/generate-release-notes

name: generate-release-notes
description: Generate categorized release notes from any source (GitHub, Linear, Jira, or manual input) with optional publishing
roles: [product-manager, engineering-lead, founder]
integrations: [github, linear, jira, confluence, notion, hackmd]

COG Generate Release Notes Skill

When to Invoke

• User wants to create release notes for a version, sprint, or cycle
• User says "release notes", "changelog", "what shipped", "write release notes"
• A new version or milestone has been completed
• End of sprint/cycle documentation

Agent Mode Awareness

**Check `agent_mode` in `00-inbox/MY-PROFILE.md` frontmatter:**

• If `agent_mode: team` — use parallel agents to collect data from all active sources simultaneously
• If `agent_mode: solo` — collect data sequentially from the primary tracker

Command: `/generate-release-notes`

Pre-Flight Check

1. **Read `00-inbox/MY-INTEGRATIONS.md`** to determine data sources and publishing options 2. **Read `00-inbox/MY-PROFILE.md`** for active projects 3. **Get current timestamp:** Run `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M'` using Bash

4. **Ask the user** (if not already provided):

• What version/release/cycle is this for?
• What is the date range? (or: which milestone/cycle/sprint?)
• Which project? (if multiple active)
• Audience: internal team, customers, or both?

---

Execution Strategy

Phase 1: Collect Release Data

Team Mode (parallel agents)

Launch data collection agents using the Task tool with `run_in_background: true`:

**Agent: "github-release-collector"** (if GitHub is active)

Collect all merged PRs and release data for the specified version/period.
Repository: [CUSTOMIZE: your-org/your-repo]
Period: [START_DATE] to [END_DATE]

1. Get merged PRs in the period:
   gh pr list --repo [CUSTOMIZE: your-org/your-repo] --state merged --search "merged:[START_DATE]..[END_DATE]" --json number,title,author,labels,body,mergedAt --limit 200

2. Check for existing GitHub release (if version tag exists):
   gh release view [VERSION_TAG] --repo [CUSTOMIZE: your-org/your-repo] --json name,body,tagName,createdAt 2>/dev/null

3. Get commits between tags (if applicable):
   gh api repos/[CUSTOMIZE: your-org/your-repo]/compare/[PREV_TAG]...[CURRENT_TAG] --jq '.commits[] | {sha: .sha[:7], message: .commit.message, author: .author.login}'

Categorize each PR by its labels or title prefix:
- "feat"/"feature"/"enhancement" labels → Enhancements
- "fix"/"bug"/"bugfix" labels → Bug Fixes
- "tech"/"refactor"/"chore"/"infrastructure" labels → Technical Improvements
- "docs"/"documentation" labels → Documentation
- "security" labels → Security
- "breaking"/"breaking-change" labels → Breaking Changes
- "deprecation" labels → Deprecations

Return: categorized list of changes with PR numbers, titles, authors, and descriptions

**Agent: "linear-release-collector"** (if Linear is active)

Collect completed issues for the specified cycle/period.

1. Use ToolSearch to load Linear tools
2. List cycles: mcp__claude_ai_Linear_2__list_cycles
3. Find the target cycle or filter by date range
4. List all completed issues in the cycle/period: mcp__claude_ai_Linear_2__list_issues
5. For each issue, get details including labels and project

Categorize by label or issue type:
- Feature/Enhancement labels → Enhancements
- Bug labels → Bug Fixes
- Technical/Infrastructure labels → Technical Improvements
- Documentation labels → Documentation

Return: categorized list of changes with issue IDs, titles, assignees, and descriptions

**Agent: "jira-release-collector"** (if Jira is active)

Collect issues for the specified version/sprint.
Project: [CUSTOMIZE: YOUR-PROJECT-KEY]

1. Search by fixVersion:
   JQL: project = "[CUSTOMIZE: YOUR-PROJECT-KEY]" AND fixVersion = "[VERSION]" AND status = Done ORDER BY issuetype, priority DESC

   OR search by sprint:
   JQL: project = "[CUSTOMIZE: YOUR-PROJECT-KEY]" AND sprint = "[SPRINT_NAME]" AND status = Done ORDER BY issuetype, priority DESC

2. For each issue, collect: key, summary, issuetype, priority, assignee, labels, description

Categorize by issue type:
- Story/Feature → Enhancements
- Bug → Bug Fixes
- Task/Technical Task → Technical Improvements
- Documentation → Documentation

Return: categorized list with issue keys, titles, assignees, types, and descriptions

Solo Mode

Run the primary tracker collection sequentially.

Manual Input Fallback

If no tracker is active or the user prefers manual input:

No project tracker detected. You can provide release items manually.

Please list the changes in this release. I'll categorize them for you.
Format: one change per line, optionally prefix with [feature], [fix], [tech], [docs], [security], [breaking]

Phase 2: Categorize and Organize

Organize collected items into standard categories:

1. **Breaking Changes** (always first if present) 2. **New Features & Enhancements** 3. **Bug Fixes** 4. **Technical Improvements** 5. **Security Updates** 6. **Documentation** 7. **Deprecations** 8. **Known Issues** (if any remain)

Within each category, order by: 1. Priority (highest first) 2. User impact (most impactful first)

Phase 3: Generate Release Notes

For Customer/External Audience:

---
type: release-notes
project: [project-name]
version: [version]
date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
created: [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM]
audience: external
tags: ["#release-notes", "#[project-name]", "#v[version]"]
items_count: [total count]
categories:
  enhancements: [count]
  bug_fixes: [count]
  technical: [count]
  security: [count]
  breaking_changes: [count]
---

# Release Notes — [Project Name] [Version]

**Release Date:** [Date]

## What's New

[2-3 sentence executive summary of the most important changes in this release]

---

### Breaking Changes

> **Action Required:** The following changes may require updates to your workflow.

- **[Change title]** — [User-friendly description of what changed and what to do]

---

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