifying detail of who reported or requested the change.
• Internal rationale, sprint/standup chatter, estimate or priority talk, or links to internal docs.
• The raw TML-NNNN: issue prefix or issue title — link the PR (#NNN) instead.
• Quoted sentences from the ticket body.

If you cannot describe a change for a public audience without leaning on internal context, that is a signal the entry needs rethinking (or is internal-only and should be excluded — see the triage rubric), not a licence to paraphrase the ticket closely. When in doubt, describe only the externally-observable behaviour change.

Rule 2 — Every line is verifiable

Every entry links its PR (#NNN) so the human reviewer can check your one-line summary against the actual diff during the release-PR review. The human review is the backstop for triage and summarization judgment calls — write for that reviewer.

Procedure

1. Resolve the range lower bound — the previous release tag

The range is "everything since the last release", so the lower bound is the most recent release v* tag — stable or -rc.N — excluding -dev.* / -beta.* build tags (an -rc.N tag is a release and deliberately not excluded, so an RC respin's notes cover exactly what changed since the previous RC):

PREV_TAG=$(git describe --abbrev=0 --tags --match 'v[0-9]*' --exclude '*-dev.*' --exclude '*-beta.*')
echo "$PREV_TAG"   # e.g. v0.11.0

Equivalently, list and filter explicitly (useful when describe can't find an ancestor tag):

git tag --list 'v*' --sort=-v:refname | grep -Ev -- '-(dev|beta)\.' | head

The dev/beta exclusion matters: a -dev.N tag is cut on most merges, so an unfiltered "previous tag" would scope the range to a single PR. Filtering to release tags gives the full set of changes since consumers last saw a release.

2. Enumerate the commit set, then resolve PR metadata

Take the commit set from git log and resolve each commit to its PR via gh:

git log --first-parent --oneline "$PREV_TAG"..HEAD

For each merged PR in the range, resolve the metadata you need with gh / gh api — PR number, title, author (login), labels, and whether the author is a first-time contributor:

# PRs merged in the range (adjust the search window to the range you enumerated)
gh pr list --state merged --base main --limit 200 \
  --json number,title,author,labels,mergeCommit,mergedAt

# Or resolve a single PR by its merge commit:
gh api "repos/prisma/orm/commits/<sha>/pulls" \
  --jq '.[] | {number, title, author: .user.login, labels: [.labels[].name]}'

Use --first-parent so squash-merged PRs each show up as one commit; cross-check against gh pr list so you do not miss a PR or double-count.

3. Resolve opaque titles via Linear context

When a PR title is an internal shorthand (TML-NNNN: <terse handle>), read the referenced Linear issue (via the Linear MCP) to understand what changed for the user. This is enrichment only — re-read Rule 1 before writing anything. Summarize the outcome in your own public words; cite the PR, never the ticket.

4. Triage public-worthiness

Decide, per PR, whether it earns a line in the public notes. The rubric biases toward a clean, user-facing changelog over exhaustiveness — the human PR review is the backstop for judgment calls.

Always include:

• Anything flagged breaking.
• Anything touching the public surface: package exports (@internal/* public API), CLI commands/flags, prisma.config.ts fields, the contract format (contract.json / contract.d.ts shape), on-disk migration shape, or error codes.

Default-exclude unless user-relevant:

• Pure-internal refactors with no observable behaviour change.
• CI / workflow / tooling changes.
• Test-only PRs.
• Chore / dependency bumps (include only if a bump changes user-observable behaviour or a peer requirement).
• Doc-only changes (include only if they document a user-facing behaviour change worth surfacing).

Excluded PRs are dropped silently — no "internal changes" catch-all section. If a default-exclude PR has a genuine user-facing consequence, include it and describe that consequence.

5. Categorize into the fixed section order

Write the entries under the fixed section order from docs/releases/README.md, omitting any section with no entries:

1. Breaking changes — API removals/renames, semantic changes to existing APIs, contract-format changes. Say what the reader must do, not just what changed.
2. Features — new capabilities.
3. Fixes — bug fixes.
4. New contributors — first-time contributors, with the PR that welcomed them.

Breaking changes lead because they are what a reader scanning the notes most needs to see. Every line links its PR as an absolute markdown link — [#NNN](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/NNN), never bare #NNN. Bare references only autolink inside the GitHub Release body; they render as plain text when the committed docs/releases/v<version>.md is read as a repo file or in PR review, so the explicit link form is what makes every reference work in every context.

6. Anchor breaking-change entries to their migration recipe

A breaking change shipping in this release has a matching upgrade-instructions directory keyed to the minor transition, following the convention enforced by scripts/check-upgrade-coverage.mjs and authored via record-upgrade-instructions. The transition label — written <transition-label> below — names both ends of the hop, each end rendered the way versionSegment() in scripts/check-upgrade-coverage.mjs renders it: a stable version truncates to major.minor (v0.11.0 → 0.12.0 gives 0.11-to-0.12), and a prerelease keeps its full version string (8.0.0-rc.1-to-8.0.0-rc.2). Point the breaking note at the recipe directory rather than restating the migration.

