Release Note Generation Skill

Generate professional release notes for PowerToys milestones by collecting merged PRs, requesting Copilot code reviews, grouping by label, and producing user-facing summaries.

Output Directory

All generated artifacts are placed under Generated Files/ReleaseNotes/ at the repository root (gitignored).

Generated Files/ReleaseNotes/ ├── milestone_prs.json # Raw PR data from GitHub ├── sorted_prs.csv # Sorted PR list with Copilot summaries ├── prs_with_milestone.csv # Milestone assignment tracking ├── grouped_csv/ # PRs grouped by label (one CSV per label) ├── grouped_md/ # Generated markdown summaries per label └── v{VERSION}-release-notes.md # Final consolidated release notes

When to Use This Skill

• Generate release notes for a milestone

• Summarize PRs merged in a release

• Request Copilot reviews for milestone PRs

• Assign milestones to PRs missing them

• Collect PRs between two commits/tags

• Update README.md for a new version

Prerequisites

• GitHub CLI (gh ) installed and authenticated — The collection script uses gh pr view and gh api graphql to fetch PR metadata and co-author information. Run gh auth status to verify; if not logged in, run gh auth login first. See Step 1.0.0 for details.

• MCP Server: github-mcp-server installed

• GitHub Copilot code review enabled for the org/repo

Required Variables

⚠️ Before starting, confirm {{ReleaseVersion}} with the user. If not provided, ASK: "What release version are we generating notes for? (e.g., 0.98)"

Variable Description Example

{{ReleaseVersion}}

Target release version 0.98

Workflow Overview

┌────────────────────────────────┐ │ 1.0 Verify gh auth + MemberList │ └────────────────────────────────┘ ↓ ┌────────────────────────────────┐ │ 1.1 Collect PRs (stable range) │ └────────────────────────────────┘ ↓ ┌────────────────────────────────┐ │ 1.2 Assign Milestones │ └────────────────────────────────┘ ↓ ┌────────────────────────────────┐ │ 2.1–2.4 Label PRs (auto+human) │ └────────────────────────────────┘ ↓ ┌────────────────────────────────┐ │ 3.1 Request Reviews (Copilot) │ └────────────────────────────────┘ ↓ ┌────────────────────────────────┐ │ 3.2 Refresh PR data │ │ (CopilotSummary) │ └────────────────────────────────┘ ↓ ┌────────────────────────────────┐ │ 3.3 Group by label │ │ (grouped_csv) │ └────────────────────────────────┘ ↓ ┌────────────────────────────────┐ │ 4.1 Summarize (grouped_md) │ └────────────────────────────────┘ ↓ ┌────────────────────────────────┐ │ 4.2 Final notes (v{VERSION}.md) │ └────────────────────────────────┘

Step Action Details

1.0 Verify prerequisites gh auth status must pass; generate MemberList.md

1.1 Collect PRs From previous release tag on stable branch → sorted_prs.csv

1.2 Assign Milestones Ensure all PRs have correct milestone

2.1–2.4 Label PRs Auto-suggest + human label low-confidence

3.1–3.3 Reviews & Grouping Request Copilot reviews → refresh → group by label

4.1–4.2 Summaries & Final Generate grouped summaries, then consolidate

Detailed workflow docs

Do not read all steps at once—only read the step you are executing.

• Step 1: Collection & Milestones

• Step 2: Labeling PRs

• Step 3: Reviews & Grouping

• Step 4: Summarization

Available Scripts

Script Purpose

dump-prs-since-commit.ps1 Fetch PRs between commits/tags

group-prs-by-label.ps1 Group PRs into CSVs

collect-or-apply-milestones.ps1 Assign milestones

diff_prs.ps1 Incremental PR diff

References

• Sample Output - Example summary formatting

• Detailed Instructions - Legacy full documentation

Conventions

• Terminal usage: Disabled by default; only run scripts when user explicitly requests

• Batch generation: Generate ALL grouped_md files in one pass, then human reviews

• PR order: Preserve order from sorted_prs.csv in all outputs

• Label filtering: Keeps Product-* , Area-* , GitHub* , Plugin , Issue-

Troubleshooting

Issue Solution

gh command not found Install GitHub CLI and add to PATH

No PRs returned Verify milestone title matches exactly

Empty CopilotSummary Request Copilot reviews first, then re-run dump

Many unlabeled PRs Return to labeling step before grouping