Changelog Locations

Format Rules (keepachangelog.com)

Section Order (ALWAYS this order)

## [X.Y.Z] (Prowler vA.B.C) OR (Prowler UNRELEASED)

### Added
### Changed
### Deprecated
### Removed
### Fixed
### Security

Emoji Prefixes (REQUIRED for ALL components)

Entry Format

### Added

- Existing entry one [(#XXXX)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/XXXX)
- Existing entry two [(#YYYY)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/YYYY)
- NEW ENTRY GOES HERE at the BOTTOM [(#ZZZZ)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/ZZZZ)

### Changed

- Existing change [(#AAAA)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/AAAA)
- NEW CHANGE ENTRY at BOTTOM [(#BBBB)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/BBBB)

Rules:

• ADD NEW ENTRIES AT THE BOTTOM of each section (before next section header or ---)
• Blank line after section header before first entry
• Blank line between sections
• Be specific: what changed, not why (that's in the PR)
• One entry per PR (can link multiple PRs for related changes)
• No period at the end
• Do NOT start with redundant verbs (section header already provides the action)
• CRITICAL: Preserve section order — when adding a new section to the UNRELEASED block, insert it in the correct position relative to existing sections (Added → Changed → Deprecated → Removed → Fixed → Security). Never append a new section at the top or bottom without checking order

Semantic Versioning Rules

Prowler follows semver.org:

CRITICAL: ### ❌ Removed entries MUST only appear in MAJOR version releases. Removing features is a breaking change.

Released Versions Are Immutable

NEVER modify already released versions. Once a version is released (has a Prowler version tag like v5.16.0), its changelog section is frozen.

Common issue: A PR is created during release cycle X, includes a changelog entry, but merges after release. The entry is now in the wrong section.

## [1.16.0] (Prowler v5.16.0)    ← RELEASED, DO NOT MODIFY

### Added
- Feature from merged PR [(#9999)]   ← WRONG! PR merged after release

## [1.17.0] (Prowler UNRELEASED)  ← Move entry HERE

Fix: Move the entry from the released version to the UNRELEASED section.

Version Header Format

## [1.17.0] (Prowler UNRELEASED)    # For unreleased changes
## [1.16.0] (Prowler v5.16.0)       # For released versions

---                                  # Horizontal rule between versions

Adding a Changelog Entry

Step 1: Determine Affected Component(s)

# Check which files changed
git diff main...HEAD --name-only

Step 2: Determine Change Type

Step 3: Add Entry at BOTTOM of Appropriate Section

CRITICAL: Add new entries at the BOTTOM of each section, NOT at the top.

## [1.17.0] (Prowler UNRELEASED)

### 🐞 Fixed

- Existing fix one [(#9997)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/9997)
- Existing fix two [(#9998)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/9998)
- Button alignment in dashboard header [(#9999)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/9999)  ← NEW ENTRY AT BOTTOM

### 🔐 Security

This maintains chronological order within each section (oldest at top, newest at bottom).

Examples

Good Entries

### 🚀 Added
- Search bar when adding a provider [(#9634)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/9634)

### 🐞 Fixed
- OCI update credentials form failing silently due to missing provider UID [(#9746)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/9746)

### 🔐 Security
- Node.js from 20.x to 24.13.0 LTS, patching 8 CVEs [(#9797)](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/pull/9797)

Bad Entries

# BAD - Wrong section order (Fixed before Added)
### 🐞 Fixed
- Some bug fix [(#123)](...)

### 🚀 Added
- Some new feature [(#456)](...)

- Fixed bug.                              # Too vague, has period
- Added new feature for users             # Missing PR link, redundant verb
- Add search bar [(#123)]                 # Redundant verb (section already says "Added")
- This PR adds a cool new thing (#123)    # Wrong link format, conversational

PR Changelog Gate

The pr-check-changelog.yml workflow enforces changelog entries:

1. REQUIRED: PRs touching ui/, api/, mcp_server/, or prowler/ MUST update the corresponding changelog
2. SKIP: Add no-changelog label to bypass (use sparingly for docs-only, CI-only changes)

Commands

# Check which changelogs need updates based on changed files
git diff main...HEAD --name-only | grep -E '^(ui|api|mcp_server|prowler)/' | cut -d/ -f1 | sort -u

# View current UNRELEASED section
head -50 ui/CHANGELOG.md
head -50 api/CHANGELOG.md
head -50 mcp_server/CHANGELOG.md
head -50 prowler/CHANGELOG.md

Migration Note

API, MCP Server, and SDK changelogs currently lack emojis. When editing these files, add emoji prefixes to section headers as you update them:

# Before (legacy)
### Added

# After (standardized)
### 🚀 Added

Resources

• Templates: See assets/ for entry templates
• keepachangelog.com: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/