Auto Changelog Reminder

📋 Overview

Automatically checks if PRs with user-facing changes include changelog updates. Detects user-visible modifications (UI, APIs, CLI), suggests properly formatted changelog entries if missing, and can commit the entry on approval. Ensures changelog stays synchronized with code changes.

⚡ Triggers

Automatic:

• Event: pull_request_opened
• Delay: 60 seconds (allows PR description to be completed)

Manual:

• Slash command: /changelog
• Can be used on any PR

🎯 Use Cases

• Enforce changelog discipline across the team
• Reduce forgotten changelog entries before releases
• Standardize changelog format and style
• Teaching tool - shows what constitutes a user-facing change
• Release preparation - ensures all changes are documented

🔧 Prerequisites

• Agents configured: Technical Writer, Senior Developer, Product Manager

🏗️ Workflow Steps

1. Clone Repo (git.clone) - Clones the PR branch

   • Agents: None (automated git operation)
   • Duration: ~1 min

2. Validate Changelog (agent.session) - Checks and suggests changelog entries

   • Agents: Technical Writer, Senior Developer, Product Manager
   • Duration: ~2-5 min (up to 120 min for interactive session)
   • Analyzes PR, detects user-facing changes, suggests entries

[Clone] → [Validate & Suggest]

🎨 Customization

Step Prompts

• validate-changelog.md - Controls what counts as user-facing, changelog format, suggestion style

Common Adjustments

Change what's considered user-facing: Edit validate-changelog.md definition section:

• Stricter: "Any file under src/ or lib/"
• Looser: "Only files that modify external APIs or UI components"
• Add patterns: "Include changes to configuration files that affect users"

Customize changelog format: Edit the "Formatting Rules" section:

• Use different heading structure
• Change bullet style or indentation
• Add emoji or categorization prefixes
• Include PR/issue references automatically

Auto-commit behavior: Edit the approval logic:

• Auto-commit without asking: Remove the "approve changelog" requirement
• Never auto-commit: Remove commit logic, only suggest
• Require specific approval phrase

Changelog location: Edit the "Locate the Relevant Changelog File" section:

• Check different paths (e.g., docs/CHANGELOG.md)
• Support multiple changelog files
• Handle monorepo package-specific changelogs

🔗 Related Workflows

• Auto Docs Update on Merge - Updates documentation when PRs merge
• Code Review - Ensures code quality along with changelog

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Part of the Overcut Playbooks collection