Preview Chinese CLI changelogs before merging release PRs

Where this fits

You're about to merge a kimi-code release PR. Changesets has already generated a CHANGELOG.md block inside that PR, but it's in English and full of internal commit noise. You want to show users a clean, Chinese-facing summary of what changed—without rewriting files or waiting until after the merge to discover that the changelog is missing a breaking change or mistranslates a feature. pre-changelog steps in right before the merge: it reads the pre-generated changelog from the open release PR, strips out non-user-facing lines, classifies each entry (feat, fix, perf, etc.), and translates it to Chinese—all as a read-only preview.

Why agents benefit

• Zero side effects: The skill writes no files and commits nothing, so an agent can safely run it in a CI check or a pre-merge review without polluting the branch.
• Reuses proven logic: Instead of reimplementing parsing and translation, it directly calls sync-changelog's strip/classify/translate rules, ensuring consistency with the project's official changelog process.
• Finds the right PR automatically: It queries gh pr list for the open changeset-release/main PR, so the agent doesn't need manual context about which PR to inspect.
• Chinese-first output: Perfect for teams whose user documentation or release notes are in Chinese—the agent can generate a preview that matches what users will eventually see.
• Early error detection: By previewing the changelog before merge, the agent can flag missing entries, misclassifications, or awkward translations that would otherwise ship and require a hotfix.

Practical scenarios

Pre-merge review in a release checklist

An agent runs a checklist before merging the release PR: it calls pre-changelog, shows the Chinese changelog preview, and asks the human reviewer to confirm that all breaking changes are highlighted. If the preview misses a known breaking change, the agent can alert the team before the merge.

Automated release notes draft for multiple repos

A developer maintains several packages that all use changesets. The agent loops through each repo, runs pre-changelog on the open release PR, and compiles a combined Chinese summary for the weekly release announcement—without touching any files.

Local validation before pushing

A contributor wants to verify that their PR's changelog entry will render correctly in Chinese. They run the skill locally against the open release PR (or a simulated one) and see exactly how their entry will be classified and translated, catching phrasing issues early.

Add it to your agent workflow

Install the skill with:

npx skills add wangyuahn/nori-code --skill pre-changelog

Then in your agent prompt, ask: "Run pre-changelog on the current open release PR and show me the Chinese preview." The skill will locate the PR, read the CHANGELOG.md block, and output the translated, classified preview. For a detailed walkthrough, see the skill page on OpenAgentSkill.

Compare before adopting

Before adding this skill to your stack, compare it against:

• Quality signals: Check how well the translation handles technical terms (e.g., “CLI” vs. “命令行”) and whether it preserves code blocks and markdown formatting.
• Maintenance freshness: The skill relies on sync-changelog's logic—verify that the underlying repo is actively updated and that the skill's version tracks it.
• Alternatives: If your team doesn't need Chinese output, a simple changeset status or a custom script might suffice. If you need to write files, consider sync-changelog directly instead of the read-only preview.
• Workflow fit: Does your release process already have a manual changelog review step? If so, this skill can slot in as the preview tool; if not, you may need to add the step first.

Why it is worth tracking

With 13 stars, this skill is young but addresses a real gap: most changelog tools generate English output, and teams that serve Chinese users often end up doing manual translation post-merge. The skill's read-only design makes it low-risk to trial, and its tight coupling to a specific project (kimi-code) means it's focused, not a generic Swiss-army knife. Keep an eye on how often the underlying sync-changelog is updated—if the author keeps pace with changesets releases, this skill will remain reliable. Evaluate it when you next touch a release PR and want to catch translation issues before they hit your users.