feat: add support for GitHub-style release notes by DaleSeo · Pull Request #1804 · knope-dev/knope

DaleSeo · 2026-02-27T20:58:26Z

Enable users to generate release notes that match GitHub's auto-generated format — entries like * Add dark mode by @DaleSeo in #42 — by fetching PR metadata from the GitHub API during PrepareRelease.

Summary

Introduce two new change_template variables: $pr_number and $commit_author_login
Add a GitHub API integration that fetches PR data per commit SHA
Make enrichment lazy/opt-in: API calls only happen when templates reference the new variables and [github] is configured
Update reference docs and add a "GitHub-style release notes" recipe

Motivation

Knope already supports $commit_author_name and $commit_hash in change_templates, but there's no way to include PR numbers or GitHub usernames — the two pieces that make GitHub's default release notes so useful for attributing contributions and linking back to discussions. This bridges that gap while keeping the feature zero-cost for users who don't need it.

Design decisions

Lazy / opt-in enrichment — GitHub API calls (authenticated, rate-limited, network-dependent) are only triggered when a user explicitly includes $pr_number or $commit_author_login in their change_templates AND has a [github] config block. Existing users are completely unaffected.

Graceful fallback — If the API call fails or a commit has no associated PR, the template is skipped and Knope falls back to the next template in the list. Failures are logged at warn level but never block the release.

No impact on document-change — PR numbers don't exist when a change file is first created. Enrichment happens at PrepareRelease time, after the change file's commit has been merged via a PR.

Changed files

File	What changed
`crates/knope-versioning/src/changes/mod.rs`	Added `pr_number` and `author_login` fields to `GitInfo`
`crates/knope-versioning/src/release_notes/mod.rs`	Template rendering for new variables, `needs_forge_data()` detection, tests
`crates/knope/src/integrations/github/pr_info.rs`	New — GitHub API call to fetch PR info per commit SHA
`crates/knope/src/integrations/github/mod.rs`	Re-export `enrich_git_info`
`crates/knope/src/integrations/git.rs`	Initialize new `GitInfo` fields to `None`
`crates/knope/src/step/releases/package.rs`	Accept `enrich_git_info` closure in `prepare_release`
`crates/knope/src/step/releases/mod.rs`	Construct and pass enrichment closure, `needs_forge_data` check
`docs/.../release-notes.mdx`	Reference docs for `$pr_number` and `$commit_author_login`
`docs/.../customizing-release-notes.mdx`	Recipe: "GitHub-style release notes" with example config

Example config

[github]
owner = "my-org"
repo = "my-repo"

[release_notes]
change_templates = [
    "* $summary by @$commit_author_login in #$pr_number",
    "* $summary by @$commit_author_login",
    "* $summary",
]

Test plan

Existing unit tests pass (258 total, 0 failures)
cargo clippy --workspace clean
New unit tests for needs_forge_data() detection (4 cases: local-only, pr_number, author_login, default)
New unit test for full GitHub-style template rendering with mixed data availability
Manual test with a real repo and GITHUB_TOKEN to verify API enrichment end-to-end

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dbanty · 2026-03-03T18:57:16Z

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+plans/


I think ignoring the entire .cursor directory from the top-level .gitignore would be better—just so we don't permanently have a .cursor directory now.

Oops, I didn't mean to include this file in the PR. I've added it to .git/info/exclude so it won't be tracked for me.

dbanty · 2026-03-05T23:45:04Z

+    let indices: Vec<usize> = changes
+        .iter()
+        .enumerate()
+        .filter_map(|(i, change)| change.git.as_ref().map(|_| i))
+        .collect();
+
+    if indices.is_empty() {
+        return Ok(github_state);
+    }
+
+    let (token, agent) = initialize_state(github_state)?;
+    let authorization = format!("token {token}");
+
+    for idx in indices {
+        let short_hash = match changes.get(idx).and_then(|c| c.git.as_ref()) {
+            Some(g) => g.hash.clone(),
+            None => continue,
+        };
+        match fetch_pr_for_commit(&agent, &authorization, github_config, &short_hash) {
+            Ok(Some((pr_number, author_login))) => {
+                if let Some(info) = changes.get_mut(idx).and_then(|c| c.git.as_mut()) {
+                    info.pr_number = Some(pr_number);
+                    info.author_login = Some(author_login);
+                }
+            }


This is a little simpler / more idiomatic. Also, though, I'd expect it should be Bearer not token—have you tried it yet?

Suggested change

let indices: Vec<usize> = changes

.iter()

.enumerate()

.filter_map(|(i, change)| change.git.as_ref().map(|_| i))

.collect();

if indices.is_empty() {

return Ok(github_state);

}

let (token, agent) = initialize_state(github_state)?;

let authorization = format!("token {token}");

for idx in indices {

let short_hash = match changes.get(idx).and_then(|c| c.git.as_ref()) {

Some(g) => g.hash.clone(),

None => continue,

};

match fetch_pr_for_commit(&agent, &authorization, github_config, &short_hash) {

Ok(Some((pr_number, author_login))) => {

if let Some(info) = changes.get_mut(idx).and_then(|c| c.git.as_mut()) {

info.pr_number = Some(pr_number);

info.author_login = Some(author_login);

}

}

let (token, agent) = initialize_state(github_state)?;

let authorization = format!("token {token}");

for git_info in changes.iter_mut().filter_map(|change| change.git.as_mut()) {

let short_hash = &git_info.hash;

match fetch_pr_for_commit(&agent, &authorization, github_config, short_hash) {

Ok(Some((pr_number, author_login))) => {

git_info.pr_number = Some(pr_number);

git_info.author_login = Some(author_login);

}

Both work:

$ TOKEN=$(gh auth token) $ curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -H "Authorization: token $TOKEN" \ "https://api.github.com/repos/knope-dev/knope/commits/70c183b/pulls" 200% $ curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \ "https://api.github.com/repos/knope-dev/knope/commits/70c183b/pulls" 200%

Per the GitHub docs, both token and Bearer are accepted.

