Keep changelogs and release notes current

Tip

You can set this up by hand as this page describes, or ask Promptless in Slack or Microsoft Teams to do it for you. For example, “@Promptless set yourself up to auto-merge changelog updates.” See Ask Promptless to update your configuration.

Changelogs and release notes drift the same way the rest of your docs do — they fall behind what actually shipped. Promptless keeps them current alongside everything else by drafting changelog entries as suggestions when new features ship, updating your existing changelog structure as changes land, and following the conventions you set for how entries read. This page shows how to point Promptless at your changelog from the Configuration page and set up the trigger that keeps it fresh.

Note

This page covers the changelog-specific setup: where your changelog lives, which changes activate an update, and how to publish entries without reviewing them by hand. For the fuller treatment of when Promptless drafts and publishes across your release stages, see Release timing. See publishing policies for the full list of fields that control PR creation and auto-merge.

What Promptless does with changelogs

Before drafting a changelog suggestion, Promptless first assesses whether the change needs documentation at all, so a change that touches no documented behavior produces no suggestion. See Filter noise and tune relevance for how that assessment works. When it does draft an entry, it follows your existing changelog structure rather than imposing a new one, so entries land in the format your project already uses.

Point Promptless at your changelog

Tell Promptless where your changelog lives so it can keep that content current:

• Scope a doc collection to your changelog. On the Configuration page, open your doc collection under Doc collections, expand More filters (optional), and name your changelog path under Only watch these folders (“Leave empty to watch the whole repo.”). Despite the folder-oriented label, this field also accepts an individual file, so an entry like CHANGELOG.md limits Promptless to that one file. See GitHub repos (docs as code) for how path scope works.
• Add a separate collection when your changelog lives in another repository. A repository can have at most one doc collection, so a second collection makes sense only when your changelog sits in a different repository from your main docs. Use Add doc collection on the Configuration page to track it on its own, and see Doc collections for how that works. A changelog in a different folder of the same repository stays in your existing collection, so scope its path there instead.

Publish changelog updates immediately

For changelog updates you don’t need to review by hand, let them publish on their own.

• Turn on auto-merge. On the Policies tab of the Configuration page, find the Publishing group and turn on Merge the pull request automatically (“Skip review and merge Promptless’s PRs as soon as they’re created”). This also requires Open a pull request automatically to stay on, since Promptless has to open the PR before it can merge it. The GitHub commits page calls out changelog-driven updates as a good fit for this, when you want entries to publish the moment they’re ready.
• Watch for branch protection. Branch protection on the branch Promptless targets can block an automatic merge.
• Limit which suggestions auto-merge. The defaults on the Policies tab apply to every suggestion, so turning on auto-merge there auto-merges your API reference edits and migration guides too, not just changelog entries. Scope the automation to the trigger that covers your changelog, or — when your changelog has its own doc collection because it lives in a different repository — to that collection. Control when a suggestion publishes covers how publishing policies resolve and how to limit them to a class of change you trust.

Teach Promptless how you write changelog entries

Promptless follows the conventions you give it for changelog content:

• Keep changelog entries in their own suggestion. Feedback like “I always want changelog entries in their own suggestion—please move” is a documented example of the kind of convention you can teach through feedback.
• Teach it which changes deserve an entry. Where you draw that line is your team’s convention, not a setting. Close a changelog suggestion you don’t want with “This change is too insignificant” or “This change is self-explanatory and doesn’t need docs,” and check Remember this feedback for future suggestions so it sticks. Or write the rule down up front. See Teach Promptless what to skip for both paths.
• Point to a skill for changelog entries. In the PROMPTLESS.md file in your Agent Knowledge Base, tell the agent to prefer a particular skill when writing changelog entries. See How Promptless learns your docs for how that guidance is applied.