Draft Release Notes

Draft Release Notes

Goal

Update the [Unreleased] section at the top of CHANGELOG.md with a narrative release story based on the real changes since the last tag. This is a non-destructive working copy — run it as many times as you want during development.

Workflow

1. Identify the last release tag and gather changes.

   LAST_TAG=$(git tag --list "v*" --sort=-v:refname | head -n 1)
   echo "Last tag: $LAST_TAG"
   

   Then collect raw material from three sources:

   a. Commit log since last tag:

   git log --oneline "$LAST_TAG"..HEAD
   

   b. GitHub-generated release notes preview (PR titles, new contributors):

   gh api repos/:owner/:repo/releases/generate-notes \
     -f tag_name="vNEXT" \
     -f target_commitish="$(git rev-parse HEAD)" \
     -f previous_tag_name="$LAST_TAG" \
     --jq '.body'
   

   c. Diff stat for theme analysis:

   git diff --stat "$LAST_TAG"..HEAD
   

2. Draft the release narrative.

   Write markdown for the [Unreleased] section following the format below. Do not include the ## [Unreleased] heading itself — just the body content.

3. Update CHANGELOG.md.

   Replace everything between ## [Unreleased] and the next ## [ heading with the new draft. Preserve the HTML comment header and all existing release sections below.

   The [Unreleased] section must always exist and always be the first section after the header comments.

4. Do NOT commit, tag, or bump versions. Just leave the file modified in the working tree.

Release Story Format

Structure the [Unreleased] section like this:

## [Unreleased]

<One strong opening paragraph: what this release is about and why it matters.
Tie it to concrete shipped changes. No vague hype.>

<One paragraph on major technical shifts, if applicable.>

### <Feature/Theme Group>
- Bullet points with specifics
- Reference PRs where available: ([#123](https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/pull/123))

### <Another Group>
- ...

### Bug Fixes
- ...

Style Guidelines

• Factual and specific. Every claim should trace to a real commit or PR.
• Narrative over list. Lead with paragraphs that tell the story, then support with bullets.
• Group by theme, not by commit. Cluster related changes under descriptive headings.
• Reference PRs where they exist, but don't fabricate them.
• Skip trivial chores (typo fixes, CI tweaks) unless they're the bulk of the release.
• Match the voice of existing releases — look at the v0.2.1 and v0.2.3 entries in CHANGELOG.md for tone reference.

When There Are No Changes

If git log "$LAST_TAG"..HEAD is empty, leave the [Unreleased] section empty (just the heading) and tell the user there's nothing to draft.

Notes

• This skill only touches the [Unreleased] section. It never modifies stamped release sections.
• The agent can be asked to run this skill at any point — mid-feature, before a PR, or right before cutting a release.
• The release-bump skill depends on this draft being up to date before it finalizes.

Source: jamiepine/voicebox — distributed by TomeVault.