Creating release

Creating a Release

Overview

This skill cuts a release of codeherd in one Claude Code session, semi-automatically. It analyzes commits since the previous tag, classifies them, picks the next SemVer, and writes three artifacts the GitHub release pipeline consumes later: VERSION, CHANGELOG.md, and a single docs/release-notes/<version>.md file. The maintainer reviews the staged diff and approves once at the end.

Core principle: the skill is deterministic about file shape and commit format. It uses judgment only where judgment is required — commit classification, the next-version pick when commit signals are mixed, and release-notes prose.

When to Use

• Cutting any new release of codeherd, including the first (0.1.0).
• The current branch is release/<version> cut from main (recommended; not enforced).
• Working tree is clean and git fetch --tags origin is current.

When NOT to Use

• Mid-feature commits — this is a release-prep skill, not a per-commit changelog adder.
• Pre-release / RC tags — out of scope for now.
• Any repo other than xico42/codeherd.

Iron Requirements (do not skip)

These are the exact failure modes that occur when this work is done from memory. Treat them as hard rules.

1. Write the VERSION file at the repo root. One line, no leading v, SemVer 2.0.0. No exceptions.
2. Release-note filename is docs/release-notes/<version>.md — one file per release, no leading v, no -user/-technical suffix.
3. Final commit is subject-only: chore: bump version <version> — not release:, not anything else. No body. The release narrative lives in docs/release-notes/<version>.md; the bump commit is a marker, not a place to restate the release. This project does not use commit scopes; do not add one.
4. CHANGELOG [Unreleased] body is reset to <!-- Add Unreleased entries here. --> after rotation. Never left empty.
5. CHANGELOG.md uses only the six Keep a Changelog 1.1.0 section names (Added, Changed, Deprecated, Removed, Fixed, Security). No invented sections. Mark a breaking entry by prefixing it with **BREAKING:** inside its correct section — e.g. ### Changed → - **BREAKING:** rename .... The release-note file (which is not bound by Keep a Changelog above its ## Changes trailer) keeps its own top-level ## Important: breaking changes block; only CHANGELOG.md and the trailer are constrained to the six sections.
6. Deprecations land in ### Deprecated, separately from ### Changed, even when a single commit is both (e.g. a rename with a deprecation window — that commit appears in both ### Deprecated for the old form and the relevant ### Added/### Changed for the new form).
7. Release-note ## Changes trailer is copied verbatim from CHANGELOG.md. After rotate-unreleased.py writes the ## [<version>] - <date> block, extract that block's body (the ### Added/### Changed/... subsections) and paste it under ## Changes in the release note. No SHA links anywhere — CHANGELOG.md has none, so the trailer has none.
8. Release note ends with **Full Changelog:** https://github.com/xico42/codeherd/compare/<prev-tag>...v<version> after the trailer — or, for the first release, omit the line.
9. Triage every chore and docs commit individually — they are not auto-dropped. Inspect the body and the diff. A runtime dependency bump, a refactor that changes a user-visible log format, a CI change that ships new install artefacts, a docs change to CLI help text — each survives into CHANGELOG.md under the appropriate section. Pure repo upkeep (test additions, internal refactors, formatting, contributor-doc edits) drops. See references/categorization.md for the decision rules.
10. Every prose fragment (changelog summaries, release-note summary, highlights, upgrade notes, commit body) is authored with the writing-clearly-and-concisely skill applied. Use its Limited Context Strategy if context is tight.

Workflow

Run these steps in order. Stop only at the explicit approval gate in step 9 or on a precondition failure.

1. Preconditions

test -z "$(git status --porcelain)" || { echo "dirty tree"; exit 2; }
git fetch --tags --quiet origin

If the working tree is dirty, print git status --short and stop. Do not stage anything.

2. Range

prev_tag=$(git tag --list 'v[0-9]*' --sort=-v:refname | head -n1)

• prev_tag empty → first release. Range is <root-sha>..HEAD. Proposed version starts at 0.1.0.
• prev_tag non-empty → range is ${prev_tag}..HEAD.

3. Collect commits

git log --no-merges --reverse \
        --format='%H%x1f%s%x1f%b%x1e' "${prev_tag:+$prev_tag..}HEAD"

Field separator: US (0x1f). Record separator: RS (0x1e). This survives subjects/bodies that contain tabs and newlines.

