Changelogs

Changelogs Skill

Update CHANGELOG.md files to reflect changes made in the current git branch.

When to Use

• When asked to update or write changelogs
• When preparing a PR for merge
• When documenting recent changes before release

Instructions

Step 1: Analyze Branch Changes

Run these git commands to understand what changed:

# Get the base branch (usually master or main)
git log --oneline -1 origin/master

# List all commits in current branch not in master
git log origin/master..HEAD --oneline

# Show changed files with their packages
git diff origin/master --name-only

Step 2: Identify Affected Packages

Determine which packages were modified by checking changed file paths:

• packages/react/**/<Component>/* → Update packages/react/src/atomic/<Component>/CHANGELOG.md and react directory CHANGELOG.md
• packages/core/webpack/* → Update packages/core/webpack/CHANGELOG.md
• Any root monorepo configuration change → Also update the root CHANGELOG.md

Step 3: Classify the Change

Determine the change type based on commit messages and diff:

Step 4: Write the Entry

Format:

## YYYY-MM-DD `version`

#### <emoji> <category>

- <Summary of the change>. ([#PR](https://github.com/TiendaNube/nimbus-patterns/pull/PR) by [@contributor](https://github.com/contributor))

Writing Guidelines:

1. Be concise: One sentence summarizing the user-facing impact
2. Focus on "what": Describe the outcome, not implementation details
3. Use past tense: "Added", "Fixed", "Updated", not "Add", "Fix", "Update"
4. Avoid code details: No mention of specific functions, variables, or files

Good examples:

• Added disabled state styling to Input component.
• Fixed focus ring not appearing on keyboard navigation.
• Updated Button to support icon-only variant.

Bad examples:

• Update Input.tsx to add handleFocus callback and modify CSS classes.
• Fixes bug in line 45 of nimbus-input.css.ts where outline was missing.

Step 5: Ask for Missing Information

If any of the following is unknown, ask the user:

1. PR number: Required for the entry link
2. GitHub username: Required for contributor attribution
3. Version number: If not clear from existing changelog

Step 6: Update the Files

1. Read the existing CHANGELOG.md for the affected package(s)
2. Determine the next version based on current version + change type
3. Insert the new entry at the TOP, below the # Changelog header
4. Use today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format
5. Update package-specific CHANGELOG.md file, and only update the root CHANGELOG.md file if the change is related to the root monorepo.

Reference

Full formatting rules are defined in .cursor/rules/changelogs.mdc.

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