raimon49/pip-licenses

Changelog and Release Notes - Single source of truth?

Open

#272 opened on Jan 21, 2026

View on GitHub
 (5 comments) (0 reactions) (1 assignee)Python (58 forks)auto 404
help wantedquestion

Repository metrics

Stars
 (372 stars)
PR merge metrics
 (PR metrics pending)

Description

I suggest a single source of truth to document changes. Currently:

  1. CHANGELOG.md
  2. GitHub Releases page

Wouldn't it make sense to avoid duplication? How about keeping GitHub Releases and discarding CHANGELOG.md? This would imply that:

  • the contents of CHANGELOG.md are not appended to README.md any more, removing the need for a dynamic README while building sdist,
  • and on the PyPI project page, changes would only be accessible through the existing Releases link - but that's what "all" projects do.

Are repository maintainers able to modify release notes GitHub Releases page after the fact? I am asking because it would allow to align this page with the contents of CHANGELOG.md and then get rid of CHANGELOG.md.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Evaluate the current workflow for changelog and release notes. Determine if GitHub Releases can serve as the single source of truth and how to handle dynamic README generation.
Tech stack
python
Domain
documentationdeveloper experience
Issue type
Documentation
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
1
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Under 1 hour
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Mostly clear
Prerequisites
None
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
80