Update Changelog

Goal

docs/CHANGELOG.md is a release notes document for humans, not a git log.

Target style (canonical examples: v0.22.236, v0.23.128, v0.23.129):

• One user-facing bullet per component + intent cluster (often 3–8 bullets per category, not 50+).
• Plain language: what changed and why it matters.
• Platform prefixes when helpful: **macOS — Hotkeys (XIP0078 P4)**: or **Linux — Clipboard (XIP0079 P3)**:.
• Optional one-line release summary for large ranges (e.g. "Broad reliability release aggregating v0.23.27 onward").
• --- horizontal rule between version sections.
• File opens with a # Changelog preamble (intro + semver legend), then newest versions.
• No commit hashes in bullets (version heading links to the tag when it exists).

The helper script produces a draft. An agent must rewrite that draft into release-note prose before publishing.

Automation Script (Recommended)

Scripts:

• PowerShell (primary): .ai/skills/update-changelog/scripts/update-changelog.ps1
• Bash wrapper (macOS/Linux): .ai/skills/update-changelog/scripts/update-changelog.sh

Preview draft:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .ai/skills/update-changelog/scripts/update-changelog.ps1

./.ai/skills/update-changelog/scripts/update-changelog.sh

Apply to docs/CHANGELOG.md:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .ai/skills/update-changelog/scripts/update-changelog.ps1 -FromTag v0.23.128 -Version 0.23.129 -Apply

./.ai/skills/update-changelog/scripts/update-changelog.sh --from-tag v0.23.128 --version 0.23.129 --apply

Flags:

PowerShell script authoring: use ASCII punctuation (colons, hyphens) in consolidation summary strings inside update-changelog.ps1. Unicode em dashes in .ps1 string literals can break parsing on some hosts.

Include commit hashes only when explicitly requested for audit/debug work:

Script behavior (default):

1. Skips noise commits (hourly-review tracker/state, clawpatch ingest, bare version bumps, CI release-only commits).
2. Buckets repetitive docs (blog-draft series, XIP/IEIP proposal churn, hourly-review records).
3. Buckets platform waves (pipe-drain deadlocks, XIP P1–P5 platform work).
4. Merges same category + component into one bullet (semicolon-separated themes).
5. Omits hashes unless -IncludeHashes.
6. Links version heading only when vX.Y.Z tag exists locally or on origin.
7. Appends --- after each generated version block.

Mandatory Agent Rewrite Pass

After running the script (or when editing by hand), always compress further:

1. Collapse commit-log categories

If a ### Fixes section still has 10+ **Core**: lines, merge into themed bullets:

### Fixes
- **MCP server**: History search parsing, blob resource hardening, task identity race, stale-path diagnostics.
- **Linux**: Pipe-drain deadlocks across CLI tools, theme service, clipboard, input, and capture helpers; Oem102 hotkey mapping; Wayland active-window routing.
- **macOS**: Clipboard path whitespace, dock hide for tray startup, upload picker fallback, update prompts.

2. Roll up sparse patch versions

When several consecutive versions are release-only or trivial, combine:

## v0.23.121 / v0.23.120

### Changed
- Release version bumps only; no additional user-facing changes in these ranges.

Or fold patch-only work into the next meaningful minor heading with a summary line.

3. Use platform + XIP labels for improvement-plan work

### Features
- **macOS — App bundle (XIP0078 P1)**: Render `Info.plist` from template with stable bundle identity (`com.xerahs.app`).
- **Linux — Notifications (XIP0079 P2)**: After-upload toasts support action buttons via portal and `notify-send --action` fallback.

4. Drop or one-line internal-only work

Omit (or fold into Documentation as one line):

• Hourly review tracker / state JSON updates
• Individual blog-draft add/refresh commits
• Clawpatch report ingestion
• "Record X in tracker" commits

5. Target density

Aim for 50–90% fewer lines than raw git log output.

