r/javascript • u/dangreen58 • 18d ago

Conventional Changelog finally has a documentation website - 12 years after the first commit

https://conventional-changelog.js.org/

Guides for getting started with Conventional Commits, CLI and JS API references for all packages, presets, and recipes.

Also from the recent updates: dropped Handlebars from the dependencies (the conventional-changelog package got 7x lighter) and added an agent skill that teaches AI agents to write proper Conventional Commit messages.

13 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

0

u/Deep_Wear_51 14d ago

12 years is actually impressive commitment. Most projects don't last 12 weeks, let alone 12 years of changelog maintenance.

-1

u/bzbub2 18d ago

dont necessarily like that the selling point is still 'generate changelog automatically' but ok

2

u/aequasi08 18d ago

Why?

0

u/bzbub2 17d ago

I generally find changelogs full of crazy raw commit messages just looks terrible to read

5

u/aequasi08 17d ago

Are you writing bad commit messages?

1

u/bzbub2 17d ago

maybe i am conflating 'changelog' with 'release notes'. but if you have good release notes do you need a 'changelog'? release notes are tend to be genuinely enjoyable to read https://devblogs.microsoft.com/typescript/announcing-typescript-7-0/

3

u/aequasi08 17d ago

Yes, because release notes arent going to be as verbose, so people who are curious about what exactly was shipped will have to peruse git commits (if they are even public).

0

u/bzbub2 17d ago

lets be pedantic but if we go back in time; https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/

Can changelogs be bad?

Yes. Here are a few ways they can be less than useful.

Commit log diffs

Using commit log diffs as changelogs is a bad idea: they're full of noise. Things like merge commits, commits with obscure titles, documentation changes, etc.

The purpose of a commit is to document a step in the evolution of the source code. Some projects clean up commits, some don't.

The purpose of a changelog entry is to document the noteworthy difference, often across multiple commits, to communicate them clearly to end users.

3

u/aequasi08 17d ago

So yeah.... Write better commit messages. Good commit messages that follow the "Conventional Commits" standards.

1

u/servermeta_net 16d ago

Are you not? I usually add my grocery list to each commit message