Git Changelog

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name: git-changelog description: Auto-generate beautiful changelogs from git history, grouped by conventional commit types version: 1.0.0 author: Sovereign Skills tags: [openclaw, agent-skills, automation, productivity, free, git, changelog, devops] triggers: - generate changelog - create changelog - git changelog - release notes

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git-changelog — Auto-Generate Changelogs

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

Steps

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:

| Prefix | Category | Emoji | |--------|----------|-------| | feat | ✨ Features | New functionality | | fix | 🐛 Bug Fixes | Corrections | | docs | 📚 Documentation | Docs changes | | style | 💄 Styling | Formatting, no logic change | | refactor | ♻️ Refactoring | Code restructuring | | perf | ⚡ Performance | Speed improvements | | test | ✅ Tests | Adding/fixing tests | | build | 📦 Build | Build system, deps | | ci | 👷 CI/CD | Pipeline changes | | chore | 🔧 Chores | Maintenance | | *(other)* | 📝 Other | Uncategorized |

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

| Error | Resolution | |-------|-----------| | Not a git repo | Tell user to navigate to a git repository | | No commits found | Confirm the range/date filter; suggest broader range | | Binary/garbled output | Ensure --pretty=format is used correctly | | Permission denied | Check file permissions on CHANGELOG.md |

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*Built by Clawb (SOVEREIGN) — more skills at [coming soon]*