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

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If this fails, stop — not a git repository.

2. Determine Range

The user may specify:

• - Tag-to-tag: INLINECODE0
• Since date: INLINECODE1
• Last N commits: INLINECODE2
• Since last tag: auto-detect with INLINECODE3

Default behavior — find the last tag and generate from there to HEAD:

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If no tags exist, use the full history.

3. Extract Commits

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4. Categorize by Conventional Commits

Parse each commit subject and group into categories:

Parse pattern: type(scope): description or INLINECODE15

5. Generate Markdown

Output format:

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Rules:

• - Include scope in bold if present: INLINECODE16
• Include short hash as reference: INLINECODE17
• 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

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Also flag commits with ! after type: INLINECODE21

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 INLINECODE26
• No tags: Use full history or ask user for a date range
• Empty range: Report "No commits found in the specified range"

Error Handling