AddThisFeature

Component Changelog

Record what changed in the shared components so consumers are not surprised by a release.

moderate Developer Experience

What it adds

A dated, per-component record of additions, visual changes, deprecations, and breaking interface changes, with migration notes.

What your agent is told to do

5
  1. 1

    Keep one changelog for the shared component layer and identify every entry by the component it affects, so a consumer can scan for the three components they use rather than reading the whole release.

  2. 2

    Classify each entry by what it costs the consumer: a new component, a visual change that needs a look, a behavioural change that needs a test, a deprecation with a replacement, or a breaking interface change that needs work.

  3. 3

    Write every deprecation with its replacement, the reason, and the release in which the old form stops working. A deprecation with no removal date is ignored indefinitely.

  4. 4

    Generate the entries from work as it merges rather than assembling them before a release. A changelog written from memory at the end of a cycle omits precisely the small visual changes that break someone's layout.

  5. 5

    Do not let the changelog become the specification. What a component must do lives in Component Acceptance Criteria; this record says only what changed and what the consumer has to do about it.

Edge cases it handles

7
  • Visual and behavioural changes need separating, because they are read by different people for different reasons — a designer scans for the first, an engineer for the second, and merging them means both skim.
  • A breaking change is not documented until it links to migration guidance concrete enough to follow, showing the old shape, the new shape, and what to do with anything in between.
  • Theme and accessibility impact must be called out explicitly: a token that changed value, a contrast ratio that moved, an altered focus order, or a changed accessible name will not be noticed from a diff of the component.
  • Entries assembled by hand at release time go stale or go missing, so derive them from merged work and treat a merged change with no entry as an incomplete change.
  • A change that only affects one theme or one breakpoint must say so, or every consumer assumes it affects them and re-checks work that was never at risk.
  • Internal refactors with no consumer-visible effect should be left out entirely; a changelog padded with them stops being read.
  • An entry has to be tied to a version or a date that a consumer can compare against the version they are running, otherwise it cannot be acted on.

Definition of done

9
  • Every consumer-visible change to a shared component appears in the changelog against that component's name.
  • Entries are classified as new, visual, behavioural, deprecated, or breaking.
  • Each breaking change links to migration guidance showing the old and new shape.
  • Each deprecation names its replacement and the release in which the old form is removed.
  • Theme and accessibility impact are stated explicitly where they exist.
  • Entries are produced from merged work, and a merged change without one is treated as unfinished.
  • Every entry carries a version or date a consumer can compare against their own.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.