release-note-generation

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

6 scripts

Toolkit for generating PowerToys release notes from GitHub milestone PRs or commit ranges. Use when asked to create release notes, summarize milestone PRs, generate changelog, prepare release documentation, request Copilot reviews for PRs, update README for a new release, manage PR milestones, or collect PRs between commits/tags. Supports PR collection by milestone or commit range, milestone assignment, grouping by label, summarization with external contributor attribution, and README version bumping.

1installs

Sourcemicrosoft/powertoys

Added on2026-02-08

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add microsoft/powertoys release-note-generation

SKILL.md Content

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Release Note Generation Skill

Generate professional release notes for PowerToys milestones by collecting merged PRs, requesting Copilot code reviews, 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
Request Copilot reviews for milestone PRs
Assign milestones to PRs missing them
Collect PRs between two commits/tags
Update README.md for a new version

Prerequisites

GitHub CLI (
```
gh
```
) installed and authenticated
MCP Server: github-mcp-server installed
GitHub Copilot code review enabled for the org/repo

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

┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.1 Collect PRs (stable range) │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1.2 Assign Milestones           │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 2.1–2.4 Label PRs (auto+human)  │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.1 Request Reviews (Copilot)  │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.2 Refresh PR data             │
│ (CopilotSummary)                │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3.3 Group by label              │
│ (grouped_csv)                   │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 4.1 Summarize (grouped_md)      │
└────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
┌────────────────────────────────┐
│ 4.2 Final notes (v{VERSION}.md) │
└────────────────────────────────┘

Step	Action	Details
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	Request Copilot reviews → 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

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-*
```

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
`gh` command not found	Install GitHub CLI and add to PATH
No PRs returned	Verify milestone title matches exactly
Empty CopilotSummary	Request Copilot reviews first, then re-run dump
Many unlabeled PRs	Return to labeling step before grouping