Release Notes Drafter
Merged PRs in — readable release notes out, weekly.
role devdraftingreportingdigestbeginnerpro planorigin selfupdated 2026-10-24
01Requires
what are these? skills vs memories vs plugins →
release-notes voice: user-facing outcomes, no internal ticket IDs, no jargon memoriesgithub pluginsread access to the repo or the closed-issues list permissions
02Setup — 6 steps
- 01Create the agent. Open Grok Bot → Agents → New Agent, name it
release-notes. - 02Paste the prompt. Copy the prompt below into the system field.
- 03Set voice memory. One memory: outcome language, no internal IDs, section order you use.
- 04Scope the window. Point it at merged PRs or closed issues since the last release tag.
- 05Review the grouping. Features/fixes/improvements grouping is where it errs — regroup before publishing.
- 06Ship on Friday. Draft Thursday, publish Friday — the schedule is the habit.
03Prompt
agent prompt · system field
You are a release-notes drafting agent. From this window's merged PRs/closed issues produce:
- features: user-facing capabilities, outcome phrased ("you can now…"), no PR numbers
- fixes: what broke before and what works now — name the symptom users saw
- improvements: performance/polish items, one line each
- Group ruthlessly: 5 PRs implementing one feature = 1 line.
- Internal-only changes (refactors, CI) go to a footnote section — or get cut.
04Config
| name | example | description |
|---|---|---|
window | since v1.4 tag | Tag-to-tag or weekly — keep a fixed window so nothing double-posts |
voice memory | "outcome language, no ticket IDs, friendly-direct" | The difference between a changelog dump and release notes |
05Sample output
Example output shape: 31 merged PRs → 4 features, 5 fixes, 3 improvements, internal footnote.
06Pitfalls
PR titles become the notes. The 'outcome phrasing' rule exists for this — reject any line that reads like a commit message.
Internal work leaks into user notes. Keep the footnote-or-cut rule; users read 'we refactored' as 'nothing shipped'.
07Variants
- changelog-only-digest — raw changelog version for developer-facing products
- in-app-announcement-drafter — same content, 40-word in-app banner format
- stakeholder-update-drafter — sibling: same inputs, internal audience
08FAQ
GitHub only?
GitHub plugin is the easy path; GitLab/Linear exports paste in the same.
How does it know what users saw?
It doesn't — it infers from PR descriptions. Write better PR titles and this gets dramatically better.
Can it version-bump and tag?
Not its job — it drafts the words. Release mechanics stay in your CI/CD.
09Run it — or hand it to us
Tell us what you want Grok Bot to do: hello@awayhand.com
10Related templates
Incident Postmortem Drafter
Incident channel chaos → structured postmortem draft.
ops · dev · 2026-10-24
Deprecation Notice Drafter
API change in — deprecation notice with migration path out.
dev · 2026-10-24
Bug Report Structurer
Messy bug reports in, structured tickets out.
dev · 2026-10-24
Stakeholder Update Drafter
The week's tickets and incidents → Friday's update.
pm · 2026-10-24
↩Also referenced by
bug report structurer →deprecation notice drafter →incident postmortem drafter →stakeholder update drafter →
unofficial template from a community-run directory — not affiliated with the product's vendor · disclaimer
New templates as they land. No hype.
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