Skip any commit whose subject is chore: bump version <semver>.

4. Classify

Read references/categorization.md for the mapping. For each commit produce:

{
  "sha": "...",
  "subject": "...",
  "section": "Added | Changed | Deprecated | Removed | Fixed | Security",
  "breaking": false,
  "user_visible": true,
  "summary":     "<technical phrasing, present tense, omit needless words>",
  "user_summary":"<friendly phrasing; only when user_visible is true>"
}

Rules:

• The project uses six commit types: feat, fix, sec, revert, docs, chore. feat!/<type>! or a BREAKING CHANGE: footer sets breaking: true.
• Mechanical mapping: feat → Added, fix → Fixed, sec → Security, revert → Removed.
• chore and docs require per-commit analysis — they are not auto-dropped. Read each body and the diff. User-visible changes (a runtime dependency bump, a refactor with a changed log format, a CI change that ships new install artefacts, a docs change to CLI help text) ship under the matching section. Pure repo upkeep (test additions, internal refactors, formatting, contributor-doc edits) drops. See references/categorization.md.
• A renamed/removed command goes in both Deprecated (old form, for the deprecation window) and Added/Changed (new form).
• Unrecognised prefix (historical commits using refactor:, ci:, test:, perf:, build:, style:, security:, deprecate:, etc.) → treat as the chore of the corresponding kind (or, for the old security: prefix, as sec) and triage per the rules above. Flag at the approval gate so the maintainer can confirm.
• summary and user_summary are authored with writing-clearly-and-concisely.

5. Propose bump

Apply this table to the classification:

Signal	Bump (when prev_tag major ≥ 1)	Bump (while prev_tag major == 0)
Any breaking: true	MAJOR	MINOR
Else any Added	MINOR	MINOR
Else any Fixed/Security	PATCH	PATCH
Else	PATCH	PATCH

First release with no prev_tag → 0.1.0 (regardless of signal).

The maintainer may override with release as patch|minor|major at invocation time; print both the override and the auto-derived bump in the approval summary.

6. Render templates

Source: templates/changelog-section.tmpl.md, templates/release-notes.tmpl.md.

Variables:

Name	Source
Version	proposed semver, no leading v
Date	YYYY-MM-DD, local
PrevTag	prev_tag (with v), empty for first release
ReleaseKind	Major, Minor, or Patch from step 5
Sections	section name → list of {Summary, UserSummary, Breaking} (CHANGELOG.md uses .Summary; no SHA links)
Breaking	every record with breaking: true
Highlights	1–3 hand-written {Title, Body} entries. Author with writing-clearly-and-concisely.
HasFixed	true when Sections.Fixed is non-empty
Summary	2–4 sentence release summary. Author with writing-clearly-and-concisely.
UpgradeNotes	paragraph; omit when there are no migration steps.
ChangelogSection	body of the ## [<Version>] - <Date> block in CHANGELOG.md after rotation — slurped in step 7, not authored.

Render each template by direct text substitution — no template engine. Empty conditional blocks are removed entirely (no blank section headers).

Render release-notes.tmpl.md in two passes:

• Pass A (now): fill every variable except ChangelogSection. Leave the {{ChangelogSection}} placeholder literal in the buffer.
• Pass B (step 7, after rotation): replace the placeholder with the slurped CHANGELOG.md body.

7. Write files

printf '%s\n' "<version>" > VERSION
python3 scripts/rotate-unreleased.py "<version>" "<YYYY-MM-DD>" \
    <rendered-section-file> "<prev_tag-or-empty>"
mkdir -p docs/release-notes
# Slurp the rotated CHANGELOG.md section body (the ### subsections under
# `## [<version>] - <date>`, stopping at the next `## [` or footer link).
awk -v v="<version>" '
    $0 ~ "^## \\[" v "\\]" {grab=1; next}
    grab && /^## \[/ {exit}
    grab && /^\[[^]]+\]:[[:space:]]/ {exit}
    grab {print}
' CHANGELOG.md > /tmp/ch-section.md
# Pass B: substitute {{ChangelogSection}} in the rendered release note with
# /tmp/ch-section.md, then write docs/release-notes/<version>.md.

rotate-unreleased.py handles CHANGELOG.md surgery deterministically (creates the file on first release, otherwise rotates [Unreleased] and refreshes footer compare-links).

