tomevault-io Changelog Generator
This skill transforms technical git commits into polished, user-friendly changelogs that your customers and users will actually understand and appreciate.
When to Use This Skill
- Preparing release notes for a new version
- Creating weekly or monthly product update summaries
- Documenting changes for customers
- Writing changelog entries for app store submissions
- Generating update notifications
- Creating internal release documentation
- Maintaining a public changelog/product updates page
What This Skill Does
- Scans Git History: Analyzes commits from a specific time period or between versions
- Categorizes Changes: Groups commits into logical categories (features, improvements, bug fixes, breaking changes, security)
- Translates Technical → User-Friendly: Converts developer commits into customer language
- Formats Professionally: Creates clean, structured changelog entries
- Filters Noise: Excludes internal (refactoring, tests, etc.) and documentation-only commits by default
- Follows Best Practices: Applies changelog guidelines and your brand voice
Default Filtering Policy (Product-Only)
When generating changelogs, use strict product relevance by default.
Include only changes that directly affect shipped behavior, user experience, API behavior, reliability, performance, security, or supported runtime/platform versions.
Exclude by default:
- Documentation-only changes (
docs:, README, ADRs, guides, diagrams, CODE_OF_CONDUCT, AGENTS.md) - AI-agent and skill metadata/workflow changes (
.agents/,SKILL.md, prompt/instruction tuning) - Internal housekeeping with no user impact (formatting, comment-only edits, rename-only refactors)
- Test-only changes unless they fix a production defect or prevent a real regression
- CI/CD, pipeline, and developer tooling changes unless they impact released product behavior
- Changelog-only updates (
chore(changelog),docs(changelog))
Borderline rule:
- If uncertain whether a commit is user-visible, exclude it and add a short note in a separate "Excluded/Internal" review list for human confirmation.
Commit Triage Workflow
- Collect commits in range (between tags, dates, or
last release..HEAD). - Drop merge commits and duplicate back-merges.
- Classify each commit as
product,internal, ordocs-only. - Only summarize
productcommits in CHANGELOG sections. - Keep language user-facing; avoid internal filenames unless needed for clarity.
How to Use
Basic Usage
From your project repository:
Update the changelog with recent commits
Create a changelog from commits since last release
Generate changelog for all commits from the past week
Create release notes for version 2.5.0
With Specific Date Range
Create a changelog for all commits between March 1 and March 15
With Custom Guidelines
Create a changelog for commits since v2.4.0, using the changelog
guidelines from [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/)
Example
User: "Create a changelog for commits from the past 7 days"
Output:
# Updates - Week of March 10, 2024
## ✨ New Features
- **Team Workspaces**: Create separate workspaces for different
projects. Invite team members and keep everything organized.
- **Keyboard Shortcuts**: Press ? to see all available shortcuts.
Navigate faster without touching your mouse.
## 🔧 Improvements
- **Faster Sync**: Files now sync 2x faster across devices
- **Better Search**: Search now includes file contents, not just titles
## 🐛 Fixes
- Fixed issue where large images wouldn't upload
- Resolved timezone confusion in scheduled posts
- Corrected notification badge count
Inspired by: Manik Aggarwal's use case from Lenny's Newsletter
Tips
- Run from your git repository root
- Use an existing CHANGELOG.md as a basis and add new entries to it
- Specify date ranges for focused changelogs
- Use Keep a Changelog for consistent formatting
- Review and adjust the generated changelog before publishing
- Save output directly to CHANGELOG.md in the repo root.
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