Automating Release Notes: Bridging Efficiency and Curation for Project Success

Crafting release notes is a critical, yet often time-consuming, process for software projects. The discussion around automating this task highlights a fundamental tension between the efficiency of automated generation and the quality of human curation.

At one end of the spectrum, some argue that release notes are a moment of celebration, best crafted by thoughtful humans to convey pride in new features and bug fixes. They see purely auto-generated notes, especially those that merely list pull request (PR) titles, as unhelpful "PR-title soup" that obscures important information, like breaking changes.

Conversely, for projects needing to backfill years of release history or maintain a rapid release cadence, manual curation can be a significant time sink, diverting resources from development. A hybrid approach, where automation generates a solid 80% draft that can then be refined and curated, emerges as a practical middle ground.

The Critical Role of Source Data Quality

A recurring theme is that the effectiveness of any automation hinges entirely on the quality of the underlying source data. Whether drawing from GitHub PRs, Jira issues, or commit messages, the principle of "garbage-in, garbage-out" holds true. Vague PR descriptions or inconsistent tagging will inevitably lead to low-quality automated output. To combat this:

• Implement PR Templates: Standardizing PR templates encourages contributors to consistently document the "why," "what changed," and "impact" of their work, providing rich context for note generation.
• Leverage LLMs for Context: For PRs with sparse descriptions, advanced tools can use LLMs to summarize changes, potentially even fetching truncated diff context to provide a more meaningful overview.
• Distill Commit Messages: Remember that commit messages are primarily for developers. Release note automation should focus on higher-level artifacts like PR titles and bodies, which are typically more focused on deliverables for consumers.

Understanding Your Audience: Developer vs. User

A crucial distinction is drawn between different audiences for release information:

• Developer-Facing Changelogs: For technical users or contributors, these can be more detailed and often live within documentation or on platforms like GitHub Releases. The goal is clarity on what has changed in the codebase or library.
• User-Facing Release Communications: These are a communication channel for end-users and must be accessible where users already are (in-app, email, Slack). They should focus on the value and benefits to the user, not just the technical changes. Specialized tools like ReleaseNotes.io, LaunchNotes, AnnounceKit, or Canny facilitate this.

Strategies for Handling Breaking Changes

One of the biggest complaints about poorly automated release notes is the difficulty in identifying breaking changes. Effective strategies include:

• Categorization: Automated systems should categorize changes, explicitly flagging "Backward Incompatible Changes" to make them easy to spot.
• Dedicated Migration Guides: For significant breaking changes, it's highly recommended to separate detailed upgrade instructions and caveats into dedicated documents like BREAKING.md or MIGRATIONS.md. This allows release notes to focus on new features and improvements, while providing a clear path for users needing to upgrade.
• Fragment-based Notes: Some tools, like Towncrier, allow contributors to write small, curated fragments of release notes with each change, ensuring that important details like breaking changes are captured and properly described at the source.

Tools and Methodologies

While custom scripts (often tag-driven for version boundaries and PR-based for content) are common, several tools were mentioned:

• Towncrier & reno: Fragment-based systems where contributors write small note snippets.
• GitHub Releases: A straightforward option, especially for open-source projects with a technical audience.
• Commercial Platforms: ReleaseNotes.io, LaunchNotes, AnnounceKit, Canny for comprehensive user-facing release communication.
• git-cliff: Recommended for generating changelogs from conventional commits.