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