Switched to Bearer though because it's more commonly used and also supports JWTs.

dbanty · 2026-03-05T23:48:11Z

            state.all_versioned_files,
            &changeset,
            state.ignore_conventional_commits,
+            |changes| {


Any reason not to move this logic into prepare_release instead of passing a closure?

No good reason. Moved it. Split prepare_release into gather_changes + apply_release to make it work.

DaleSeo

Thanks for the feedback, @dbanty!

DaleSeo · 2026-03-21T20:57:59Z

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+plans/


Oops, I didn't mean to include this file in the PR. I've added it to .git/info/exclude so it won't be tracked for me.

DaleSeo · 2026-03-21T21:12:17Z

            state.all_versioned_files,
            &changeset,
            state.ignore_conventional_commits,
+            |changes| {


No good reason. Moved it. Split prepare_release into gather_changes + apply_release to make it work.

DaleSeo · 2026-03-21T21:24:50Z

+    let indices: Vec<usize> = changes
+        .iter()
+        .enumerate()
+        .filter_map(|(i, change)| change.git.as_ref().map(|_| i))
+        .collect();
+
+    if indices.is_empty() {
+        return Ok(github_state);
+    }
+
+    let (token, agent) = initialize_state(github_state)?;
+    let authorization = format!("token {token}");
+
+    for idx in indices {
+        let short_hash = match changes.get(idx).and_then(|c| c.git.as_ref()) {
+            Some(g) => g.hash.clone(),
+            None => continue,
+        };
+        match fetch_pr_for_commit(&agent, &authorization, github_config, &short_hash) {
+            Ok(Some((pr_number, author_login))) => {
+                if let Some(info) = changes.get_mut(idx).and_then(|c| c.git.as_mut()) {
+                    info.pr_number = Some(pr_number);
+                    info.author_login = Some(author_login);
+                }
+            }


Both work:

$ TOKEN=$(gh auth token) $ curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -H "Authorization: token $TOKEN" \ "https://api.github.com/repos/knope-dev/knope/commits/70c183b/pulls" 200% $ curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \ "https://api.github.com/repos/knope-dev/knope/commits/70c183b/pulls" 200%

Per the GitHub docs, both token and Bearer are accepted.

Switched to Bearer though because it's more commonly used and also supports JWTs.

DaleSeo · 2026-04-01T17:57:03Z

Hey @dbanty, how's it going? 👋 Can you take another look at this? 🙏

dbanty · 2026-04-01T19:07:20Z

Hey @DaleSeo! I haven't forgotten, I just realized a few things about this I want to set up for first:

Fetching these one by one could be really slow, so I want to be able to batch requests. I'm asyncifying over in chore: Convert to Tokio + Reqwest #1868 to make that easy
It's gonna be really easy to hit rate limits with this, so I'm going to set up support for 429/Retry-After. There's a pretty easy way to do this with reqwest middleware once step 1 is done
We actually don't have to require GitHub tokens for this (for when using with public repos) but we should definitely solve 2 before removing that requirement. It's always annoyed me that I have to set a github token for the node changeset CLI so it'll be nice to ease that

DaleSeo · 2026-04-10T17:25:53Z

Thanks for the heads-up, @dbanty! The async and rate limit work sounds great. I can rebase once that PR lands. Just let me know if there's anything I can help with in the meantime.

DaleSeo force-pushed the gh-release-notes branch 2 times, most recently from 6d4f3d7 to f962bc8 Compare February 27, 2026 21:14

dbanty reviewed Mar 5, 2026

View reviewed changes

DaleSeo force-pushed the gh-release-notes branch from 3ca6eac to d0a2644 Compare March 21, 2026 21:08

DaleSeo added 2 commits March 21, 2026 17:20

feat: add support for GitHub-style release notes

0d855c2

refactor: simplify PR info iteration and use Bearer auth

3ada68d

DaleSeo force-pushed the gh-release-notes branch from d0a2644 to b4f0670 Compare March 21, 2026 21:22

DaleSeo commented Mar 21, 2026

View reviewed changes

refactor: move enrichment logic out of closure into prepare_release

6efc0b2

DaleSeo force-pushed the gh-release-notes branch from b4f0670 to 6efc0b2 Compare March 21, 2026 21:27

docs: fix Vale lint error for Changeset capitalization

02d52ab

DaleSeo force-pushed the gh-release-notes branch from a2e9e13 to 02d52ab Compare March 21, 2026 21:42

DaleSeo marked this pull request as ready for review March 21, 2026 21:45

DaleSeo requested a review from dbanty March 21, 2026 21:45

		@@ -0,0 +1 @@
		plans/

		@@ -0,0 +1 @@
		plans/

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Example config

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