preparing-release-changelog - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: preparing-release-changelog description: Prepare the CHANGELOG.md for a Damus release by running the changelog script, curating the output, and committing the result. Covers prerequisites, known pitfalls (duplicate entries, reverted commits, truncated annotations, wrong version label), and the editing/commit steps.

Preparing Release Changelog

Description

Prepare the CHANGELOG.md for a Damus release by running the changelog script, curating the output, and committing the result. Covers prerequisites, known pitfalls (duplicate entries, reverted commits, truncated annotations, wrong version label), and the editing/commit steps.

When to Use

When preparing a new Damus release and the changelog needs to be updated
When rebasing a release-changelog branch onto master and picking up new entries

Overview

Damus uses a Python script (devtools/changelog.py) to assist in generating changelogs from git commit history. The changelog format follows Keep a Changelog conventions.

Prerequisites

Python 3 with mako and requests packages installed:
```
pip install mako requests
```
Access to the full git history (not a shallow clone). If needed, run:
```
git fetch --unshallow origin
git fetch origin tag <from_tag>
```

Step 1: Identify the Commit Range

Find the tag for the previous release (e.g. v1.16.1) and the commit hash for the new release candidate:

git tag | sort -V | tail -20         # list recent tags
git rev-parse v1.16.1                # resolve a tag to its commit SHA

The commit range format is: <from_tag>..<to_commit>

Example: v1.16.1..5cb8a49

Step 2: Run the Changelog Script

python3 devtools/changelog.py v1.16.1..5cb8a49

This scans git log for Changelog-<section>: annotations in commit messages, where <section> is one of: added, changed, deprecated, fixed, removed, experimental.

Note: The script derives the version label from the second argument with the first character stripped (intended for tag names like v1.17 → 1.17). When passing a bare commit hash, the version will be wrong—fix it manually when editing CHANGELOG.md.

Step 3: Review and Clean Up the Raw Output

The script's output is a starting point that typically needs manual curation:

Fix the version label: Replace the auto-derived version (e.g. cb8a49) with the actual release version (e.g. 1.17).
Remove duplicate entries: Some commits may appear after the previous release tag in master history but were already included in that previous release's CHANGELOG.md (e.g. cherry-picked features from a release branch). Cross-check against the existing CHANGELOG.md and remove duplicates.
Remove reverted entries: If a commit was later reverted, drop its Changelog-* entry. The revert commit may itself have a changelog entry explaining the fix—keep that instead.
Fix truncated entries: Commit messages with a very long first line can cause Changelog-Fixed: entries to be truncated. Check the raw git log output to find the full intent, or look up the PR for context.
Verify the date: Use the actual release date, not the commit date from the RC.

Step 4: Update CHANGELOG.md

Prepend the new section to CHANGELOG.md, following the existing format:

## [1.17] - YYYY-MM-DD

### Added

- Feature description (Author Name)


### Changed

- Change description (Author Name)


### Fixed

- Fix description (Author Name)



[1.17]: https://github.com/damus-io/damus/releases/tag/v1.17

Keep the existing [version]: URL reference link at the bottom of each section.

Step 5: Commit the Changelog

git add CHANGELOG.md
git commit -s -m "v1.17 changelog"

Tips

Changelog annotations in commits: Contributors should include a line like Changelog-Added: Description of feature in their commit messages so the script can pick them up automatically.
Changelog-None: Use this in commit messages that intentionally have no changelog entry (e.g. internal refactors, test fixes). The script ignores it.
Author attribution: The script appends the git author name in parentheses. Keep these intact—they credit contributors.
Sections in the script are: added, changed, deprecated, fixed, removed, experimental. Only sections that have at least one entry are rendered.