Draft → Final (agent rewrite)

The script draft for v0.23.121..HEAD at 0.23.129 might look like:

### Features
- **Linux — Notifications (XIP0079 P2)**: notification action buttons via portal and notify-send
- **macOS — Packaging (XIP0078 P2)**: env-gated codesign/notarize/DMG pipeline, ad-hoc signing default in package-mac.sh
...
### Documentation
- **Blog**: Blog drafts (2026 series, add/update)

Publish after rewriting to release-note prose:

## v0.23.129

### Features
- **Linux — Hotkeys (XIP0079 P1)**: Surface global-hotkey delivery state in Settings → Hotkeys with a warning banner when portal bind is degraded.
- **Linux — Notifications (XIP0079 P2)**: After-upload toasts support real action buttons; async `notify-send` fallback; no UI-thread blocking.
- **Linux — Clipboard (XIP0079 P3)**: Probe `wl-copy` / `xclip`; settings warnings; `.rpm` recommends clipboard tools; **Persist clipboard after exit** for Wayland.

### Fixes
- **Linux — Mixed-DPI (XIP0079 P4)**: Cumulative monitor layout for vertically stacked mixed-DPI Wayland displays.

### Documentation
- **Linux (XIP0079 P5)**: Rewrite `developers/linux/INSTALL.md` for Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch; update `KNOWN_ISSUES.md`.

---

Actions on every draft:

1. Turn commit subjects into what changed for users.
2. Fold internal build fixes into one line (e.g. Linux-only UI partials off macOS builds).
3. Collapse blog/XIP doc churn into one Documentation bullet or omit.
4. Split macOS (XIP0078) and Linux (XIP0079) into separate version sections when they shipped as different tags.

Good — platform improvement release (v0.23.129)

## v0.23.129

### Features
- **Linux — Hotkeys (XIP0079 P1)**: Surface global-hotkey delivery state in Settings → Hotkeys with a warning banner when portal bind is degraded.
- **Linux — Notifications (XIP0079 P2)**: After-upload toasts support real action buttons; async `notify-send` fallback; no UI-thread blocking.
- **Linux — Clipboard (XIP0079 P3)**: Probe `wl-copy` / `xclip`; settings warnings; `.rpm` recommends clipboard tools; **Persist clipboard after exit** for Wayland.

### Documentation
- **Linux (XIP0079 P5)**: Rewrite `developers/linux/INSTALL.md` for Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch; update `KNOWN_ISSUES.md`.

---

Bad — commit log (never publish)

### Fixes
- **Core**: LinuxCliToolRunner pipe-drain deadlock (b23cb6ba)
- **Core**: LinuxThemeService gsettings pipe-fill + timeout-stretching deadlock (74652cf4)
- **Core**: Update hourly review tracker for LinuxInputService xdotool fix (4c307ea0)
- **Core**: Add 2026-07-01 blog draft. (1489a3ae)

Notes

• -Version defaults to root Directory.Build.props.
• -FromTag defaults to git describe --tags --abbrev=0.
• The script upserts the version heading for the target version (replaces existing linked or unlinked section for that version or inserts after ## Unreleased).
• Link version headings only when the corresponding Git tag exists locally or on origin. Existing tag example: ## [v0.22.236](https://github.com/ShareX/XerahS/releases/tag/v0.22.236). Unreleased/no-tag example: ## v0.22.237.
• Commit hashes are omitted by default to keep the changelog readable. Use -IncludeHashes only for temporary audit/debug drafts, not normal release notes.
• Default consolidation: Get-ConsolidationBucket in scripts/update-changelog.ps1 merges commits that match the same similarity bucket (for example: ShareX.ImageEditor, 2026 blog draft series including Refresh commits, XIP/IEIP/KFIP docs, OpenClaw/CLI, MCP history, OCR onboarding, FFmpeg/media, Linux pipe-drain, settings/backup, hourly-review meta is skipped entirely). Extend that function when new repetitive patterns appear.
• Skip agent meta commits: Test-SkipChangelogCommit excludes hourly review tracker/state updates, version-only bumps, and sweep/audit log commits from user-facing release notes. Do not re-add these during manual review.
• Mandatory final compression pass: even when the script consolidates automatically, scan each category for adjacent or near-duplicate entries with the same component, feature area, document series, platform, dependency, or bug theme. Merge those into one readable bullet unless doing so would hide contributor attribution or combine unrelated behavior. Target roughly 50-80% line reduction versus raw commit output.
• Single unreleased heading: fold duplicate prerelease sections (for example v0.23.105, v0.23.98) into one heading for the current Directory.Build.props version. Keep # Changelog and the intro block at the top of the file, not mid-file.
• Always manually review for wording, missed merges, and contributor attribution (#PR, @user) before publishing.

