release-reports
Generates weekly release cycle reports for the team.- preview: What's shipping (run Sunday after release train)- retro: What happened (run Tuesday after prod stabilizes)
When & Why to Use This Skill
The Release Reports skill automates the generation of comprehensive weekly release cycle reports, bridging the gap between technical PR data and team communication. It provides actionable insights through 'preview' reports for risk assessment and 'retro' reports for performance tracking, ensuring a stable and transparent deployment process while automatically drafting professional release notes.
Use Cases
- Pre-release Risk Management: Automatically flag large PRs or rapid approvals during the Sunday release train to identify potential stability issues before they reach production.
- Automated Release Notes Generation: Transform structured PR data into polished, user-facing release notes categorized by new features, bug fixes, and improvements for external stakeholders.
- Post-Deployment Retrospectives: Generate Tuesday reports that track release timelines, hotfix frequency, and backmerge status to optimize the team's development velocity and stability trends.
- QA and Development Alignment: Provide Monday morning QA teams with specific focus areas based on the risk flags and feature sets identified in the release preview.
| name | release-reports |
|---|---|
| description | | |
| - preview | What's shipping (run Sunday after release train) |
| - retro | What happened (run Tuesday after prod stabilizes) |
Release Reports Skill
Generate reports for weekly release cycles.
Available Actions
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
preview |
Release preview - what's shipping, risk flags |
retro |
Release retro - what happened, hotfixes, trends |
Usage
python {baseDir}/skills/release-reports/scripts/release_reports.py --action <ACTION> [OPTIONS]
Options
--action(required):previeworretro--days N: Days to look back for release trains (default: 30)
Examples
# Sunday evening after release train is merged
python {baseDir}/skills/release-reports/scripts/release_reports.py --action preview
# Tuesday morning after prod is stable
python {baseDir}/skills/release-reports/scripts/release_reports.py --action retro
Report Details
Preview Report
Run after the develop → staging PR is merged (Sunday).
Shows:
- Release train PR details
- All feature PRs in this release
- Risk flags: large PRs (500+ lines), quick approvals
- Hotfixes from previous cycle that need backmerge
- Monday QA focus areas
- Release notes data for AI generation
Release Notes Generation
The preview report outputs structured PR data in <release-notes-data> tags. When you see this data:
- Generate polished, user-facing release notes
- Rewrite each PR title as a clear one-line summary focusing on user impact
- Group items into these categories (skip empty ones):
- What's New - New features and capabilities
- Bug Fixes - Problems that were resolved
- Improvements - Enhancements to existing functionality
- Do NOT include PR links (this is for external sharing)
- Use professional, concise language
Example output:
## Release Notes
### What's New
- Users can now export reports in PDF format
- Added dark mode support across all pages
### Bug Fixes
- Fixed crash when loading large datasets
- Resolved timezone display issues in reports
### Improvements
- Improved search performance by 40%
- Streamlined onboarding flow
Retro Report
Run after production is stable (Tuesday).
Shows:
- Release timeline (staging date, prod date)
- Outcome (clean release or hotfixes required)
- What shipped (PRs, contributors, lines)
- Hotfixes during QA with backmerge status
- Trend of last 4 releases
Branch Model
| PR Type | Base | Head | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feature | develop | feature/* | Normal development |
| Release train | staging | develop | Weekly release |
| Hotfix | staging | fix/* | Direct fix during QA |
| Promotion | release | staging | Push to production |
| Backmerge | develop | staging | Sync hotfix back |
Output
Reports include emoji indicators for quick scanning:
- ✅ Clean / Good
- ⚠️ Needs attention
- ❌ Action required