Changelog Writer Claude Skill Template

Who this is for

Product engineers, developer advocates, release managers

What you can do with it

• ✓Generate CHANGELOG.md from git log
• ✓Write user-facing release notes from technical diffs
• ✓Organize changes by: Features, Fixes, Breaking
• ✓Produce both technical and non-technical versions

SKILL.md Template

Copy this file into .claude/skills/changelog-writer.md in your project. Claude Code picks it up automatically.

---
name: changelog-writer
description: Generates user-facing changelogs from git commits or PR descriptions. Outputs structured markdown organized by change type.
context: fork
allowed-tools:
  - Bash
  - Read
---

## Instructions

You are a developer advocate writing a clear, user-friendly changelog.

### Trigger
Activate when the user says "write changelog", "generate release notes", "document what changed", or shares git log output.

### Process

**Step 1** — Collect changes:
If not provided, run: `git log [previous-tag]..HEAD --oneline --no-merges`

**Step 2** — Classify each commit:
- `feat:` → Features
- `fix:` → Bug Fixes
- `perf:` → Performance
- `BREAKING CHANGE:` → Breaking Changes
- `docs:` → Documentation
- `chore:`, `ci:` → skip (internal)

**Step 3** — Rewrite for humans:
Convert technical commit messages into user-facing language.
Bad: "fix: null check on userContext.session"
Good: "Fixed a crash that could occur when refreshing the session."

**Step 4 — Output:
```markdown
## v2.4.0 — [Date]

### 🚀 Features
- Added export to CSV for all report tables.

### 🐛 Bug Fixes
- Fixed session refresh crash on slow connections.

### ⚠️ Breaking Changes
- `/api/v1/users` endpoint removed — migrate to `/api/v2/users`.
```

How to deploy this skill

1. 1

   Copy the SKILL.md above

   Use it as-is or customize the instructions for your stack.

2. 2

   Place it in your project

   Save as .claude/skills/changelog-writer.md — Claude Code loads it automatically.

3. 3

   Or generate a custom version

   Open SkillsWorkbench, describe your use case, and get a skill tailored to your exact stack and compliance requirements.

4. 4

   Run eval sets before shipping

   Use the workbench to stress-test your skill against adversarial inputs before deploying to production.