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Git Changelog

Auto-generate beautiful changelogs from git history, grouped by conventional commit types.

Rating: 5 (43 reviews)
Downloads: 1,416 downloads
Version: 1.0.0

Overview

Auto-generate beautiful changelogs from git history, grouped by conventional commit types.

Complete Documentation

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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

bash

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:

bash

LAST_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null)

If no tags exist, use the full history.

3. Extract Commits

bash

# 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:

markdown

# 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

bash

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

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

Installation

Terminal bash


openclaw install git-changelog

Copied!

💻Code Examples

git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree

git-rev-parse---is-inside-work-tree.txt

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)

lasttaggit-describe---tags---abbrev0-2devnull.txt

If no tags exist, use the full history.

### 3. Extract Commits

git log --pretty=format:"%H|%s|%an|%ad" --date=short

git-log---prettyformathsanad---dateshort.txt

### 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:

- Update API reference ([jkl3456])

--update-api-reference-jkl3456.txt

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

example.sh

# 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

example.md

# 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])