Prepare Release

Automatically update CHANGELOG.md and version files based on git history, semantic versioning, and conventional commits.

Instructions

1. Read Release Guidelines

Read RELEASING.md for the full release process and conventions.

2. Determine Last Release

# Get the latest version tag
git describe --tags --abbrev=0

3. Collect Commits Since Last Release

# List all commits since last tag, excluding previous version bump commits
git log $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)..HEAD --oneline --no-merges --grep="^chore: Bump version" --invert-grep

Ignore any chore: Bump version to X.Y.Z commits — these are artifacts of previous /release runs that haven't been tagged yet.

4. Determine Version Bump

Analyze commit types (excluding version bump commits) to determine the correct version bump:

• Any BREAKING CHANGE in footer or ! after type → major bump
• Any feat: commits → minor bump
• Only fix:, perf:, or other patch-level commits → patch bump

If there are no user-facing changes (only docs:, refactor:, test:, chore:, ci:, style:), inform the user that there are no releasable changes and ask whether to proceed.

5. Categorize Changes for Changelog

Map commits to changelog sections per RELEASING.md:

Commit Type	Changelog Section	Include?
feat:	Added	Yes
fix:	Fixed	Yes
BREAKING CHANGE	Changed	Yes
perf:	Changed	Yes
build:	Changed	Only if user-facing
docs:	—	No
refactor:	—	No
test:	—	No
chore:	—	No
ci:	—	No
style:	—	No

Write human-readable changelog entries:

• Use the commit subject but rewrite if needed for clarity
• Remove commit type prefixes and scopes
• Start each entry with a dash and describe the user-facing change
• Group related commits into a single entry when appropriate

6. Update CHANGELOG.md

1. Read current CHANGELOG.md
2. Check if there is already an untagged version section (a version entry above [Unreleased] that has no corresponding git tag). This happens when /release was run before but no tag was created yet.
   • If an untagged version section exists: Replace that entire section (heading, date, and all entries) with the newly determined version and entries. Do NOT create a duplicate section.
   • If no untagged version section exists: Add a new version section under [Unreleased] with today's date.
3. Populate with categorized changes (Added, Changed, Fixed, Removed, Security — only include sections that have entries)
4. Update the comparison links at the bottom of the file:
   • Update [Unreleased] link to compare new version to HEAD
   • Add/update the version comparison link

7. Update Version Files

Update the version string in both files (they must match):

• version/version.go — the Version constant
• cmd/version.go — the Version variable

8. Verify Build

go build -o /tmp/git-flow main.go && /tmp/git-flow version

9. Commit

Stage and commit all changes:

git add CHANGELOG.md version/version.go cmd/version.go

Check if the previous commit is already a chore: Bump version to ... commit (from a prior /release run). If so, amend that commit instead of creating a new one:

# If previous commit is a version bump:
git commit --amend -m "chore: Bump version to X.Y.Z"

# Otherwise create a new commit:
git commit -m "chore: Bump version to X.Y.Z"

10. Report

Show the user:

• Previous version → new version
• Summary of changelog entries
• Remind them to push and tag when ready:

  git push origin main
  git tag vX.Y.Z
  git push origin vX.Y.Z