Version Grouping Strategy

Current unreleased work

• Lower bound: latest released tag (git describe --tags --abbrev=0).
• Upper bound: HEAD.
• Heading: root Directory.Build.props <Version>.
• One heading per target version unless user requests historical reconstruction.

Historical / cleanup passes

When rebuilding noisy sections (as in v0.23.117 → v0.23.27 rollup):

1. Read commits across the whole range.
2. Group by user-facing theme, not by patch version.
3. Keep version headers for releases that matter; merge trivial patches.
4. Preserve v0.22.236+ summarized style for older stable releases.

Version headings

• Untagged: ## v0.23.129
• Tagged: ## [v0.22.236](https://github.com/ShareX/XerahS/releases/tag/v0.22.236)

Categories

Use Keep a Changelog sections. The automation script consolidates via Get-ConsolidationBucket and skips agent meta via Test-SkipChangelogCommit; agents must still edit the draft. Target ~40–60 bullets for a typical unreleased range.

• Features — new user-visible capability
• Fixes — bug fixes and reliability hardening
• Changed — behavior/dependency changes that aren’t pure fixes
• Refactor — internal-only (omit unless user-facing)
• Build — packaging, dependencies, CI
• Documentation — docs, blog, XIPs (user-facing only)
• Testing — test infrastructure (usually omit unless major)
• Performance — measurable user-visible gains

Map commit prefixes:

Attribution

• External contributors: (#PR, @username) on the relevant bullet.
• Do not attribute maintainer merge commits or internal agent sweeps.

File Layout

# Changelog

All notable changes to XerahS will be documented in this file.

The format follows [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html):

- **MAJOR** (x): Breaking changes (0 while unreleased)
- **MINOR** (y): New features and enhancements
- **PATCH** (z): Bug fixes and patches

---

## v0.23.129

### Features
- **Component**: User-facing description.

---

## v0.23.128
...

When applying updates, ensure the preamble exists at the top. Insert new version sections after the preamble --- and before older versions.

Workflow

1. Resolve range: -FromTag + Directory.Build.props version.
2. Run script → draft (preview, do not -Apply until reviewed).
3. Rewrite draft using mandatory agent pass (above).
4. Remove duplicate/orphan verbose blocks if consolidating history.
5. Ensure --- between versions and preamble at top.
6. Run mojibake normalization (see below).
7. Verify: no hashes in bullets, linked headings only for existing tags, readable density.

Mojibake cleanup (after any write)

$utf8NoBom = [System.Text.UTF8Encoding]::new($false)
$bytes = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes('docs/CHANGELOG.md')
if ($bytes.Length -ge 3 -and $bytes[0] -eq 0xEF -and $bytes[1] -eq 0xBB -and $bytes[2] -eq 0xBF) {
    $bytes = $bytes[3..($bytes.Length - 1)]
}
$c = $utf8NoBom.GetString($bytes)
$c = $c -replace [char]0x00C2 + [char]0x00A7, [char]0x2014
$c = $c -replace [char]0x00C2 + [char]0x00A7, [char]0x00A7
$c = $c -replace "\r?\n", "`n"
$c = $c -replace "`n{3,}", "`n`n"
$c = $c -replace "`n", "`r`n"
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllText('docs/CHANGELOG.md', $c, $utf8NoBom)

Never use [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8 when writing Markdown. On Windows PowerShell that encoding emits a UTF-8 BOM and the Markdown Hygiene workflow fails.

Consolidation Buckets (extend in script)

The script's Get-ConsolidationBucket merges repetitive patterns. Extend when new churn appears:

Related

• Release sequence: .ai/skills/publish-release/SKILL.md (step 2: update changelog)
• Maintenance: .ai/skills/run-maintenance/SKILL.md