fix: gen-release-notes improvements

[jdx]

Summary

• Use positional args ($1, $2) instead of usage spec environment variables in gen-release-notes - the env vars weren't being set correctly in GitHub Actions
• Add validation for empty Claude output to ensure fallback to CHANGELOG.md works
• Strip version header from PR body since PR title already has version

These fixes address issues discovered after the v1.9.0 release where LLM generation failed.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

---

Note

Strengthens release automation and cleans PR body formatting.

• gen-release-notes: add debug logging to stderr, capture Claude CLI stderr via a temp file, handle CLI failures explicitly, and validate non-empty model output before emitting
• release-plz: strip the version header from unreleased changelog output (tail -n +3) for both dry-run display and PR body

^{Written by Cursor Bugbot for commit 70c799d. This will update automatically on new commits. Configure here.}

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR fixes issues in the release notes generation script that were discovered during the v1.9.0 release. The changes ensure the script works properly in GitHub Actions by using positional arguments instead of environment variables, adds validation to prevent empty output, and removes redundant version headers from PR descriptions.

Changes:

• Replaced USAGE spec environment variables with positional arguments in gen-release-notes
• Added validation to ensure Claude returns non-empty output before using it
• Removed version header from PR body to avoid duplication with PR title

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
mise-tasks/gen-release-notes	Switched from environment variables to positional args and added empty output validation
mise-tasks/release-plz	Strips first two lines of unreleased notes to remove redundant version header

---

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

[Copilot]

The error message indicates that the script will exit when Claude returns empty output, but the PR description mentions 'ensure fallback to CHANGELOG.md works.' The current implementation exits instead of falling back. Either update the error message to clarify there is no fallback, or implement the fallback logic described in the PR.

Suggested change

	# Validate we got non-empty output
	if [[ -z $output ]]; then
	echo "Error: Claude returned empty output" >&2
	exit 1
	# Validate we got non-empty output, fall back to raw changelog if needed
	if [[ -z $output ]]; then
	echo "Warning: Claude returned empty output, falling back to raw changelog" >&2
	output="$changelog"

[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 2 potential issues.

^{Bugbot Autofix is OFF. To automatically fix reported issues with Cloud Agents, enable Autofix in the Cursor dashboard.}

[cursor]

Stripping two lines removes first section header

Medium Severity

The tail -n +3 command strips two lines from git cliff output, but according to cliff.toml, there's no blank line between the version header and the first section header. This means both the version line (e.g., ## [1.9.1] - date) AND the first section header (e.g., ### 🚀 Features) get stripped. The PR body ends up missing its first section header, starting with an orphaned bullet point instead of a properly formatted markdown section.

 

[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 1 potential issue.

^{Bugbot Autofix is OFF. To automatically fix reported issues with Cloud Agents, enable Autofix in the Cursor dashboard.}