docs-v2/helper-scripts/common/generate-release-notes.md

Generate Release Notes

A JavaScript ESM script to generate release notes for InfluxDB projects by analyzing git commits between two versions.

InfluxDB 3 Core/Enterprise

This script supports the InfluxDB 3 Core/Enterprise relationship and tagged releases.

InfluxDB 3 Clustered

See the Clustered release process.

Features

• Flexible repository support: Handle single or multiple repositories
• Multiple output formats:
  • Integrated: All repositories' changes integrated in unified sections
  • Separated: Primary repository first, then secondary repositories
• Merge commit support: Extracts features and fixes from merge commit bodies
• Conventional commit parsing: Supports feat:, fix:, perf:, etc.
• PR link generation: Automatically links to GitHub pull requests (configurable per repository)
• JSON configuration: Full configuration support via JSON files
• Enhanced commit messages: Categorizes commits based on affected areas (database, CLI, API, etc.)
• Customizable templates: Configure headers, labels, and intro text for separated format

Usage

Basic Usage

# Single repository, standard format
node generate-release-notes.js v3.1.0 v3.2.0 /path/to/repo

# Multiple repositories (auto-detects Core/Enterprise format)
node generate-release-notes.js v3.1.0 v3.2.0 /path/to/influxdb /path/to/influxdb_pro

# Skip fetching from remote
node generate-release-notes.js --no-fetch v3.1.0 v3.2.0 /path/to/repo

# Pull latest changes (use with caution)
node generate-release-notes.js --pull v3.1.0 v3.2.0 /path/to/repo

# Omit PR links from release notes
node generate-release-notes.js --no-pr-links v3.1.0 v3.2.0 /path/to/repo

Advanced Usage

# Explicit format specification
node generate-release-notes.js --format separated v3.1.0 v3.2.0 /path/to/influxdb /path/to/influxdb_pro

# Using JSON configuration
node generate-release-notes.js --config config.json v3.1.0 v3.2.0

# Using product-specific configurations
node generate-release-notes.js --config config/influxdb3-core-enterprise.json v3.2.0 v3.2.1
node generate-release-notes.js --config config/influxdb-v2.json v2.7.0 v2.7.1
node generate-release-notes.js --config config/influxdb3-clustered.json v1.0.0 v1.1.0

Configuration File

Create a JSON configuration file for complex setups:

{
  "outputFormat": "separated",
  "primaryRepo": "influxdb",
  "repositories": [
    {
      "name": "influxdb",
      "path": "/path/to/influxdb",
      "label": "Core",
      "includePrLinks": true
    },
    {
      "name": "influxdb_pro", 
      "path": "/path/to/influxdb_pro",
      "label": "Enterprise",
      "includePrLinks": false
    }
  ],
  "separatedTemplate": {
    "header": "> [!Note]\n> Custom header text here",
    "primaryLabel": "Primary Repository",
    "secondaryLabel": "Secondary Repositories",
    "secondaryIntro": "Additional features and fixes from secondary repositories:"
  }
}

Output Formats

Integrated Format

All repositories' changes are integrated together in unified sections with repository labels and enhanced descriptions:

## v3.2.1 {date="2025-07-03"}

### Features

- [influxdb] **Database management**: Allow hard_deleted date of deleted schema to be updated ([#26574](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/26574))
- [influxdb_pro] **License management**: Amend license info ([#987](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/987))

### Bug Fixes

- [influxdb] **CLI**: Add help text for the new update subcommand ([#26569](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/26569))

When using --no-pr-links, the PR links are omitted:

## v3.2.1 {date="2025-07-03"}

### Features

- [influxdb] **Database management**: Allow hard_deleted date of deleted schema to be updated
- [influxdb_pro] **License management**: Amend license info

### Bug Fixes

- [influxdb] **CLI**: Add help text for the new update subcommand

Separated Format

Primary repository changes are shown first, followed by secondary repository changes. Ideal for products where one repository is a superset of another:

> [!Note]
> #### InfluxDB 3 Core and Enterprise relationship
>
> InfluxDB 3 Enterprise is a superset of InfluxDB 3 Core.
> All updates to Core are automatically included in Enterprise.
> The Enterprise sections below only list updates exclusive to Enterprise.

## v3.2.1 {date="2025-07-03"}

### Core

#### Features

- **Database management**: Allow hard_deleted date of deleted schema to be updated ([#26574](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/26574))

### Enterprise

All Core updates are included in Enterprise. Additional Enterprise-specific features and fixes:

#### Features

- **License management**: Amend license info ([#987](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/987))

Configuration Options

Repository Configuration

Each repository in the configuration can have:

• name: Repository identifier
• path: Path to the repository
• label: Label used in output
• includePrLinks: Whether to include PR links (boolean)

Separated Format Template

When using separated format, you can customize:

• header: Markdown header text shown at the top
• primaryLabel: Section label for primary repository
• secondaryLabel: Section label for secondary repositories
• secondaryIntro: Introduction text for secondary section
• primaryRepo: Name or index of the primary repository

Migration from Bash

This JavaScript version replaces the previous bash script with the following improvements:

• Better error handling: More robust git command execution
• Flexible configuration: JSON-based configuration support
• Cleaner code structure: Object-oriented design with clear separation of concerns
• Enhanced regex handling: Fixed merge commit parsing issues
• Cross-platform compatibility: Works on all platforms with Node.js

Output Location

Generated release notes are saved to helper-scripts/output/release-notes/release-notes-{version}.md.

Requirements

• Node.js (ES modules support)
• Git repositories with the specified version tags
• Access to the git repositories (local or remote)

Command Line Options

• --no-fetch: Skip fetching latest commits from remote
• --pull: Pull latest changes (implies fetch) - use with caution
• --no-pr-links: Omit PR links from commit messages (default: include links)
• --config <file>: Load configuration from JSON file
• --format <type>: Output format: 'integrated' or 'separated'
• -h, --help: Show help message

Example Configurations

InfluxDB 3 Core/Enterprise

See config/influxdb3-core-enterprise.json for a configuration that:

• Uses separated format
• Sets influxdb as primary repository (Core)
• Sets influxdb_pro as secondary repository (Enterprise)
• Includes PR links for Core, excludes them for Enterprise
• Adds custom header explaining the Core/Enterprise relationship

InfluxDB v2

See config/influxdb-v2.json for a simple single-repository configuration using integrated format.

InfluxDB 3 Clustered

See config/influxdb3-clustered.json for Kubernetes operator release notes.