release-note-generation

by microsoft

Toolkit for generating PowerToys release notes from GitHub milestone PRs or commit ranges. Use when asked to create release notes, summarize milestone PRs,… npx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/powertoys --skill release-note-generation Download ZIPGitHub136k

Release Note Generation Skill

Generate professional release notes for PowerToys milestones by collecting merged PRs, summarizing each PR with the local CLI agent, grouping by label, and producing user-facing summaries.

Output Directory

All generated artifacts are placed under Generated Files/ReleaseNotes/ at the repository root (gitignored).

Generated Files/ReleaseNotes/
├── milestone_prs.json # Raw PR data from GitHub
├── sorted_prs.csv # Sorted PR list with Copilot summaries
├── prs_with_milestone.csv # Milestone assignment tracking
├── grouped_csv/ # PRs grouped by label (one CSV per label)
├── grouped_md/ # Generated markdown summaries per label
└── v{VERSION}-release-notes.md # Final consolidated release notes

When to Use This Skill

• Generate release notes for a milestone

• Summarize PRs merged in a release

• Generate per-PR review summaries locally for release-notes copy

• Assign milestones to PRs missing them

• Collect PRs between two commits/tags

• Update README.md for a new version

• Prepare GitHub release assets (download installers/symbols + compute hashes)

Required Variables

⚠️ Before starting, confirm {{ReleaseVersion}} with the user. If not provided, ASK: "What release version are we generating notes for? (e.g., 0.98)"

Variable Description Example {{ReleaseVersion}} Target release version 0.98

Workflow Overview

┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.0 Verify gh auth + MemberList │
└────────────────────────────────┘
 ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.1 Collect PRs (stable range) │
└────────────────────────────────┘
 ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.2 Assign Milestones │
└────────────────────────────────┘
 ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 2.1–2.4 Label PRs (auto+human) │
└────────────────────────────────┘
 ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.1 Local-agent PR summaries │
│ (writes CopilotSummary) │
└────────────────────────────────┘
 ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.2 (Optional) Refresh PR data │
└────────────────────────────────┘
 ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.3 Group by label │
│ (grouped_csv) │
└────────────────────────────────┘
 ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 4.1 Summarize (grouped_md) │
└────────────────────────────────┘
 ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 4.2 Final notes (v{VERSION}.md) │
└────────────────────────────────┘

Step Action Details 1.0 Verify prerequisites gh auth status must pass; generate MemberList.md 1.1 Collect PRs From previous release tag on stable branch → sorted_prs.csv 1.2 Assign Milestones Ensure all PRs have correct milestone 2.1–2.4 Label PRs Auto-suggest + human label low-confidence 3.1–3.3 Reviews & Grouping Local agent summarizes each PR diff into CopilotSummary → (optional refresh) → group by label 4.1–4.2 Summaries & Final Generate grouped summaries, then consolidate

Detailed workflow docs

Do not read all steps at once—only read the step you are executing.

• Step 1: Collection & Milestones

• Step 2: Labeling PRs

• Step 3: Reviews & Grouping

• Step 4: Summarization

Available Scripts

Script Purpose dump-prs-since-commit.ps1 Fetch PRs between commits/tags group-prs-by-label.ps1 Group PRs into CSVs collect-or-apply-milestones.ps1 Assign milestones diff_prs.ps1 Incremental PR diff prepare-release-assets.ps1 Download installers + symbols from an ADO build, compute SHA256, emit the "Installer Hashes" markdown table for the GitHub release page

References

• Sample Output - Example summary formatting

• Detailed Instructions - Legacy full documentation

Conventions

• Terminal usage: Disabled by default; only run scripts when user explicitly requests

• Batch generation: Generate ALL grouped_md files in one pass, then human reviews

• PR order: Preserve order from sorted_prs.csv in all outputs

• Label filtering: Keeps Product-*, Area-*, GitHub*, *Plugin, Issue-*