What is Release Notes Server

The release-notes-server is an MCP server designed to generate beautiful release notes from GitHub commits. It organizes commits by type and presents them in a clean, readable format.

Use cases

Use cases include generating release notes for software releases, tracking changes in a project, and providing clear documentation for users and stakeholders about new features, fixes, and updates.

How to use

To use the release-notes-server, add it to your MCP configuration with the required command and environment variables, including your GitHub token. You can then utilize the ‘generate_release_notes’ tool to create release notes for a specified GitHub repository.

Key features

Key features include smart commit filtering by date or SHA, grouping commits by type (features, fixes, etc.), enriching commits with PR data, providing detailed statistics, and clean markdown formatting with emojis.

Where to use

The release-notes-server is suitable for software development teams and projects that utilize GitHub for version control and need to generate release notes efficiently.

Release Notes Server

An MCP server that generates beautiful release notes from GitHub repositories. It efficiently fetches commits, organizes them by type, and presents them in a clean, readable format.

Features

• 🎯 Smart commit filtering by date or SHA
• 📊 Groups commits by type (features, fixes, etc.)
• 🔍 Enriches commits with PR data
• 📈 Includes detailed statistics
• 🎨 Clean markdown formatting with emojis
• ⚡ Efficient API usage with GitHub’s since parameter

Installation

npm install
npm run build

Usage

Add this server to your MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "release-notes": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/path/to/release-notes-server/build/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-github-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

generate_release_notes

Generates release notes for a GitHub repository.

Parameters:

{
  "owner": string,           // Repository owner
  "repo": string,           // Repository name
  "commitRange": {
    "fromCommit"?: string,  // Starting commit SHA
    "toCommit"?: string    // Ending commit SHA
  },
  "format": {
    "type": "markdown",     // Output format
    "groupBy": "type",      // How to group commits
    "includeStats": boolean // Include commit statistics
  }
}

Example:

const result = await use_mcp_tool({
  server_name: "release-notes",
  tool_name: "generate_release_notes",
  arguments: {
    owner: "owner",
    repo: "repo",
    commitRange: {
      fromCommit: "abc123" // Get commits from this SHA
    },
    format: {
      type: "markdown",
      groupBy: "type",
      includeStats: true
    }
  }
});

Output Format

The generated release notes include:

1. Header with generation date and statistics

2. Sections grouped by commit type:

   • 🚀 Features
   • 🐛 Fixes
   • 📚 Documentation
   • ⚡ Performance
   • ♻️ Refactoring
   • 🧪 Tests
   • 🏗️ Build
   • 🔧 Other

3. Detailed statistics including:

   • Total commits
   • Breaking changes
   • Commits by type
   • Commits by author

Environment Variables

• GITHUB_TOKEN: GitHub personal access token with repo access

Implementation Details

The server implements efficient commit fetching by:

1. Using GitHub’s since parameter when possible to reduce API calls
2. Falling back to SHA-based filtering when needed
3. Properly handling pagination
4. Maintaining newest-first ordering for release notes
5. Enriching commits with PR data when available

License

MIT