Implement automation of Git history documentation

Automatically publishing Git commit history, release notes, and API documentation makes it much easier to create complete and up-to-date release documentation for software projects. This helps developers track and communicate changes in each release, promoting transparency and collaboration.

Automating API documentation generation ensures it stays synchronized with code changes, giving developers accurate information about how to access APIs and their functionality. Adding Git history summaries to release documentation provides additional context and traceability, making release cycles smoother and improving overall project management. Together, these automation efforts optimize documentation workflows, saving time and effort while making release documentation better and more consistent.

You can implement this functionality through the following activities:

Automating API documentation generation

Use OpenAPI (formerly Swagger) or other API documentation tools to automatically create API documentation from your code. Add this process to your CI/CD pipeline to ensure that API documentation is updated and shows the latest changes in your API endpoints. You can also consider tools like Swagger Codegen or Redocly to automate creating API documentation from your OpenAPI specification file or code annotations.

Creating release notes from Git history

Use Git commands or tools like GitChangelog to automatically create release notes from Git commit history. This involves reading commit messages and extracting relevant information such as new features and bug fixes. Customize the release notes format to include details such as commit author, timestamp, commit message, and related pull requests or issues.

Including Git history in release documentation

Add Git history summaries or changelogs to your release documentation alongside release notes and API documentation. This provides additional context and transparency about the changes introduced in each release. Use Markdown or other documentation formats to structure and present the Git history in a clear and easy-to-understand way.

Adding release notes to documentation pipeline

Add the creation of release notes to your documentation pipeline or CI/CD workflow. This ensures that release notes are automatically updated and included in your release documentation whenever a new version is tagged or a release is created. Use scripting or automation tools like Azure Pipelines or GitHub Actions to trigger release note generation as part of the documentation build process.

Automating documentation publishing

Automate the publishing of your release documentation, including release notes, API documentation, and Git history summaries, to a central location that all teams and stakeholders in your organization can access. Use GitHub Pages, Azure DevOps wikis, or dedicated documentation hosting services to publish your documentation.