8. Stage and summarize

git add VERSION CHANGELOG.md docs/release-notes/<version>.md
git diff --cached --stat

Then print, in this order:

• Proposed version and the SemVer reasoning sentence.
• Any classification warnings (unknown prefixes, mixed signals).
• The first ~20 lines of CHANGELOG.md and of docs/release-notes/<version>.md.

9. Approval gate

Ask the maintainer exactly once:

Release prep staged for v<version>. Commit as chore: bump version <version> (y/n)? Edit files first if needed; staged set will be re-read on y.

Wait for y. On n, stop without unstaging.

10. Commit

git commit -m "chore: bump version <version>"

Subject is exact. Body is the same Summary paragraph used at the top of the release note. No Co-Authored-By unless the maintainer set it globally.

Prose Policy

Before writing any sentence into CHANGELOG.md, docs/release-notes/<version>.md, or the commit body: invoke the writing-clearly-and-concisely skill at .agents/skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/ and apply its rules. Use its Limited Context Strategy (subagent copyedit) when context is tight.

This is the single source of style for every release artifact this skill produces. No second style guide lives inside creating-release.

Rationalizations to Reject

Excuse	Reality
"I'll skip the VERSION file — the tag is the source of truth."	The pipeline triggers off VERSION changing. No bump, no release. Write the file.
"Leading v in filenames is more familiar."	The pipeline globs docs/release-notes/<version>.md. Leading v (or any -suffix) breaks the glob. No v, no suffix.
"Two files — user + technical — are easier to read."	One file. The friendly body comes first, the CHANGELOG.md slurp comes last under ## Changes. Don't resurrect the split.
"release: (or any variant) is the conventional subject."	This repo's convention is chore: bump version <v> — see git log. Match it. The project does not use commit scopes, so chore(release): and similar are also wrong.
"I can fold the breaking note into Changed without the **BREAKING:** prefix."	The prefix is the marker readers (and the release-notes pipeline) look for. Keep the bullet under its correct Keep a Changelog section (Changed, Removed, etc.) and prefix it with **BREAKING:**. Do not invent a ### Breaking section — Keep a Changelog 1.1.0 has none. The release-note's friendly top half has its own ## Important: breaking changes block; the CHANGELOG.md trailer it copies keeps the **BREAKING:** prefix in place.
"Every chore and docs commit belongs in the changelog for completeness."	Keep a Changelog 1.1.0 is for changes users notice. A chore or docs commit ships in CHANGELOG.md only when its body proves user-visible behaviour changed — see "Chore triage" in references/categorization.md. Pure repo upkeep stays in git log alone.
"I'll write prose first and copyedit later if there's time."	Defer to writing-clearly-and-concisely at draft time, not as a backstop. Strunk's rules are non-optional.
"First release, so CHANGELOG.md doesn't need a [Unreleased] block."	Yes it does. rotate-unreleased.py seeds it on the first release. Future bumps depend on it.

Red Flags — Stop and Reread

• Subject of the bump commit isn't exactly chore: bump version <version>, or the commit carries a body.
• VERSION file isn't in the staged set.
• A breaking change is in CHANGELOG.md without the **BREAKING:** prefix.
• CHANGELOG.md contains a section that isn't one of Added/Changed/Deprecated/Removed/Fixed/Security.
• The release-note ## Changes trailer disagrees with CHANGELOG.md's [<version>] block — it must be a verbatim copy.
• The release-note filename starts with v, has a -user/-technical suffix, or you wrote two files.
• Prose was written without writing-clearly-and-concisely applied.
• A chore or docs commit appears in CHANGELOG.md without its body justifying a user-visible change.
• A chore or docs commit was dropped without its body being read.

Any of these → fix before the approval gate. Do not ship.

References

• references/categorization.md — commit prefix → section table, authoritative.
• references/keepachangelog.md — Keep a Changelog 1.1.0 condensed.
• references/semver.md — SemVer 2.0.0 bump rules including the 0.x convention.
• templates/changelog-section.tmpl.md — body injected into CHANGELOG.md.
• templates/release-notes.tmpl.md — docs/release-notes/<version>.md (single file; friendly body + verbatim CHANGELOG.md trailer).
• scripts/rotate-unreleased.py — CHANGELOG.md surgery (idempotent, deterministic).