[hhvrc]

Reorder the GitHub Release body around what a user needs before installing: prerelease warning, headline, GitHub alerts (safety, withdrawn versions, breaking changes, upgrade requirements, notices), what is new since the previous prerelease, then the kind sections with Safety and Security first, known issues, contributors with first-time contributors, and a compare link.

Change files gain upgrade, advisories, authors and yanks fields and reject unknown keys. Notice levels become caution, warning, important and note. Lint fails a breaking change that does not tell users what to do. The PR check reports per-file findings as annotations, honours ignore_paths and fails without a change file by default. Stable releases archive consumed change files to .changes/released// and mark yanked versions in CHANGELOG.md. release.json moves to schema version 2.
This pull request introduces significant improvements to the release notes workflow, change file format, and automation for the release process. The changes focus on making safety, breaking changes, and upgrade requirements more visible to users, enhancing the structure and validation of change files, and improving the developer experience with better linting, configuration, and documentation.

Key improvements include:

• A new, user-focused release notes structure that prioritizes safety and upgrade information.
• A refined and validated change file format with additional fields and stricter linting.
• Enhanced automation and configuration for PR checks and release actions.
• Improved documentation and onboarding for contributors.

Release Notes and Change File Format Improvements

• Release notes now start with safety, breaking changes, and upgrade requirements, followed by new changes, known issues, contributors, and a full changelog. The body is structured to prioritize what users need to know before installing, with new notice levels and improved rendering of alerts and details. (.changes/safety-first-release-notes.md, README.md, .changes/README.md, cmd/changes_readme.md)
• The change file format now uses kind (e.g., safety, security, added, fixed), supports new fields (upgrade, advisories, authors, yanks), and enforces stricter linting for breaking changes and unknown keys. Notices use four levels: caution, warning, important, and note. (.changes/README.md, README.md, cmd/changes_readme.md)
• Special files like _headline.md and _known-issues.md are now documented and reserved for release summaries and known issues. (README.md, .changes/README.md, cmd/changes_readme.md)

Automation, Linting, and PR Checks

• The release tool and GitHub Action now enforce the presence of change files in PRs by default (require-changes), with the ability to ignore certain paths via ignore_paths in .changes/config.json. (README.md, action.yml)
• Lint findings from change files are now reported as GitHub annotations in PRs for better visibility, and the linter enforces new rules for breaking changes and notice levels. (cmd/findings.go, cmd/check.go)
• Stable releases now move consumed change files to .changes/released/<version>/ instead of deleting them, improving traceability. (README.md)

Documentation and Onboarding

• The documentation (README.md, .changes/README.md, cmd/changes_readme.md) has been updated throughout to reflect the new change file format, notice levels, and release process, including CLI usage and configuration examples.

These changes make the release process safer, more transparent, and easier for both users and contributors to understand and participate in.

BREAKING CHANGE: info and error notice levels are gone, release.json is schema version 2, and the action's check mode now requires a change file.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features
  • Release notes now highlight safety and security updates, breaking changes, yanked versions, upgrade requirements, known issues, and changes since the previous prerelease.
  • Long release-note sections can be folded, and contributor credits and advisory links are supported.
  • Stable releases archive consumed change files instead of removing them.
• Bug Fixes
  • Checks report change-file and release-note issues, and can skip pull requests whose changed files match configured ignore paths.
  • Breaking changes without release guidance now fail validation.
• Documentation
  • Updated guidance covers change-file metadata, notices, validation, and release behavior.

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Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 61f7c45 and d12dd89.

Files selected for processing: 10

• .changes/safety-first-release-notes.md
• CHANGELOG.md
• README.md
• cmd/prerelease.go
• cmd/release.go
• internal/git/git.go
• internal/release/check.go
• internal/release/check_body_test.go
• internal/release/check_impact_test.go
• internal/release/check_test.go

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• Source mode: Auto
• Repository: Unavailable
• Branch: Unavailable
• File: No configuration file from this repository applied
• Commit: Unavailable
• Layers: defaults
• Review profile: CHILL
• Plan: Advanced
• Run ID: 922e2e8b-5923-4a5d-8e29-46bfec5c56ab

Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between c6f1054 and 61f7c45.

