Automated Release Notes & Documentation Updater

A pipeline that automatically generates release notes and updates product documentation when pull requests are merged to main.

How It Works

Developer creates PR ──> PR merged to main ──> GitHub Action triggers
                                                      │
                                    ┌─────────────────┼─────────────────┐
                                    ▼                  ▼                 ▼
                              Release Notes      Slack + Email     Claude AI compares
                              generated          notifications     docs vs PR changes
                                                                        │
                                                                        ▼
                                                                  Auto-generated
                                                                  docs update PR
                                                                        │
                                                                        ▼
                                                              PM reviews & merges
                                                                        │
                                                                        ▼
                                                              GitHub Pages updated

Pipeline Steps

1. Developer creates a PR with a detailed description using the PR template
2. PR is reviewed and merged to main
3. The release-notes.yml workflow triggers automatically:
   • Job 1 (Release Notes): Extracts PR info, sends to Slack and email via AWS SES
   • Job 2 (Documentation Update): Uses anthropics/claude-code-action to compare the PR changes against current documentation, edits the docs, and creates a PR with proposed updates
4. Product manager reviews the auto-generated documentation PR
5. Merging the docs PR updates GitHub Pages

Repository Structure

.github/
  workflows/
    release-notes.yml          Main automation workflow
    claude.yml                 Interactive @claude bot for PRs/issues
  pull_request_template.md     Structured PR description template
docs/
  index.md                     Documentation home page (GitHub Pages)
  authentication.md            JWT authentication guide
  billing.md                   Billing and pricing guide
src/
  app.js                       Sample Express.js application
CLAUDE.md                      Instructions for Claude Code Action

Setup

Prerequisites

• GitHub repository with Actions enabled
• Claude GitHub App installed on the repository
• Slack workspace with an incoming webhook
• AWS account with SES configured
• Anthropic API key

Required Secrets

Configure these in repository Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions:

Secret	Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Anthropic API key for Claude
SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL	Slack incoming webhook URL
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	AWS IAM access key for SES
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	AWS IAM secret key for SES
AWS_REGION	AWS region (e.g., us-east-1)
SES_SENDER_EMAIL	Verified SES sender email address
SES_RECIPIENT_EMAIL	Recipient email for release notes
PAT_TOKEN	GitHub Personal Access Token (repo scope)

GitHub Pages

1. Go to repository Settings > Pages
2. Set Source to "Deploy from a branch"
3. Set Branch to main and folder to /docs
4. Save

Workflow Permissions

1. Go to Settings > Actions > General
2. Under "Workflow permissions", enable "Allow GitHub Actions to create and approve pull requests"

Demo Scenarios

This repository demonstrates three documentation update scenarios in a single PR:

1. Updating Existing Documentation

Change a value in src/app.js (e.g., JWT expiry from 24h to 48h). The pipeline detects the mismatch and updates docs/authentication.md.

2. Adding New Documentation

Add a new feature to src/app.js (e.g., Google OAuth2 endpoint or PayPal payment method). The pipeline adds the corresponding section to the docs.

3. Removing Outdated Documentation

Remove a feature from src/app.js (e.g., the password reset endpoint). The pipeline removes the documentation section and cleans up cross-references.

Testing the Pipeline

1. Create a new branch from main
2. Make changes to src/app.js
3. Push the branch and open a PR using the template
4. Fill in all sections, especially User-Facing Changes (Added/Changed/Removed)
5. Merge the PR
6. Watch the workflow in the Actions tab
7. Check Slack for release notes and documentation comparison
8. Review the auto-generated documentation update PR

Interactive Claude Bot

You can also use @claude in any PR comment or issue to get help from Claude:

@claude review this PR for potential issues
@claude help me write a detailed PR description for these changes
@claude explain how the authentication module works