Changelog Generator
Transform technical git commits into polished, user-friendly changelogs.
When to Use
- 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
- Maintaining a public changelog/product updates page
Process
1. Scan Git History
Analyze commits from a specific time period or between versions:
# Since last tag
git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD --oneline
# Between dates
git log --since="2024-01-01" --until="2024-01-31" --oneline
# Between versions
git log v1.0.0..v2.0.0 --oneline
2. Categorize Changes
Group commits into logical categories:
| Category | Emoji | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| New Features | ✨ | New functionality, capabilities |
| Improvements | 🔧 | Enhancements, optimizations |
| Bug Fixes | 🐛 | Resolved issues, corrections |
| Breaking Changes | ⚠️ | API changes, migrations needed |
| Security | 🔒 | Security patches, vulnerability fixes |
| Documentation | 📚 | Docs updates (usually excluded) |
| Internal | 🔨 | Refactoring, tests (usually excluded) |
3. Translate Technical → User-Friendly
Bad (developer-speak):
fix: resolve null pointer in UserService#getById
refactor: extract common logic to BaseRepository
Good (user-friendly):
- Fixed an issue where user profiles wouldn't load
- Improved application performance and reliability
4. Format Output
# Updates - Week of March 10, 2024
## ✨ New Features
- **Team Workspaces**: Create separate workspaces for different
projects. Invite team members and keep everything organized.
## 🔧 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
Filter Rules
Include:
- Features (feat:, feature:)
- Fixes (fix:, bugfix:)
- Performance (perf:)
- Security (security:)
Exclude:
- Refactoring (refactor:)
- Tests (test:)
- CI/CD (ci:, build:)
- Chores (chore:)
- WIP commits
Usage Examples
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 based on commits since v2.4.0
Tips
- Run from your git repository root
- Specify date ranges for focused changelogs
- Review and adjust before publishing
- Keep customer perspective - "what does this mean for them?"
- Save output directly to CHANGELOG.md