Files selected for processing: 27

• .changes/README.md
• .changes/safety-first-release-notes.md
• README.md
• action.yml
• cmd/changes_readme.md
• cmd/check.go
• cmd/findings.go
• cmd/init.go
• cmd/prerelease.go
• cmd/release_flow_test.go
• cmd/root.go
• cmd/stable.go
• cmd/stable_test.go
• cmd/status.go
• internal/changes/changes.go
• internal/changes/extras_test.go
• internal/changes/lint.go
• internal/git/git.go
• internal/git/prerelease_test.go
• internal/release/build.go
• internal/release/build_test.go
• internal/release/changelog.go
• internal/release/changelog_test.go
• internal/release/check.go
• internal/release/check_body_test.go
• internal/release/check_test.go
• internal/release/render_test.go

Files with no reviewable changes: 1

• internal/release/check_test.go

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Walkthrough

This change expands change-file metadata and validation, adds findings and ignored-path handling to checks, and updates release data, notes, and changelog rendering. Stable releases now archive consumed change files. Numbered prereleases can report changes since the previous matching prerelease.

Changes: Release workflow

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Change-file contracts and linting .changes/README.md, README.md, cmd/changes_readme.md, cmd/init.go, internal/changes/*	Change files support upgrade constraints, advisories, authors, and yanked versions. Parsing validates these fields and rejects unknown frontmatter keys. The change adds known-issue reading, reserved-file handling, and lint findings for breaking, safety, and title text.
Change checks and findings README.md, action.yml, cmd/check.go, cmd/findings.go, cmd/status.go, internal/release/check.go, internal/release/check_body_test.go, internal/release/check_test.go	Checks include structured findings and can skip a PR when all changed paths match ignore_paths. The action adds require-changes, and command output reports findings as GitHub annotations when running in GitHub Actions. Status reports known issues and lint findings without failing.
Release data and prerelease comparison README.md, cmd/prerelease.go, internal/git/*, internal/release/build.go, internal/release/build_test.go	release.json advances to schema version 2. Release data aggregates upgrade requirements, yanks, authors, known issues, and contributor information. Prerelease processing can identify a previous matching prerelease and its intervening changes.
Release notes and changelog rendering README.md, cmd/root.go, internal/release/changelog.go, internal/release/changelog_test.go, internal/release/render_test.go	Rendering adds ordered alerts, safety and security sections, configurable folding, prerelease notices and deltas, known issues, and contributor credits. Changelog rendering marks matching release headings as yanked.
Release execution and change-file archiving .changes/safety-first-release-notes.md, README.md, cmd/stable.go, cmd/stable_test.go, cmd/release_flow_test.go	Stable releases lint pending changes and read release metadata before building release data. They move consumed files and an existing headline into .changes/released/<version>/, and mark yanked changelog headings. Release-flow tests cover archiving, lint failures, and prerelease deltas.

Priority: Normal

Estimated code review effort: 4 (Complex) | ~60 minutes

Change: Feature

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant runRelease
  participant changes
  participant BuildData
  participant WriteNotes
  participant ReleaseFiles
  runRelease->>changes: lint pending files and read headline and known issues
  runRelease->>BuildData: build release data
  runRelease->>WriteNotes: render release notes
  runRelease->>ReleaseFiles: archive consumed change files and headline

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Merge Risk: Minimal · previous review 61f7c

No confirmed issue currently blocks merging; complete the normal checks before release.

Pre-merge checks: 4 · 1

Failed checks: 1 warning

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage		Docstring coverage is 37.08% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff with cyclomatic complexity of at least 2. Documenta…	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

Passed checks: 4 passed

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check		Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check		The title clearly identifies the two primary changes: release-note reordering and enhanced change-file validation.
Linked Issues check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

Docstring coverage is 37.08% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff with cyclomatic complexity of at least 2. Documentation-only edits and deletions within surviving functions are included; unchanged diff context and fully deleted functions are excluded. Analyzed 89 functions across 21 files. (5 skipped: 5 unsupported.)

Resolution

Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

Finishing Touches: 💡 1

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[github-actions]

Change file check

✅ OK: 1 valid change file(s) added in this PR.

Version impact: major bump (breaking change). The next release will be 1.0.0 (latest stable: 0.6.0).

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