Recipe links must be absolute, tag-pinned URLs — https://github.com/prisma/orm/blob/v$NEXT/.... The notes file becomes the GitHub Release body via --notes-file, and the Release page does not reliably resolve repo-relative links, so a relative recipe path would publish as a dead migration link. Pinning to the release tag (/blob/v$NEXT/) means the link always resolves and never rots as the recipe tree evolves on main:

• User-facing migrations: https://github.com/prisma/orm/blob/v$NEXT/skills/prisma-8/upgrading/app/upgrades/<transition-label>/
• Extension-author migrations: https://github.com/prisma/orm/blob/v$NEXT/skills/prisma-8/upgrading/extension/upgrades/<transition-label>/

A breaking change can affect one or both audiences — link whichever recipe directories exist.

If the recipe directory is absent, do not fail authoring: still list the breaking change and describe the required action inline. The missing recipe is check:upgrade-coverage's concern to enforce, not this skill's.

For a skipped-publish range (more than one minor in this release — see graceful degradation below), the recipe is a chain of consecutive transition directories (e.g. 0.11-to-0.12 + 0.12-to-0.13 for a v0.11.0 → 0.13.0 publish), mirroring how check-upgrade-coverage aggregates the chain. Anchor each breaking entry to the step that introduced it.

7. Show the impact of code-visible breaking changes with a before/after example

Prose tells a reader that something changed; a short before/after snippet shows them what it looks like, which is what they actually need to act. For the most code-visible breaking changes — contract-shape changes, authoring-surface changes, runtime-option or builder-API changes — nest a compact before / after example under the prose bullet.

• Source it from the recipe, don't invent it. The matching <transition-label> upgrade recipe (authored via record-upgrade-instructions) already contains authoritative before/after migration code — lift the snippet from there so it stays accurate. If the change is only visible in the emitted contract.json / contract.d.ts, a minimal shape diff from the recipe or the PR diff is fine.
• When no recipe directory exists, derive the example from the PR diff instead, or omit the example and describe the required action in prose. Never invent a migration the diff does not show.
• Keep it tight. A few lines before, a few lines after — enough to show the shape, not the whole file.
• Lead with PSL. When the change is on the authoring surface, write the example in PSL (```prisma, never ```psl), per the repo's authoring-surface convention. Use TS or JSON only when the change is genuinely a TS-surface change (a builder/runtime option, a consumer reading the emitted .d.ts) or an emitted-shape change with no PSL form.
• Skip operational-only breaks. Version-floor bumps, peer-dependency changes, and package removals/extractions have no illuminating code diff — prose suffices for those.

The format is the prose bullet, then the nested example:

- **<title>** — <what changed and what the reader must do; recipe link>. ([#<pr>](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/<pr>))

  Before:

  ```ts
  …
  ```

  After:

  ```ts
  …
  ```

8. Attribute contributors

Preserve the "New contributors" credit that --generate-notes gave for free. Each first-time contributor gets a line naming the PR that welcomed them, with both the handle and the PR as absolute links:

- [@<handle>](https://github.com/<handle>) made their first contribution in [#<pr>](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/<pr>)

Resolve first-time status from PR author metadata (e.g. gh api author_association of FIRST_TIME_CONTRIBUTOR / FIRST_TIMER, or by checking whether the author appears in the range before this PR).

9. Write the notes file and prepend the CHANGELOG

Fill the docs/releases/README.md template into docs/releases/v$NEXT.md:

# v<version>

<optional one- or two-sentence summary of the release's theme>

## Breaking changes

- **<short title>** — <what changed and what the reader must do; link the upgrade recipe>. ([#<pr>](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/<pr>))

  Before:

  ```ts
  <old shape>
  ```

  After:

  ```ts
  <new shape>
  ```

## Features

- <new capability>. ([#<pr>](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/<pr>))

## Fixes

- <bug fix>. ([#<pr>](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/<pr>))

## New contributors

- [@<handle>](https://github.com/<handle>) made their first contribution in [#<pr>](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/<pr>)

Then prepend a ## v$NEXT entry to CHANGELOG.md, mirroring the notes-file body (newest-first). The CHANGELOG is a plain newest-first mirror — no second authoring format, no "Keep a Changelog" headers; copy the section bodies under the ## v$NEXT header at the top of the entry list (below the file's intro and the <!-- New release entries go here … --> marker).

10. Commit on the release branch

Commit the notes file + CHANGELOG as their own commit on the release/<version> branch (keeping publish-npm-version's chore(release): bump commit clean), so the notes ride in the bump PR diff and satisfy the check:release-notes PR-mode gate. Use explicit staging and sign off:

git add docs/releases/v$NEXT.md CHANGELOG.md
git commit -s -m "docs(release): add release notes for v$NEXT"

Control then returns to publish-npm-version for the push + PR-open steps.

