Git Changelog

git-changelog — Auto-Generate Changelogs

Generate polished, categorized changelogs from git commit history. Outputs markdown ready for CHANGELOG.md or GitHub releases.

1. Verify Git Repository

git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree If this fails, stop — not a git repository.

2. Determine Range

The user may specify: Tag-to-tag: v1.0.0..v1.1.0 Since date: --since="2025-01-01" Last N commits: -n 50 Since last tag: auto-detect with git describe --tags --abbrev=0 Default behavior — find the last tag and generate from there to HEAD: LAST_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null) If no tags exist, use the full history.

3. Extract Commits

# Tag-to-HEAD git log ${LAST_TAG}..HEAD --pretty=format:"%H|%s|%an|%ad" --date=short # Date range git log --since="2025-01-01" --until="2025-02-01" --pretty=format:"%H|%s|%an|%ad" --date=short # Full history git log --pretty=format:"%H|%s|%an|%ad" --date=short

4. Categorize by Conventional Commits

Parse each commit subject and group into categories: PrefixCategoryEmojifeat✨ FeaturesNew functionalityfix🐛 Bug FixesCorrectionsdocs📚 DocumentationDocs changesstyle💄 StylingFormatting, no logic changerefactor♻️ RefactoringCode restructuringperf⚡ PerformanceSpeed improvementstest✅ TestsAdding/fixing testsbuild📦 BuildBuild system, depsci👷 CI/CDPipeline changeschore🔧 ChoresMaintenance(other)📝 OtherUncategorized Parse pattern: type(scope): description or type: description

5. Generate Markdown

• Output format:
• # Changelog
• ## [v1.2.0] — 2025-02-15
• ### ✨ Features
• **auth**: Add OAuth2 support ([abc1234])
• **api**: New rate limiting middleware ([def5678])
• ### 🐛 Bug Fixes
• **db**: Fix connection pool leak ([ghi9012])
• ### 📚 Documentation
• Update API reference ([jkl3456])
• Rules:
• Include scope in bold if present: **scope**: message
• Include short hash as reference: ([abc1234])
• Sort categories: Features → Fixes → everything else
• Omit empty categories
• If commits include BREAKING CHANGE in body/footer, add a ### 💥 Breaking Changes section at the top

6. Detect Breaking Changes

git log ${LAST_TAG}..HEAD --pretty=format:"%H|%B" | grep -i "BREAKING CHANGE" Also flag commits with ! after type: feat!: remove legacy API

7. Output

Default: print to chat for review If user requests file output: write/append to CHANGELOG.md at project root When prepending to existing CHANGELOG.md, insert after the # Changelog header, before previous entries

Edge Cases

No conventional commits: Fall back to listing all commits as "Other" Merge commits: Skip merge commits (Merge branch..., Merge pull request...) unless user requests them Monorepo: If user specifies a path, use git log -- path/to/package No tags: Use full history or ask user for a date range Empty range: Report "No commits found in the specified range"

Error Handling

ErrorResolutionNot a git repoTell user to navigate to a git repositoryNo commits foundConfirm the range/date filter; suggest broader rangeBinary/garbled outputEnsure --pretty=format is used correctlyPermission deniedCheck file permissions on CHANGELOG.md Built by Clawb (SOVEREIGN) — more skills at [coming soon]