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ai-changelog skill

/skills/lxgicstudios/ai-changelog

This skill generates clean, categorized changelogs from git history, saving you time and ensuring consistent release notes across projects.

npx playbooks add skill openclaw/skills --skill ai-changelog

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

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SKILL.md
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---
name: changelog-gen
description: Generate changelogs from git history. Use when you need release notes fast.
---

# Changelog Generator

Writing changelogs by hand is tedious. This tool reads your git history between two refs and generates a properly categorized changelog entry. No more copy-pasting commit messages.

**One command. Zero config. Just works.**

## Quick Start

```bash
npx ai-changelog --from v1.0.0 --to v2.0.0
```

## What It Does

- Reads git log between any two refs (tags, branches, commits)
- Groups commits into Added, Changed, Fixed, Removed
- Cleans up messy commit messages into readable entries
- Outputs markdown ready for your CHANGELOG.md

## Usage Examples

```bash
# Between two tags
npx ai-changelog --from v1.0.0 --to v2.0.0

# From a tag to HEAD
npx ai-changelog --from v1.0.0 --to HEAD

# Write directly to file
npx ai-changelog --from v1.0.0 --to v2.0.0 -o CHANGELOG.md

# Specific commit range
npx ai-changelog --from abc123 --to def456
```

## Best Practices

- **Tag your releases** - makes generating changelogs way easier
- **Write decent commits** - garbage in, garbage out
- **Review the output** - AI might miscategorize some changes
- **Run before release** - make it part of your release checklist

## When to Use This

- Preparing a release and need changelog entries
- You forgot to maintain the changelog and need to catch up
- Want consistent changelog formatting across releases
- Generating release notes for GitHub releases

## Part of the LXGIC Dev Toolkit

This is one of 110+ free developer tools built by LXGIC Studios. No paywalls, no sign-ups, no API keys on free tiers. Just tools that work.

**Find more:**
- GitHub: https://github.com/LXGIC-Studios
- Twitter: https://x.com/lxgicstudios
- Substack: https://lxgicstudios.substack.com
- Website: https://lxgicstudios.com

## Requirements

No install needed. Just run with npx. Node.js 18+ recommended. Needs OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable.

```bash
npx ai-changelog --help
```

## How It Works

Runs git log between your specified refs, collects all commit messages, and sends them to GPT-4o-mini. The AI parses the commits, understands what each change does, and formats them into proper Keep a Changelog style with appropriate categories.

## License

MIT. Free forever. Use it however you want.

---

**Built by LXGIC Studios**

- GitHub: [github.com/lxgicstudios/ai-changelog](https://github.com/lxgicstudios/ai-changelog)
- Twitter: [@lxgicstudios](https://x.com/lxgicstudios)

Overview

This skill generates changelogs automatically from git history so you can create release notes fast. It reads commits between two refs, cleans and groups messages, and outputs markdown formatted entries ready for your CHANGELOG.md. No config required—run a single command to produce categorized release notes.

How this skill works

The tool runs git log between two provided refs (tags, branches, or commits), collects commit messages, and normalizes them into human-friendly lines. It sends the aggregated data to an AI parser that classifies changes into categories like Added, Changed, Fixed, and Removed, then outputs Keep a Changelog style markdown. You can print to stdout or write directly to a file.

When to use it

  • Preparing release notes quickly for a new version
  • You skipped maintaining a changelog and need to catch up
  • Standardizing changelog format across multiple repositories
  • Generating content for GitHub releases or release announcements
  • Extracting readable history from messy commit messages

Best practices

  • Tag releases in git to define clear ranges
  • Write concise, descriptive commit messages to improve AI classification
  • Review the generated output—AI may miscategorize edge cases
  • Run the generator as part of your release checklist or CI pipeline
  • Specify explicit from/to refs to avoid including unintended commits

Example use cases

  • Generate notes between two tags: npx ai-changelog --from v1.0.0 --to v2.0.0
  • Create a changelog up to HEAD: npx ai-changelog --from v1.0.0 --to HEAD
  • Write output directly to file: npx ai-changelog --from v1.0.0 --to v2.0.0 -o CHANGELOG.md
  • Produce release notes from a specific commit range for audit or archive purposes
  • Batch-generate consistent changelogs across archived repositories for an aggregated release index

FAQ

Do I need to install anything?

No install is required; run with npx. Node.js 18+ is recommended and an OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable is needed for the AI parsing step.

What refs can I use for the range?

Any valid git refs: tags, branch names, or commit hashes. Use --from and --to to define the range. Using tags is the clearest option.