release-notes

name: release-notes description: | Generate release notes for any project, with or without git.

Use when: user asks to "create release notes", "write release notes", "generate changelog", "document what changed", or runs /release-notes. Also use when user asks to set up release notes infrastructure for a project.

Works in two modes:

• Git repos: Analyzes commits since last release
• Non-git projects (e.g., CC-WORK): Uses existing CHANGE-NOTES files, file modification times, and conversation context to generate release notes

Release Notes Generator

Generate user-focused release notes from project changes.

Step 1: Detect Project Type

# Check if git repo
if git rev-parse --git-dir > /dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "MODE: git"
else
  echo "MODE: non-git"
fi

Git Mode (for GitHub repos)

Find Last Release

LAST_RELEASE=$(ls -t release-notes/*.md 2>/dev/null | grep -v README | head -1)
if [ -n "$LAST_RELEASE" ]; then
  SINCE_DATE=$(basename "$LAST_RELEASE" | grep -oE '[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}' | head -1)
fi

Get Commits

if [ -n "$SINCE_DATE" ]; then
  git log --since="$SINCE_DATE" --pretty=format:"%h|%s|%an|%ad" --date=short
else
  git log -50 --pretty=format:"%h|%s|%an|%ad" --date=short
fi

Categorize by Commit Message

Non-Git Mode (for CC-WORK projects)

Step 1: Find Existing Change Documentation

Look for these files in the project:

• CHANGE-NOTES-*.md — Session change logs
• CHANGELOG.md — Running changelog
• README.md — May have "Recent Changes" section

# Find change documentation
ls -t CHANGE-NOTES-*.md CHANGELOG.md 2>/dev/null | head -5

Step 2: Find Recently Modified Files

# Files modified in last 7 days (excluding common noise)
find . -type f -mtime -7 \
  ! -path './.git/*' \
  ! -path './archive/*' \
  ! -path './__pycache__/*' \
  ! -name '*.pyc' \
  ! -name '.DS_Store' \
  -printf '%T@ %p\n' 2>/dev/null | sort -rn | head -20

Step 3: Gather Context

1. Read the most recent CHANGE-NOTES file — This contains session summaries
2. Check file modification times — What's been touched recently
3. Review the conversation — What work was discussed in this session
4. Ask the user if unclear: "What were the main changes since [last release date]?"

Step 4: Synthesize Release Notes

Combine information from:

• Existing CHANGE-NOTES files (primary source)
• File modification patterns
• Session context

Output Format

Create file: release-notes/YYYY-MM-DD-[brief-title].md

Or for CC-WORK projects without release-notes folder, update: CHANGE-NOTES-YYYY-MM-DD.md

# Release Notes — [Date in "1st February 2026" format]

## Summary
[2-3 sentence overview of what changed and why it matters to users]

## New Features
- **[Feature name]**: [User-focused description]

## Improvements
- **[Area improved]**: [What got better]

## Bug Fixes
- **[What was fixed]**: [Before vs after]

## Technical Notes
[Optional: Breaking changes, migration steps]

---
*Based on changes since [last release date]*

Writing Guidelines

• Lead with user benefit: "You can now..." not "Implemented..."
• Be specific: "Export crosstabs to CSV" not "Added export"
• Group related changes: Multiple file edits for one feature = one bullet
• Skip internal noise: Config tweaks, formatting, test-only changes
• Include breaking changes: Anything requiring user action

Setup (First Run)

For git repos, create release-notes/ directory if missing.

For CC-WORK projects, use existing CHANGE-NOTES-*.md pattern — no new directory needed.