Release notes

<!-- lint-role: catalogue --> <!-- This file lists the hype words the skill exists to strip, so it trips the slop linter by design. --> <objective> Write release notes that users actually read. Output: structured markdown release notes ready to publish on a changelog page / inside-app modal / email / GitHub release.

Use when the user wants to announce changes to their product or library to its users (or developers consuming an API/SDK). Not for internal engineering decisions — that's rfc-writer. Not for marketing landing pages — that's landing-copy.

This skill does NOT:

• write RFCs / design docs / ADRs (use rfc-writer)
• write landing-page marketing copy (use landing-copy)
• write commit messages or PR descriptions (those are for engineers; release notes are downstream)
• write blog posts about a release (different shape — use essay-write or viral-text) </objective>

ROLE

Read commits / PRs / feature list + target audience → group by Keep-a-Changelog sections → write one bullet per change in the right register → strip marketing fluff → run final writer cleanup → return markdown.

PIPELINE

1. Identify audience. End user (uses the product UI) / developer (uses the API/SDK) / ops (deploys / monitors the product). Tone differs significantly — see references/audience-tone.md.

2. Identify scope. Single feature announcement / version release / quarterly recap / monthly digest. Each has different length and structure.

3. Gather changes. From git log / PR list / user-provided list. Group into:

   • Added — new features, new APIs, new options
   • Changed — behavior changes (non-breaking)
   • Fixed — bug fixes
   • Deprecated — still works, will be removed in vX
   • Removed — gone in this version
   • Security — vulnerabilities patched
   • Breaking — only for major versions (semver)

   See references/sections.md.

4. Write one bullet per change.

   • Lead with the verb in past tense for "Added/Changed/Fixed/Removed"
   • Lead with the noun being deprecated for "Deprecated"
   • One line per bullet (allow continuation only if context matters)
   • User-facing benefit first, technical detail second

5. Apply anti-fluff rules. Strip marketing language ("revolutionary", "game-changing"), "We're excited to announce", "We're thrilled to share". See references/banned-patterns.md.

6. Order within sections. Most-impactful items first. Don't bury big features under a 12-bullet "Fixed" list.

7. Add a header / lead (1-2 lines) for context: what version, what date, what theme if there is one. See references/structure.md.

8. Final pass. Run through writer for anti-neuroslop + typography + structural-prose layers.

   Delete the water, not the function. Version numbers, dates, migration steps, breaking-change warnings and upgrade commands are load-bearing. Writer's default treatment is deletion; here that turns a changelog into an announcement nobody can act on. Treat them by replacement or simplification, and verify each survived the pass. See forbidden-substitutions.md in the writer skill.

MODES

• release-notes <version> <changes-list> — write release notes for vX.Y.Z
• release-notes --from-git <since-tag> — read git log since a tag, summarize
• release-notes --from-prs <PR-list> — write notes from a list of PR titles/descriptions
• release-notes --recap quarterly|monthly|annual — longer recap covering multiple releases
• release-notes --audience user|dev|ops — explicit audience selection
• release-notes --format changelog-md|github-release|email|in-app — output format
• release-notes --improve <existing> — rewrite weak release notes

REFERENCES (load on demand)

File	When to load
references/sections.md	When categorizing changes — Keep-a-Changelog 6 sections + how to decide which applies
references/audience-tone.md	When picking voice — end-user / developer / ops differences
references/structure.md	When assembling — version header, lead, ordering, length budgets per format
references/banned-patterns.md	After draft — strip marketing fluff, hype, vague "we improved X"

EXAMPLES

See examples/before-after.md — 5 calibration pairs: weak release notes vs strong, across SaaS / API / library / mobile-app contexts.

CONSTRAINTS

• No marketing hype. "Revolutionary", "groundbreaking", "game-changing", "next-generation" — strip on sight. The work speaks for itself.
• No "We're excited / thrilled / proud to announce". State what shipped. The user doesn't care about your feelings.
• No "Improved X" without specifics. Replace with: "Reduced X latency from 2.1s to 380ms" / "Now supports Y format" / "Fixed Z bug that affected users of W".
• Past tense for shipped work. "Added dark mode" not "Adding dark mode" not "We are adding dark mode".
• One bullet per change. Don't merge two features into one line ("Improved auth and payment flows" → split).
• Specific over abstract. "Improved performance" → "Reduced search latency 5x"; "Better security" → "Enabled MFA by default for new accounts".
• Link to longer docs when relevant. Release note is the headline; help-article / RFC / docs page is the body.
• Date in ISO format. 2026-05-20, not "May 20, 2026" or "20/05/2026".
• Version follows semver. Major (breaking) / minor (features) / patch (fixes).
• No emoji in dev/ops audience. OK in light user-facing notes (🎉 for milestones), avoid in technical contexts.

INVOCATION HINTS

When the user says any of:

• "release notes for vX.Y.Z"
• "changelog entry / update"
• "what's new in version..."
• "summarize this release"
• "monthly / quarterly recap"
• "GitHub release notes"
• "in-app announcement for the latest version"
• "draft a release note about ..."

RU triggers (use the skill when the user writes any of):

• «релизные заметки / релиз-ноуты»
• «changelog для v3.4 / журнал изменений»
• «что нового в версии ...»
• «обнови changelog»
• «опиши релиз / напиши анонс релиза»
• «месячная / квартальная сводка по релизам»
• «текст для in-app анонса нового релиза»

For RU tone (formal B2B, less emoji, числа в RU-формате), see references/audience-tone.md section RU tone notes.

Use this skill. For internal design docs / RFCs → rfc-writer. For marketing landing announcements → landing-copy. For viral social posts about the release → viral-text.