Azure DevOps Release Changelog Generator

Azure DevOps Personal Access Token (obtained from PowerShell variable $DEVOPS_PAT)

Skill: Azure DevOps Release Changelog Generator

Purpose

Generate structured release documentation from TFVC changesets or Git commits by retrieving associated Azure DevOps work items, analyzing their full context, and producing:

  1. A complete card list
  2. A release-style changelog grouped by Azure DevOps project

The system must analyze the work item description and discussion history to produce accurate summaries.

Inputs

1. Organization (Prompt First)

Ask the user: "Enter your Azure DevOps organization name (e.g., 'mycompany' from dev.azure.com/mycompany)"

Store this as ${organization} variable.

2. Version Control Type (Prompt Second)

Ask the user: "Are these TFVC changesets or Git commits? (type 'TFVC' or 'Git')"

3. TFVC Changesets

A text list containing TFVC changesets with comments referencing work items.

Example:

4575 Developer Name 11490 - Description of changes
4565 Developer Name BUGS 9761, 11118, 11149
4567 Developer Name User Story 9975: Feature description

Changesets may reference multiple cards.

4. Git Commits

A text list containing Git commits with messages referencing work items.

Example:

abc1234 Fixes bug 11490 - JSON parsing error in Salesforce integration
def5678 Implements User Story 9975: Configuration maintenance

Commit messages follow the same patterns as changeset comments for work item references.

5. Azure DevOps Configuration

Personal Access Token (must be provided via PowerShell variable $DEVOPS_PAT)

The skill reads the Personal Access Token from the PowerShell variable $DEVOPS_PAT (process scope). Set it in PowerShell using:

# For the current PowerShell session
$DEVOPS_PAT = 'your-personal-access-token'

# Or as an environment variable for child processes
$env:DEVOPS_PAT = 'your-personal-access-token'

API endpoints (replace {organization} with actual org name):

Work item API

https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/_apis/wit/workitems/{id}?api-version=7.0

Work item comments API

https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/_apis/wit/workItems/{id}/comments?api-version=7.0-preview

Reusable Scripts

This skill includes reusable PowerShell scripts in the scripts/ folder:

  1. fetch-workitems.ps1 - Fetches work items from Azure DevOps
  2. generate-cards.ps1 - Generates cards.md from workitems.json
  3. generate-changelog.ps1 - Generates changelog.md from workitems.json

Usage:

# Set the PAT token
$env:DEVOPS_PAT = 'your-personal-access-token'

# Set the organization
$Organization = 'your-org-name'

# Step 1: Fetch work items
& "path/to/scripts/fetch-workitems.ps1" -WorkItemIds "10828, 11075, 10137, 11130, 11087" -Organization $Organization -OutputDir "C:\Temp"

# Step 2: Generate cards.md
& "path/to/scripts/generate-cards.ps1" -InputFile "C:\Temp\workitems.json" -Organization $Organization -OutputFile "C:\Temp\cards.md"

# Step 3: Generate changelog.md
& "path/to/scripts/generate-changelog.ps1" -InputFile "C:\Temp\workitems.json" -Organization $Organization -OutputFile "C:\Temp\changelog.md"

The scripts output:

  • workitems.json - Raw work item data
  • cards.md - Card list with details
  • changelog.md - Release changelog grouped by project

Processing Steps

1 Ask for Organization

Prompt the user: "Enter your Azure DevOps organization name (e.g., 'mycompany' from dev.azure.com/mycompany)"

Validate by checking the organization is non-empty.

2 Ask for Version Control Type

Prompt the user: "Are these TFVC changesets or Git commits? (type 'TFVC' or 'Git')"

Accept either "TFVC" or "Git" (case-insensitive).

3 Extract Work Item IDs

Parse the input (changeset comments or commit messages) and extract all numeric work item IDs.

Recognize patterns such as:

User Story 8413
Bug 11490
BUGS 9761, 11118
10086:
Fixes bug 12345
Implements User Story 9876

Rules:

  • IDs are numeric
  • Multiple IDs may appear in one changeset/commit
  • Remove duplicates

4 Retrieve Work Item Data

For each ID retrieve:

Core fields

  • ID
  • Title
  • Work Item Type
  • State
  • Assigned To
  • Description
  • Project (System.Project) - used for team grouping

Extended context

Also retrieve:

  • Work item discussion/comments
  • Work item history notes

5 Context Analysis

IMPORTANT: You MUST read and analyze the discussion/comments for each work item. This is the key value of using AI - the comments contain crucial context that is not in the title or description.

