Changelog Pilot

🚀 changelog-pilot

Ship releases, not stress.

Preview changes → Generate changelog → Bump version → Tag → Publish GitHub release. One command or six — your call.

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Why changelog-pilot?

Every release is the same cycle: scroll through commits, figure out what's a feature vs a fix, write a changelog, decide if it's a major or minor, update the version in 3 different files, create the tag, write release notes, publish on GitHub. It's tedious, error-prone, and always takes longer than expected.

I built changelog-pilot to handle the entire release lifecycle from my terminal. It reads my commits, understands what changed, writes a changelog that humans actually want to read, bumps the version everywhere, and publishes the release. I can do everything in one command or step by step — whatever the situation calls for.

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Install

# Add the marketplace (one-time)
claude plugin marketplace add imsdjeb/changelog-pilot

# Install the plugin
claude plugin install changelog-pilot@imsdjeb-changelog-pilot

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Commands

Command	What it does
/changelog-pilot:preview	Preview changes since last release — categorized commits + recommended bump
/changelog-pilot:changelog	Generate a human-readable changelog entry
/changelog-pilot:bump	Bump version in all manifest files
/changelog-pilot:tag	Create annotated git tag + push
/changelog-pilot:notes	Publish GitHub release with highlights and contributor credits
/changelog-pilot:ship	Full pipeline — all of the above in sequence

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Quick Start

One command

/changelog-pilot:ship

That's it. Preview → Changelog → Bump → Commit → Tag → GitHub Release. Asks for confirmation at each step.

Step by step

/changelog-pilot:preview     # See what changed, get recommended bump
/changelog-pilot:changelog   # Write the changelog entry
/changelog-pilot:bump minor  # Bump version in all files
/changelog-pilot:tag         # Create + push the git tag
/changelog-pilot:notes       # Publish GitHub release

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Commit Styles

changelog-pilot understands how you write commits — no need to change your habits.

Conventional Commits — feat:, fix:, chore:, BREAKING CHANGE:, etc. Parsed precisely per the spec.

Gitmoji — ✨ :sparkles:, 🐛 :bug:, 💥 :boom:, etc. Mapped to conventional types automatically.

Freeform — No convention? No problem. The plugin analyzes commit messages semantically: "Add dark mode" → feature, "Fix login bug" → fix, "Update dependencies" → maintenance. It's not perfect, but it's surprisingly good.

The style is auto-detected from your recent commits. You can override it in the config.

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Smart Changelog

The changelog isn't a commit dump. It's written for humans:

• Groups related commits — 3 commits that implement the same feature become one entry
• Rewrites for clarity — "refactor auth module to use strategy pattern" becomes "Improved login reliability"
• Includes PR numbers — for traceability
• Credits contributors — in GitHub release notes
• Adds upgrade guides — when there are breaking changes

Uses the Keep a Changelog format by default: Added, Changed, Fixed, Removed, Security.

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Works Everywhere

changelog-pilot is language and framework agnostic. It finds your version in:

File	Ecosystem
package.json	Node.js / JavaScript / TypeScript
pubspec.yaml	Flutter / Dart
Cargo.toml	Rust
pyproject.toml / setup.py / setup.cfg	Python
*.gemspec / version.rb	Ruby
*.csproj / Directory.Build.props	.NET
Git tags	Go (and anything else)

When bumping, it updates all files that contain the version — not just one.

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Natural Language

You don't need slash commands:

• "What changed since the last release?"
• "Ship a new version"
• "Generate the changelog"
• "Bump to 2.0.0"
• "Create a GitHub release"
• "We need a patch release for this bugfix"
• "Prepare a beta release"

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Configuration (Optional)

Create .changelog-pilot.json at your project root:

{
  "commitStyle": "auto",
  "changelogFile": "CHANGELOG.md",
  "changelogFormat": "keepachangelog",
  "versionFiles": ["package.json"],
  "tagPrefix": "v",
  "githubRelease": true,
  "groupMergeCommits": true,
  "excludeScopes": ["deps", "ci"],
  "contributors": true,
  "preReleaseTag": null
}

All fields optional. The defaults work for most projects. Notable options:

• commitStyle: "auto", "conventional", "gitmoji", or "freeform"
• excludeScopes: commit scopes to exclude from the changelog (e.g., deps, ci)
• groupMergeCommits: collapse merge commits into their component commits
• preReleaseTag: set to "alpha", "beta", or "rc" for pre-release versions

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How It Works

detect-commits.sh ──→ PREVIEW ──→ CHANGELOG ──→ BUMP ──→ TAG ──→ NOTES
       │                  │            │           │         │        │
       │                  │            │           │         │        └─ gh release create
       │                  │            │           │         └─ git tag -a
       │                  │            │           └─ update all manifest files
       │                  │            └─ write CHANGELOG.md
       │                  └─ categorize + recommend bump
       └─ find last tag, list commits, detect style

Detection scripts run first to gather raw data. Each workflow builds on the previous one. The SHIP command chains them all with confirmation gates.

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on adding changelog formats, supporting new version file types, and improving commit parsing.

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License

MIT