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Official agent skill

Generate .NET Release changes.json

by dotnet in dotnet/core

Produces the changes.json manifest for a .NET preview, RC or GA milestone by choosing the right VMR base and head refs and running release-notes generate changes.

OfficialMITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Generate .NET Release changes.json

skills CLI
$ npx skills add dotnet/core --skill generate-changes -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install dotnet/core generate-changes --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/dotnet/core.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/skills/generate-changes .claude/skills/generate-changes && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
generate-changes
GitHub stars
22k
Token cost
~1.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
701 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
15
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Produces the changes.json manifest for a .NET preview, RC or GA milestone by choosing the right VMR base and head refs and running release-notes generate changes.

  • Works in 4 steps: Determine the floor from releases.json → Inspect the VMR → Resolve --base and --head → …
  • A new preview, RC or GA milestone needs fresh shipped-change data
  • SKILL.md covers When to use, Preview-only branch targeting, Inputs and Process, plus 2 more sections
  • Calls gh

What it does

This is the data-gathering stage of the .NET release notes pipeline. The agent works out which milestones are active, picks the correct `--base` and `--head` refs in the VMR, runs `release-notes generate changes` and writes `changes.json` into the matching `release-notes/` folder. When you do not name a milestone, it infers one from `releases.json`, from `eng/Versions.props` on the VMR main branch and from the VMR tags and release branches.

The subtle part is previews, where several milestones can be active at once. For each milestone the base is the previous milestone's tag, and the head is its tag if one exists, its release branch tip if only a branch exists, or `main` if it exists only there; `main` is never used for a milestone that `main` has already moved past. The skill is not for API diffs, API verification, feature scoring or writing markdown release notes.

When your agent uses it

  • A new preview, RC or GA milestone needs fresh shipped-change data
  • Checking whether several preview milestones are active at once
  • Refreshing release notes after the VMR has moved forward
  • changes.json is missing, stale or built from the wrong refs

Example prompts

  • “Generate changes.json for .NET 11 Preview 4 using my local dotnet/dotnet clone.”
  • “List which preview milestones are active in the VMR and the base and head refs each one needs.”
  • “The release notes branch is stale, so regenerate changes.json after the VMR update.”

Requirements

  • A local clone of the dotnet/dotnet VMR
  • The `release-notes` tool

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Determine the floor from releases.json
  2. Inspect the VMR
  3. Resolve --base and --head
  4. Generate the file

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 44927bc. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • gh

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use gh, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Generate .NET Release changes.json loads about 1.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 119 tokens; SKILL.md has 701 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~119
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.7k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from dotnet/core at commit 44927bc, republished under its MIT licence (© dotnet). 701 words, ~1,678 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/generate-changes/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
generate-changes
description
Generate `changes.json` for a .NET release milestone by selecting the correct VMR base/head refs and running `release-notes generate changes`. Handles preview-only multi-branch targeting (`main` vs release branches vs tags) and emits the authoritative manifest of what shipped. DO NOT USE FOR: API diffs (use api-diff), API verification (use api-diff-validation), feature scoring (use generate-features), or writing markdown release notes (use release-notes).

Generate changes.json

Produce the authoritative changes.json input for a preview, RC, or GA release milestone.

This is the VMR-aware data acquisition stage of the release notes pipeline:

  1. Determine which milestone(s) are active
  2. Resolve the correct --base and --head refs
  3. Run release-notes generate changes
  4. Write changes.json into the correct release-notes/ folder

When to use

  • A new preview, RC, or GA milestone needs fresh shipped-change data
  • The user wants to know whether multiple preview milestones are active at once
  • The release notes branch should be refreshed after the VMR moved forward
  • changes.json is missing, stale, or suspected to have the wrong ref selection

Preview-only branch targeting

This is the subtle part, and it mostly matters for previews.

Multiple preview milestones can be active simultaneously:

text
Latest shipped in this repo: Preview 3
VMR main:                    Preview 5
VMR release branch exists:   Preview 4

→ Generate one `changes.json` for Preview 4
→ Generate one `changes.json` for Preview 5

For each target milestone N:

Milestone stateBase refHead ref
Tag exists for NTag for N-1Tag for N
Release branch exists for N, no tag yetTag for N-1Release branch tip
Only on mainTag for N-1main

Critical rule: never use main for milestone N if main has already moved to N+1.

Inputs

The user should provide as much of this as they know:

  • Target release — e.g. .NET 11 Preview 4, .NET 10 RC 2, .NET 10 GA
  • VMR clone path — defaults to a local clone of dotnet/dotnet
  • Optionally, the exact refs if they already know them

If the user does not specify the milestone, infer it from:

  1. release-notes/{version}/releases.json in this repo
  2. eng/Versions.props on main in the VMR
  3. Matching preview tags and release branches in the VMR

Process

1. Determine the floor from releases.json

Find the latest shipped milestone in this repo. That tells you the lowest in-flight milestone that may need work.

2. Inspect the VMR
  • Read eng/Versions.props on main to determine the current prerelease iteration
  • List matching VMR tags for finalized milestones
  • List matching VMR release branches for stabilizing milestones

Use the VMR structure reference for naming conventions and branch patterns.

