changelog

Business

Use for writing, reviewing, editing, or generating Meteor release changelog entries. Defines canonical file locations, naming rules, required section structure, formatting conventions, PR-based generation workflow (with gh CLI and web fallback), incremental updates, and common entry patterns. Applies to files under v3-docs/docs/generators/changelog/versions/.

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Meteor Changelog Rules

Guidelines for authoring and generating Meteor release changelog entries.

Source of Truth

All changelog files live in:

v3-docs/docs/generators/changelog/versions/

These files are consumed by a generator that produces the public changelog. Never edit generated output directly.

Special file: 99999-generated-code-warning.md (page header). Do not change its structure.

File Naming

One file per release
Format: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.md
No v prefix
No suffixes or metadata

Examples:

✅ 3.4.0.md
❌ v3.4.0.md
❌ 3.4.0-final.md

Required Entry Structure

All sections are required and must appear in this exact order. Use N/A when a section has no content.

Major / minor releases (X.0.0, X.Y.0) — use subheaders under Highlights:

## v<VERSION>, <YYYY-MM-DD>

### Highlights

#### Features

- New capability or API

#### Improvements

- Enhancement to existing behavior

#### Fixes

- Bug fix

#### Breaking Changes
N/A

#### Internal API changes
N/A

#### Migration Steps
Please run the following command to update your project:

```bash
meteor update --release <VERSION>
```

#### Bumped Meteor Packages

* package@version

#### Bumped NPM Packages

N/A

#### Special thanks to

N/A

Patch releases (X.Y.Z, Z > 0) — flat list, no subheaders:

### Highlights

- Summary of change

Formatting Rules

Version Header

Format: ## vX.Y.Z, YYYY-MM-DD
Comma + space separator
Always H2
Update the date to the current date whenever the changelog is modified

Highlights

Major / minor — group entries under #### Features, #### Improvements, #### Fixes (H4 subheaders inside Highlights). Omit a subheader only if it would be empty.

Patch — flat bullet list, no subheaders.

General rules:

Bullet list (-), concise, imperative voice
Include PR links inline

- Upgrade to Node v22, [PR#13997](...)

For large features, use nested bullets with emoji markers:

- **Meteor-Rspack Integration**, [PR#13910](...)
  - ⚡ New `rspack` atmosphere package
  - 📦 New `@meteorjs/rspack` npm package

For feature-heavy releases, append:

All Merged PRs@[GitHub PRs X.Y](https://github.com/meteor/meteor/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Amerged+base%3Arelease-X.Y)

External package changelogs go after the PR link block.

Breaking Changes

Use N/A if none
Package-level changes:
- Backtick package names
- List affected APIs
Non-package changes use plain bullets

Migration Steps

Always start with:

meteor update --release <VERSION>

Add extra commands, config steps, or doc links if needed

Bumped Packages

Meteor & NPM

One package per line
Format: name@version
No backticks
Use N/A if empty
Include meteor-tool@<version> when applicable

Special Thanks

Wrap contributor list with ✨✨✨
GitHub users: [@user](https://github.com/user)
Forum users: [@user](https://forums.meteor.com/u/user/summary)
Use N/A if none

Linking Conventions

PR: [PR#123](https://github.com/meteor/meteor/pull/123)
Docs: [text](https://docs.meteor.com/...)
External changelog: [pkg@ver](url)
All PRs: [GitHub PRs X.Y](...)

Common Highlight Patterns

Dependency upgrade
Bug fix
New feature
Package integration
Deprecation
Dependency-only bump
Async API migration

Branching Model & Comparison Baseline

Meteor releases are prepared on release-<VERSION> branches (e.g., release-3.4.1). The main development branch is devel.

Changelog scope = all changes on release-<VERSION> that are not on devel
PR base = PRs merged with base release-<VERSION>
Commit diff = git log devel..release-<VERSION> or git log devel..HEAD when on the release branch

When generating or updating a changelog, always compare against devel to determine what is new in the release. PRs merged into devel that were then merged into the release branch via a branch merge (e.g., Merge branch 'devel' into release-X.Y) are included — they are part of the release diff.

Generating a Changelog from PRs

Use merged PRs targeting the release branch.

Fetch PRs

Primary — gh CLI:

gh pr list --repo meteor/meteor \
  --base release-<VERSION> \
  --state merged \
  --limit 200 \
  --json number,title,labels,author,body,url

Fallback — when gh is unavailable:

Use WebFetch to retrieve the PR list from GitHub:

https://github.com/meteor/meteor/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Amerged+base%3Arelease-<VERSION>

Or fetch JSON from the GitHub REST API:

https://api.github.com/repos/meteor/meteor/pulls?base=release-<VERSION>&state=closed&per_page=100

Filter results to only merged PRs (merged_at is not null).

Incremental Updates

When the changelog file already exists with content:

Parse existing Highlights for PR numbers (extract from PR#NNNN links)
Compare fetched PRs against the existing set
Skip PRs already present — only process newly detected PRs
Append new entries to the appropriate sections without duplicating existing ones

Categorization Signals

Labels (Project:*, Type:*) are primary
Titles supplement labels
For major/minor, classify each PR into one of:
- Features — new APIs, new packages, new capabilities
- Improvements — enhancements, optimizations, DX upgrades to existing behavior
- Fixes — bug fixes, correctness patches

Inclusion & Exclusion Rules

Include only PRs that touch release-relevant directories:

tools/ — CLI and build system
packages/ — core Meteor packages
npm-packages/ — published @meteorjs/* packages
scripts/ — dev bundle build scripts (e.g., Node.js version bumps)

A PR that touches files only outside these directories is not a release change and must be excluded from the changelog.

Exclude PRs that are:

Release tooling only (e.g., changelog generation, version bumps)
Docs-only — touching only docs/, v3-docs/, guide/, or markdown files outside release directories
CI/test-infrastructure-only — touching only .github/workflows/, test harness setup, or E2E infrastructure without changing runtime behavior
Dependabot PRs unless they bump a dependency that ships in the Meteor release (e.g., Node.js upgrade)
Internal refactors with no user-facing impact (e.g., renaming internal variables, reformatting)

When a PR touches both release and non-release directories, include it — the release-relevant changes take priority for categorization.

Breaking Change Detection

Scan PR title, body, labels, and phrases such as:

"breaking", "removed", "renamed", "is now async"

Assembly Order

Version header
Highlights
- Major/minor: Features → Improvements → Fixes (as H4 subheaders)
- Patch: flat list, most impactful first
All merged PRs link (if needed)
Breaking Changes
Internal API changes
Migration Steps
Bumped Meteor Packages (TBD if unknown)
Bumped NPM Packages (TBD or N/A)
Special thanks to