Monthly Documentation Report Generator

Generate a structured monthly report of documentation changes from git commit history.

What this skill does

Analyzes git commits for a specified month and produces a markdown report categorizing documentation changes. The report is formatted for easy copying into Google Docs and uses clear, factual language without hyperbole.

When to use this skill

• User asks for a monthly documentation report or newsletter
• User wants to see what documentation work was done in a specific month
• User mentions analyzing or summarizing docs changes for a time period

Report Structure

The report should follow this exact structure:

# [Month YYYY] Documentation Updates

## Summary Statistics

- Total commits: [N] (excluding dependency updates and merges)
- New documentation pages: [N]
- Configuration reference updates: [N]
- Contributors: [N]

## New Pages

- **[Page Title]** ([PR #]) - Contributor Name
  - Brief description of what the page covers
  - Key topics or use cases addressed

## Major Features and Updates

- **[Feature/Update Name]** ([PR #]) - Contributor Name
  - What changed or was added
  - Impact or purpose of the change

## Reference Updates

- **[What was added to config reference]** ([PR #]) - Contributor Name
  - Brief description of the addition

## Infrastructure and Tooling Updates

- **[Tool/Infrastructure Change]** ([PR #]) - Contributor Name
  - What changed and why it matters

Process

1. Get the time period

Ask the user which month and year they want to analyze if not specified.

2. Extract git commits

Important: Do NOT use --since/--until or --after/--before date filters directly on git log. Those filter by author date, which means commits from a PR opened in month X but merged in month Y will appear in the wrong month's results.

Instead, find the exact state of main at the start and end of the month, then diff between them:

# Find the boundary SHAs — last commit on main before the month started and ended
MONTH_END=$(git rev-list --max-count=1 --before="YYYY-MM-31T23:59:59" main)
MONTH_START=$(git rev-list --max-count=1 --before="YYYY-MM-01T00:00:00" main)

# Get all non-merge commits that actually landed on main during the month
git log --no-merges ${MONTH_START}..${MONTH_END} --oneline

# Get commits excluding dependency updates
git log --no-merges ${MONTH_START}..${MONTH_END} --oneline | \
  grep -vE "(chore\(deps\)|fix\(deps\)|Update dependency|Update Node.js|Update aws-sdk|Update module|Update tailwindcss|Update cimg/|feat: update Xcode|feat: add Xcode|Bump )"

# For key commits, get details with file changes
git show --stat --oneline <commit-hash>

This approach correctly handles PRs that were opened in one month but merged in another.

3. Categorize changes

Review the commits and categorize them:

New Pages: Look for commits that add new .adoc files or mention "new page", "new guide", "new documentation"

Major Features and Updates: Look for:

• New feature documentation
• Significant updates to existing docs
• New integration guides
• Major content additions (not minor fixes)

Reference Updates: Look for commits that modify configuration-reference.adoc or explicitly mention adding to the config reference

Infrastructure and Tooling: Look for:

• Build system changes
• Documentation tooling updates
• CI/CD changes
• Linting/quality tools
• Developer workflow improvements

4. Filter out noise

Exclude these from detailed listings:

• Dependency updates (already filtered in git commands)
• Minor typo fixes (unless part of a larger campaign)
• Merge commits
• Version bumps

You can mention large cleanup campaigns (e.g., "Vale linting cleanup across 60+ files") as a single infrastructure item.

5. Extract key information

For each significant change:

• PR number (from commit message like (#10123))
• Contributor name (from git log with --format="%an")
• Brief description (1-2 bullets max)

To get contributor names along with commits:

git log --no-merges ${MONTH_START}..${MONTH_END} --pretty=format:"%h | %s | %an"

When multiple people contribute to related changes, list all contributors (e.g., "Contributor A, Contributor B")

6. Count contributors

# Get unique contributor count for the month
git log --since="YYYY-MM-01" --until="YYYY-MM-31" --format="%an" | \
  grep -vE "(dependabot|renovate)" | sort -u | wc -l

7. Generate the report

Write the markdown file to [month]-[year]-newsletter.md (e.g., april-2026-newsletter.md).

Writing Guidelines

Be factual and concise:

• State what changed, not how great it is
• Use clear, direct language
• Avoid superlatives like "comprehensive", "massive", "excellent"
• Don't rank or highlight specific contributors as "top"

Good examples:

• "Added Slack integration documentation with setup instructions"
• "Documented job groups feature for serial execution"
• "Updated Vale linter rules and fixed errors across 60+ files"

Avoid:

• "Comprehensive new documentation for Slack with extensive examples"
• "Rosie did amazing work cleaning up 80+ files"
• "Game-changing incident response playbook"

Per-item format: Each item should have:

• Title in bold
• PR number in parentheses
• Contributor name(s) after a dash
• 1-2 bullet points describing the change

Example:

- **Slack Integration Guide** (#10146) - Henna
  - Setup instructions for CircleCI Slack integration
  - Includes org and project-level configuration

Edge Cases

Empty month: If no substantive commits, say so clearly:

# [Month YYYY] Documentation Updates

No significant documentation updates were made in [Month YYYY].

Mixed types: If a PR affects multiple categories, list it in the most relevant one, don't duplicate.

Large cleanup campaigns: Group related small changes (e.g., 50 Vale linting fixes) into one infrastructure item rather than listing each individually.

Changes that don't fit the categories: If you find commits that don't fit into any of the 5 categories, inform the user and ask if a new section is needed. List the commits that don't fit and suggest potential category names. For example:

I found [N] commits that don't fit the existing categories:
- [commit description] (#PR)
- [commit description] (#PR)

These seem to be related to [theme]. Should I add a new section called "[Suggested Name]"?

Output

Save the report to a file named [month]-[year]-newsletter.md in the current working directory and inform the user where it was saved.