3. Resolve --base and --head

For each active milestone:

  • --base is the previous shipped milestone tag
  • --head is the milestone tag, release branch tip, or main, depending on what exists
4. Generate the file
bash
release-notes generate changes <vmr-clone-path> \
  --base <previous-release-tag> \
  --head <current-release-ref> \
  --version "<release-version>" \
  --date "<yyyy-mm-dd>" \
  --labels \
  --output release-notes/<major.minor>/<milestone-path>/changes.json

Examples:

bash
# Preview milestone
release-notes generate changes ~/git/dotnet \
  --base v11.0.0-preview.3.26210.100 \
  --head origin/release/11.0.1xx-preview4 \
  --version "11.0.0-preview.4" \
  --labels \
  --output release-notes/11.0/preview/preview4/changes.json

# GA/patch milestone
release-notes generate changes ~/git/dotnet \
  --base v10.0.7 \
  --head v10.0.8 \
  --version "10.0.8" \
  --output release-notes/10.0/10.0.8/changes.json

Output contract

The output file must follow the shared schema documented in changes-schema.md:

  • top-level release_version, release_date, changes, commits
  • stable id values in repo@shortcommit format
  • same authoritative source of truth used by later skills
Show full SKILL.md (306 more words)Show less

Milestone cross-check

changes.json is derived from a VMR source-manifest diff. That makes it authoritative for what flowed into the build, but it is a commit-shaped view, and a feature can be easy to overlook in it. For the repos that maintain preview milestones, sweep the milestone as a second, independent view of the same release and reconcile anything that looks like a user-facing feature but never made it into the notes.

bash
gh api -X GET search/issues \
  -f q="repo:dotnet/aspnetcore is:pr is:merged milestone:11.0-preview7" \
  --jq '.total_count'

Milestone discipline varies by repo, so this check only applies for the repos where it is actually maintained:

  • dotnet/sdk
  • dotnet/aspnetcore
  • dotnet/runtime
  • dotnet/efcore

Rules for using it:

  • Supplement, never replace. changes.json stays the source of truth. The milestone is a prompt to go back and look, not an alternative manifest.
  • The milestone is a subset. It excludes infrastructure and dependency-flow PRs that legitimately appear in changes.json, so the counts will not match and are not meant to.
  • Only the missing direction matters. What is worth acting on is a PR in the milestone that describes a user-facing change and has no corresponding entry in the notes.
  • Verify every addition independently before writing it up. Milestones are applied by automation, so they are usually right — but they can be changed or applied incorrectly by hand afterwards, and a milestoned PR can still be reverted. Treat a milestone as reliable evidence of where to look and strong but not conclusive evidence that the change shipped. Before promoting anything found this way, confirm it appears in changes.json and exists in the build (see api-verification.md and validate-code-samples). The expected outcome is that it checks out; the point is to catch the occasional one that does not.
  • Confirm the milestone exists before relying on its absence. Repos without 11.x milestones will return zero results, which means "not tracked here", not "nothing shipped".

Once changes.json exists, the next step is usually generate-features.

© dotnet, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .github/skills/generate-changes of dotnet/core.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 44927bc

Compare with similar skills

Generate .NET Release changes.json next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

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Prepare ReleaseGremlinq/ExRam.Gremlinq187—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
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Categories

Questions about Generate .NET Release changes.json

What does Generate .NET Release changes.json do?

Produces the changes.json manifest for a .NET preview, RC or GA milestone by choosing the right VMR base and head refs and running release-notes generate changes. NET release notes pipeline.json` into the matching `release-notes/` folder.

When should I use Generate .NET Release changes.json?

Generate .NET Release changes.json fits situations like: A new preview, RC or GA milestone needs fresh shipped-change data; checking whether several preview milestones are active at once; refreshing release notes after the VMR has moved forward; changes.json is missing, stale or built from the wrong refs.

How do I install Generate .NET Release changes.json in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add dotnet/core --skill generate-changes -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.github/skills/generate-changes in dotnet/core) into .claude/skills/generate-changes in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Generate .NET Release changes.json in Codex?

Run `npx skills add dotnet/core --skill generate-changes -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.github/skills/generate-changes in dotnet/core) into .agents/skills/generate-changes in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Generate .NET Release changes.json in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add dotnet/core --skill generate-changes -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/generate-changes, .gemini/skills/generate-changes, .github/skills/generate-changes and .opencode/skills/generate-changes in your project.

What does Generate .NET Release changes.json need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Generate .NET Release changes.json needs the command-line tools its instructions call (gh). Our summary lists: A local clone of the dotnet/dotnet VMR; The `release-notes` tool.

Does Generate .NET Release changes.json access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use gh, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Generate .NET Release changes.json safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Generate .NET Release changes.json use?

Generate .NET Release changes.json is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Generate .NET Release changes.json use?

About 1.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.7k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Generate .NET Release changes.json?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Generate .NET Release changes.json: Add Analyzer (dotnet/roslynator, 3.5k stars), Release Roslynator (dotnet/roslynator, 3.5k stars), Open Pull Request (Gremlinq/ExRam.Gremlinq, 187 stars) and Prepare Release (Gremlinq/ExRam.Gremlinq, 187 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Generate .NET Release changes.json?

dotnet (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in dotnet/core, which has 22,038 GitHub stars. The repository holds 15 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 5, 2026.

Source: dotnet/core on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.