Graceful degradation

• Linear unavailable, or a PR has no Linear ticket. Linear is enrichment, not a hard dependency. Summarize the change from the PR title + diff alone. Never block authoring on Linear.
• No prior stable tag (first release under this convention). If git describe finds no stable v* tag, fall back to the earliest tag or the repo root and note in the summary that this is the first curated release; enumerate the whole range.
• Skipped-publish multi-minor range. If the previous stable tag is more than one minor behind $NEXT (a minor was bumped in-tree but never shipped), enumerate across the whole range and treat breaking-change anchoring as a chain of consecutive transition directories, mirroring check-upgrade-coverage's skipped-publish handling.
• Symlink trees may be absent in the release worktree. publish-npm-version runs pnpm install --frozen-lockfile --ignore-scripts, so the .claude/ / .agents/ skill mirrors may not be materialized there. This skill is invoked by reading its canonical path, skills-contrib/draft-release-notes/SKILL.md, which exists in the checkout regardless.

Out of scope

• The publish-time presence gate and --notes-file wiring (scripts/check-release-notes.mjs, .github/workflows/). This skill produces the file; the gate and workflow consume it.
• Wiring this skill into publish-npm-version and updating docs/oss/versioning.md — handled separately; this file is the authoring logic only.
• Dev/beta release notes. Those builds create no GitHub Release.
• Backfilling notes for already-shipped releases.
• A .github/release.yml label config or any third-party release-notes tool. Categorization is done here, by reasoning over the diff + Linear context — not from PR labels or an external generator.

Worked example

Cutting v0.12.0 from origin/main (previous stable tag v0.11.0).

1. PREV_TAG=$(git describe --abbrev=0 --tags --match 'v[0-9]*' --exclude '*-dev.*' --exclude '*-beta.*') → v0.11.0.
2. git log --first-parent --oneline v0.11.0..HEAD lists 14 merged PRs. gh pr list --state merged --base main --json number,title,author,labels,mergedAt resolves their metadata.
3. PR #1240's title is TML-2536: contract deserializer seam. Read TML-2536 in Linear → the user-facing outcome is "contract deserialization now goes through an explicit adapter seam". Write that outcome in public words; cite #1240, not TML-2536.
4. Triage: #1240 changes the contract format → always-include, breaking. A CI-cache tweak (#1237) and a test-only refactor (#1239) → default-exclude, dropped silently. A new includeMany capability (#1234) → feature. A null-handling bug fix (#1242) → fix. First-time contributor @somebody on #1238.
5. Categorize: Breaking changes (#1240) → Features (#1234) → Fixes (#1242) → New contributors (@somebody, #1238).
6. The breaking change's transition is 0.11-to-0.12. The recipe dir skills/prisma-8/upgrading/app/upgrades/0.11-to-0.12/ exists in the checkout → the breaking note links it as a tag-pinned URL, https://github.com/prisma/orm/blob/v0.12.0/skills/prisma-8/upgrading/app/upgrades/0.11-to-0.12/. (If it were absent, the note would describe the required adapter migration inline instead.)
7. #1240 is a code-visible contract-shape/runtime change, so it earns a before/after example — lifted from the 0.11-to-0.12 recipe (a TS runtime change, so a ts fence). @somebody's contributor line, with absolute links: - [@somebody](https://github.com/somebody) made their first contribution in [#1238](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/1238).
8. Write docs/releases/v0.12.0.md (every PR ref + handle an absolute link; the breaking entry carries a before/after):

# v0.12.0

Contract deserialization gains an explicit adapter seam, and queries can now eager-load related records.

## Breaking changes

- **Contract deserialization requires an adapter seam** — deserialization now goes through an explicit seam adapter; existing code must register one. See the [0.11-to-0.12 upgrade recipe](https://github.com/prisma/orm/blob/v0.12.0/skills/prisma-8/upgrading/app/upgrades/0.11-to-0.12/). ([#1240](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/1240))

  Before:

  ```ts
  const contract = deserializeContract(json);
  ```

  After:

  ```ts
  const contract = deserializeContract(json, { adapter: postgresAdapter });
  ```

## Features

- `includeMany` eager-loads related records in a single query. ([#1234](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/1234))

## Fixes

- Null values in `returning()` projections no longer throw. ([#1242](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/1242))

## New contributors

- [@somebody](https://github.com/somebody) made their first contribution in [#1238](https://github.com/prisma/orm/pull/1238)

Then prepend the same body under ## v0.12.0 to CHANGELOG.md.

9. git add docs/releases/v0.12.0.md CHANGELOG.md && git commit -s -m "docs(release): add release notes for v0.12.0".

Reference

• docs/releases/README.md — the committed-notes-file convention (no auto-generated notes file: a stable release without one fails to publish), the section order, and the template this skill fills.
• CHANGELOG.md — the rolling newest-first mirror this skill prepends.
• publish-npm-version — the release-cut skill that invokes this one from the release/<version> worktree.
• record-upgrade-instructions — the breaking-change upgrade-recipe authoring flow whose upgrades/<transition-label>/ directories the breaking-change section anchors to.
• scripts/check-upgrade-coverage.mjs — the transition-label convention (a stable version truncates to <major>.<minor>; a prerelease keeps its full version string, e.g. 8.0.0-rc.1-to-8.0.0-rc.2) and skipped-publish chain handling.
• docs/oss/versioning.md — the version contract and release procedure these notes are part of.
• Linear ticket: TML-2758.