Release Manager Skill for Claude

Release Manager

The agent automates release management by parsing conventional commits into structured changelogs, determining semantic version bumps, and assessing release readiness with checklists, rollback runbooks, and stakeholder communication plans.

Core Capabilities

• Changelog generation — parse conventional commits since the last tag into Keep-a-Changelog Markdown/JSON, grouped by type with breaking-change highlights and issue links.
• Semantic version bumping — determine MAJOR/MINOR/PATCH from commit types, support pre-release tracks (alpha → beta → rc), emit bump commands for npm, Python, Rust, Git, Docker.
• Release readiness — score a release plan across features, quality gates, approvals, and timelines; surface blocking issues.
• Rollback & comms — generate rollback runbooks with triggers and time estimates, plus stakeholder communication plans with timed message templates.
• Workflows — changelog+bump, readiness assessment, and expedited hotfix releases, each with validation checkpoints.

When to Use

• Preparing a release — generate the changelog and determine the next version.
• Validating a release candidate — assess readiness and surface blockers.
• Shipping a hotfix — expedited fix, pre-release versioning, tested rollback.
• Auditing commit hygiene — confirm conventional commits drive clean changelogs.

Clarify First

Before preparing the release, confirm these inputs. If any is unknown or vague, ASK — do not assume:

• [ ] Last release tag / commit range — defines the changelog window and the basis for the version-bump decision
• [ ] Release type — standard / hotfix / pre-release (alpha→beta→rc) (selects the workflow and versioning track)
• [ ] Target ecosystem — npm / Python / Rust / Git / Docker (determines which bump commands are emitted)

Stop rule: ask only the 2-3 that most change the output. If the user says "just draft it," proceed and list your assumptions at the top of the artifact.

Tools

| Tool | Purpose | Command |

|------|---------|---------|

| changelog_generator.py | Generate Keep-a-Changelog from conventional commits | git log --oneline v1.0.0..HEAD \| python changelog_generator.py --version 1.1.0 --format both |

| version_bumper.py | Determine SemVer bump + emit bump commands | git log --oneline v1.0.0..HEAD \| python version_bumper.py --current-version 1.0.0 --analysis |

| release_planner.py | Assess release readiness, checklist, rollback, comms | python release_planner.py --input release-plan.json --include-checklist --include-rollback |

References

Load the reference that matches the task — keep this file lean and pull detail on demand:

• references/workflows-and-tool-reference.md — quick start, the 3 core workflows with checkpoints, version-bump rules, rollback triggers, anti-patterns, troubleshooting table, success criteria, and the full CLI flag reference for all three scripts. Read when running a release or looking up a flag.
• references/conventional-commits-guide.md — conventional-commit format, types, and footer conventions. Read when fixing commit hygiene so changelog/version tooling works.
• references/hotfix-procedures.md — severity classification (P0–P3), hotfix procedures, and best practices across workflows. Read when shipping an emergency fix.
• references/release-workflow-comparison.md — Git Flow vs GitHub Flow vs Trunk-based, with structure, branch types, and trade-offs. Read when choosing or aligning a branching model.

Scope & Limitations

This skill covers:

• Parsing conventional commits and generating structured changelogs in Markdown and JSON formats
• Determining semantic version bumps (major/minor/patch) with pre-release support (alpha, beta, rc)
• Assessing release readiness across features, quality gates, approvals, and timelines
• Generating rollback runbooks, communication plans, and release checklists from structured input

This skill does NOT cover:

• Actual CI/CD pipeline execution or deployment automation (see engineering/ci-cd-pipeline-generator)
• Live monitoring, alerting, or incident response during deployments (see engineering/monitoring-alerting-setup)
• Code review processes or pull request management (see engineering/code-review-automation)
• Infrastructure provisioning, container orchestration, or environment management (see engineering/infrastructure-as-code)

Integration Points

| Skill | Integration | Data Flow |

|-------|-------------|-----------|

| engineering/ci-cd-pipeline-generator | Embed changelog generation and version bumping as pipeline stages | Git log output flows into changelog_generator.py; version bump output feeds pipeline tagging steps |

| engineering/code-review-automation | Validate that PR commits follow conventional commit format before merge | Commit messages validated upstream ensure clean input for changelog generation |

| engineering/monitoring-alerting-setup | Define rollback triggers based on monitoring thresholds from the rollback runbook | Rollback trigger thresholds (error rate >2x, latency >50%) feed into alert rule configuration |

| engineering/api-design-reviewer | Breaking API changes flagged by the reviewer map to MAJOR version bumps | API review findings populate breaking_changes arrays in the release plan JSON |

| engineering/infrastructure-as-code | Deployment steps in the rollback runbook reference infrastructure rollback commands | Rollback runbook command fields contain infrastructure-specific commands (kubectl, DNS, load balancer) |

| project-management/release-planning | Release plan JSON structure aligns with PM release tracking artifacts | PM feature lists and approval statuses feed directly into release_planner.py input format |