Changelog Rules

A shared conventions skill that keeps CHANGELOG.md consistent with Keep a Changelog and SemVer — structure, entry wording, and PR/issue links.

Dev & CodingIntermediate★ 402⑂ 30AI score 8/10Last updated: Sep 4, 2026

What it does

Defines the canonical CHANGELOG.md skeleton: intro text, an always-present [Unreleased] section, and version comparison links at the bottom.
Decides what is changelog-worthy: skip refactors, formatting, CI config, docs and no-op dependency bumps; include features, behavior changes, deprecations/removals, bug fixes and security patches.
Enforces entry style: imperative present tense with no trailing period, one bullet per change, user-visible verbs ("Add", "Fix", "Show", "Allow") instead of developer-centric ones ("Implement", "Refactor", "Enforce").
Validates the net delta since the last release using git show <tag>:<path> and git log --follow, so entries that only fix never-shipped behavior get folded into the feature or dropped.
Adds PR and issue links in ascending order, discovering linked issues via gh pr view <number> --json closingIssuesReferences.
Specifies section order (Added → Changed → Deprecated → Removed → Fixed → Security), ISO 8601 dates, and auto-detection of v-prefixed vs bare tags.

Who it's for

Open-source maintainers who want a uniform changelog across many contributors.
Teams already on Keep a Changelog + SemVer whose entry wording drifts per author.
Anyone building /create-changelog and /update-changelog slash commands for Claude Code.

Examples

Release prep: scan the Unreleased section, spot "fixes" for features that never shipped, merge them into the originating entry, then cut ## [1.3.0] - 2025-06-01.
After merging PR #142: look up its closing issue #137 with gh and append - Fix crash on startup ([#137](...), [#142](...)) under Unreleased/Fixed.
Backfilling history from git tags: omit references since there are no PRs, order releases newest-first, and generate compare links from the remote URL.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobihagemann/turbo/HEAD/claude/skills/changelog-rules/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)

Download the ZIP with the button below.
In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.

↓ Download ZIP

Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the claude/skills/changelog-rules folder from the GitHub repo tobihagemann/turbo into my ~/.claude/skills/changelog-rules/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/tobihagemann/turbo.git /tmp/turbo && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/turbo/claude/skills/changelog-rules ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

Open a terminal.
Clone the repository to a temp folder: git clone https://github.com/tobihagemann/turbo.git /tmp/turbo
Create the skills folder if needed: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
Copy the skill: cp -r /tmp/turbo/claude/skills/changelog-rules ~/.claude/skills/
(Recommended) Also copy the /create-changelog and /update-changelog command files from /tmp/turbo/claude/commands into ~/.claude/commands/, since this skill is meant to back them.
For automatic PR/issue linking, install the GitHub CLI and authenticate: gh auth login
Restart Claude Code and ask something like "update CHANGELOG.md for this release" to see the rules applied.

View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT