{"slug": "changelog-md-is-for-both-humans-and-ai-now-so-lets-automate-it", "title": "CHANGELOG.md is for Both Humans and AI Now, So Let’s Automate It", "summary": "A developer known as @nyaomaru built changelog-bot, an open-source CLI and GitHub Action that automatically generates and updates CHANGELOG.md files from Git history, pull requests, and release notes. The tool supports AI providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini for enhanced readability, but also works in a fallback mode without any API key. Version 0.2 adds Gemini as a new LLM provider and aims to solve the common problem of poorly maintained changelogs in open-source projects.", "body_md": "Hoi hoi!\n\nI’m [@nyaomaru](https://github.com/nyaomaru), a frontend engineer who recently discovered the deliciousness of a cheese whose name sounds a bit like Al Capone.\n\nAre you building personal projects?\n\nOr contributing to OSS?\n\nOr maybe you are busy playing **Resident Evil 9 🧟 and CloverPit 🍀**?\n\nWhatever the case, I respect your admirable dedication as an engineer.\n\nNow, when managing OSS on GitHub, one file that becomes very important is `CHANGELOG.md`\n\n.\n\nWhy is it important?\n\nFor example, when a library I use gets updated, the first thing I usually check is `CHANGELOG.md`\n\n.\n\nRecently, I have been experimenting with an AI triage workflow. For Dependabot updates, I feed release notes and `CHANGELOG.md`\n\ninto AI, then ask Claude Code to evaluate the risk and help with triage.\n\nThis has been very useful. I do not have to check everything manually, and that makes me happy 😺\n\nIn other words, `CHANGELOG.md`\n\nis becoming a document that is not only read by humans, but also read by AI as input for dependency update decisions.\n\nSo, `CHANGELOG.md`\n\nwill continue to be very useful in the coming era.\n\nBut surprisingly, many projects do not maintain it well.\n\nFor example, even some very useful React development tools sometimes ship silent releases without any release notes at all.\n\nWhen that happens, users have to dig through commit history and figure out things like:\n\nOf course, busy engineers do not have time for that. I am not that busy, but if I had that time, I would rather play **CloverPit 🍀**.\n\nSo, to protect my precious game time, I built an OSS tool that automatically generates `CHANGELOG.md`\n\n.\n\nReleases should feel exciting, not tedious\n`@nyaomaru/changelog-bot`\n\n🤖 turns your Git history and release notes into a polished changelog entry (and optional PR) in a single run. Drop it into CI, run it locally, or hand it to your release captain—either way, you ship with a crisp changelog and zero copy-paste fatigue.\n\nImportant\n\nThis project is currently in its early stages…\n\nIn this article, I will walk through the changes from v0.1 and what I am planning next.\n\nLet’s take a look!\n\n[ changelog-bot](https://github.com/nyaomaru/changelog-bot) is a CLI and GitHub Action that automatically creates a Pull Request to update\n\n`CHANGELOG.md`\n\nbased on Git history, Pull Requests, and GitHub Release Notes.What it does is simple:\n\n`Added`\n\n, `Changed`\n\n, `Fixed`\n\n, `Docs`\n\n, and `Chore`\n\n`CHANGELOG.md`\n\nIf you configure an AI provider, it can use `OpenAI`\n\n, `Anthropic`\n\n, or `Gemini`\n\nto generate a more readable changelog section.\n\nOn the other hand, it also works with a fallback mode when no API key is provided.\n\nSo it is totally fine even if you do not use AI.\n\nIn other words, this is not:\n\nA tool that can do nothing without AI.\n\nIt is more like:\n\nAn automation tool that works better with AI.\n\nThat is the key idea.\n\nUp to v0.1, I focused on building the foundation of changelog-bot.\n\nIt already supported:\n\nAt this point, the basic experience was already there:\n\nAutomatically update\n\n`CHANGELOG.md`\n\nduring a release workflow.\n\nI also introduced it in this earlier article:\n\n[https://zenn.dev/nyaomaru/articles/introduce-changelog-bot](https://zenn.dev/nyaomaru/articles/introduce-changelog-bot)\n\nBut there were still some problems.\n\nIn particular, even though users could choose an AI provider, there was still no strong way to adjust the language or writing style of the generated `CHANGELOG.md`\n\nfor each project.\n\nFor example, there was no good way to pass project-specific rules such as:\n\nSo the customization experience was still weak.\n\nIn v0.2, I added **Gemini** as a new LLM provider.\n\nNow changelog-bot supports these three providers:\n\n`OpenAI`\n\n`Anthropic`\n\n`Gemini`\n\nYou can specify Gemini from the CLI like this:\n\n```\nchangelog-bot \\\n  --provider gemini \\\n  --release-tag HEAD \\\n  --release-name 0.2.0 \\\n  --dry-run\n```\n\nYou can also use it from GitHub Actions:\n\n```\nwith:\n  provider: gemini\nenv:\n  GEMINI_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.GEMINI_API_KEY }}\n```\n\nI also added **dry-run diagnostics**.\n\n```\nProvider: gemini\nModel: gemini-3.5-flash\nAI used: true\nFallback reasons: none\n```\n\nThis makes it easier to check whether the AI provider was actually used, or whether changelog-bot fell back to the heuristic mode.\n\nIt is a small feature, but I think this kind of observability is very important for CI tools.\n\nWhen something runs in CI, you want to quickly understand what actually happened.\n\nIn v0.3, I added customization support for changelog generation.\n\nThe newly added options are:\n\n| Option | Description |\n|---|---|\n`--language` |\nSpecifies the language of the generated `CHANGELOG.md`\n|\n`--instructions` |\nPasses inline instructions to the AI |\n`--instructions-file` |\nPasses instructions to the AI from a file |\n\nFor example, if you want to generate a changelog in Dutch, you can write:\n\n```\nchangelog-bot \\\n  --provider gemini \\\n  --release-tag HEAD \\\n  --release-name 0.3.0 \\\n  --language nl \\\n  --instructions \"Schrijf kort en duidelijk in het Nederlands. Groepeer interne wijzigingen onder Chore.\" \\\n  --dry-run\n```\n\nYou can also define project-specific rules in a file.\n\n```\nchangelog-bot \\\n  --provider openai \\\n  --release-tag HEAD \\\n  --release-name 0.3.0 \\\n  --language nl \\\n  --instructions-file .github/changelog-instructions.md \\\n  --dry-run\n```\n\nFor example, `.github/changelog-instructions.md`\n\ncan contain rules like this:\n\n```\nWrite concise release notes in Dutch.\n\nRules:\n\n- Focus on user-facing changes.\n- Group internal refactors under Chore.\n- Group dependency updates together.\n- Avoid mentioning commit hashes.\n```\n\nWith this, changelog-bot is no longer just “a tool that generates changelogs with AI.”\n\nIt is moving toward:\n\nA tool that can generate a\n\n`CHANGELOG.md`\n\nthat feels right for each project.\n\nAlso, when customization is enabled, changelog-bot does not simply use GitHub Release Notes as-is, even if they exist.\n\nInstead, it passes them to the model and lets the model rewrite them.\n\nThis means GitHub Release Notes can still be used as source material, while the final output reflects the specified `language`\n\nand `instructions`\n\n.\n\nWith customization added in v0.3, the shape of v1 is becoming much clearer.\n\nHere are the main things I want to add before v1.\n\nPassing CLI options every time is annoying, so I want to support config files.\n\n```\n{\n  \"provider\": \"gemini\",\n  \"language\": \"nl\",\n  \"instructionsFile\": \".github/changelog-instructions.md\"\n}\n```\n\nThe goal is to make the same configuration usable from the CLI, GitHub Actions, and reusable workflows.\n\nRight now, changelog-bot falls back when an AI provider fails.\n\nThis is convenient, but some projects may want the workflow to fail if AI generation fails.\n\nSo I am considering options like:\n\n`--fail-on-llm-error`\n\n`--require-provider`\n\n`--no-ai`\n\nSince changelog-bot is intended to be used in CI, users should be able to choose between:\n\nBoth behaviors are valid depending on the project.\n\nDry-run diagnostics already exist, but I also want to add a JSON report.\n\n```\nchangelog-bot --dry-run --report-json\n```\n\nFor example, it would be useful to output machine-readable information such as:\n\nThis should make it easier to integrate changelog-bot with other CI tools and bots.\n\nI also want to keep improving the quality of the generated changelog.\n\nSome areas I want to improve are:\n\nEspecially in OSS, what should be included in a changelog differs from project to project.\n\nI want changelog-bot to handle those differences better.\n\n`CHANGELOG.md`\n\nis a very plain file, but for users, it is an important document.\n\nRecently, it is also becoming more common to let AI read it and use it as input for dependency update decisions.\n\nThat is why `CHANGELOG.md`\n\nshould not just be generated somehow.\n\nIt should be generated in a readable way that fits each project’s context.\n\nBut writing it carefully by hand every time is honestly a pain.\n\n[ changelog-bot](https://github.com/nyaomaru/changelog-bot) is a tool for automating that process with Git history, Pull Requests, GitHub Release Notes, and\n\nIn v0.2, I added Gemini support.\n\nIn v0.3, I added customization through `language`\n\n, `instructions`\n\n, and `instructions file`\n\n.\n\nWith these changes, changelog-bot is moving from:\n\nJust generating a changelog automatically\n\nto:\n\nGenerating a changelog that fits each project\n\nv1 is getting closer.\n\nIf you are interested, please give the repository a ⭐ and watch over it warmly!\n\nReleases should feel exciting, not tedious\n`@nyaomaru/changelog-bot`\n\n🤖 turns your Git history and release notes into a polished changelog entry (and optional PR) in a single run. Drop it into CI, run it locally, or hand it to your release captain—either way, you ship with a crisp changelog and zero copy-paste fatigue.\n\nImportant\n\nThis project is currently in its early stages…\n\nNow let’s auto-generate our `CHANGELOG.md`\n\nfiles and use the saved time to play some games! 🧟🍀", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/changelog-md-is-for-both-humans-and-ai-now-so-lets-automate-it", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/nyaomaru/changelogmd-is-for-both-humans-and-ai-now-so-lets-automate-it-18dp", "published_at": "2026-06-03 12:33:59+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-03 12:42:36.896879+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-tools", "ai-agents"], "entities": ["nyaomaru", "Claude Code", "Dependabot", "GitHub", "Resident Evil 9", "CloverPit"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/changelog-md-is-for-both-humans-and-ai-now-so-lets-automate-it", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/changelog-md-is-for-both-humans-and-ai-now-so-lets-automate-it.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/changelog-md-is-for-both-humans-and-ai-now-so-lets-automate-it.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/changelog-md-is-for-both-humans-and-ai-now-so-lets-automate-it.jsonld"}}