To generate precise changelog descriptions, analyze (in order of importance):

  1. Discussion / comments - Read through all comments. They often contain:
    • Implementation details discussed during development
    • Testing results and validations
    • Specific requirements clarified in conversations
    • Links to specs and documentation
  2. Title
  3. Description
  4. Acceptance criteria if present
  5. Changeset/Commit comment - The original TFVC changeset or Git commit message that references the work item often contains specific change details (e.g., "Correções da integração", "Remoção do filtro", "Fixes bug 12345"). This is a primary source for understanding what specifically changed.

Use the full context to understand:

  • What behavior changed
  • What bug was fixed
  • What functionality was added
  • What integration or data change occurred

Critical: Do NOT just copy the title or description. Use the comments to understand the REAL change that was made. The comments often reveal what was discussed, tested, and validated.

6 Track Changeset/Commit-to-WorkItem Mapping

For each work item, track which changeset(s) or commit(s) contributed to it and what change details were mentioned:

Changeset/Commit abc1234: "Correções da integração com Salesforce" → Work Item 11490
Changeset/Commit def5678: "Remoção do filtro da query" → Work Item 11490

When generating descriptions, combine:

  • The work item details (title, description)
  • The specific change details from the changeset/commit comment

This is especially important when the same work item has multiple changesets/commits with different change descriptions.

7 Determine Responsible Team (by Project)

Team ownership is determined by the Azure DevOps project name from the work item's System.Project field.

Group work items by their project name:

## ProjectName1

## ProjectName2

Rules:

  • Use the exact project name from Azure DevOps
  • Each unique project becomes a section in the changelog
  • Preserve original language in card titles and descriptions

Outputs

Two files must be generated.

Save them to:

C:\temp\

File 1: cards.md

Complete list of cards with metadata.

Format:

## {ID} – {Title} ({Work Item Type})

State: {State}
Assigned to: {AssignedTo}
Project: {ProjectName}
Link: https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/_workitems/edit/{ID}

{Short context-aware summary extracted from description + discussion}

Example:

## 11490 – Bug Title or Feature Title (Bug)

State: Resolved
Assigned to: Assignee Name
Project: ProjectName
Link: https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/_workitems/edit/11490

Fixes a bug or implements a feature described here.

File 2: changelog.md

Must follow the Release-Style Changelog Format grouped by project.

Structure:

# Release Changelog

This release includes changes from the following Azure DevOps projects:

- ProjectName1
- ProjectName2

{ProjectName}

Sections:

## New Features
## Bug Fixes
## Improvements
## Data / Scripts

Changelog Item Format

- **{ID}** – {Title}
  {One concise sentence describing the change}

Example:

- **11490** – Erro Integração - Error reading JObject from JsonReader
  Fixes JSON parsing error when processing Salesforce integration responses.

Summary Generation Rules

The changelog description must:

  • Be one sentence
  • Reflect the actual functional impact - what did this change DO for the user/system?
  • MUST be derived from discussion/comments - read the comments to understand what was actually done
  • Incorporate the specific change details mentioned in the changeset/commit message
  • Avoid internal technical noise
  • Avoid copying large blocks of text
  • Focus on what changed for the system or user

Key: If a work item has comments, READ THEM. They contain the real context about what was implemented, tested, and validated. Use this to write a meaningful summary.

Additional Rules

  1. Deduplicate work items referenced by multiple changesets/commits.
  2. Preserve original language of each card.
  3. Group by project name (System.Project field) - not language.
  4. Changelog must remain concise and readable for release documentation.
  5. Use card discussion history to resolve ambiguous titles or incomplete descriptions.
  6. Always reference the changeset/commit message to understand the specific change details that were made.

Result

Transforms:

TFVC Changesets OR Git Commits

into

cards.md
changelog.md

with:

  • automatic card discovery
  • organization-agnostic (user provides org name)
  • DevOps API enrichment
  • discussion-aware summaries
  • project-based grouping (instead of language-based)
  • support for both TFVC and Git
  • structured release notes.