Changelog Digest

What it does

Pulls the changelog of any updated plugin or WordPress core release and rewrites it as a short, plain-English digest so you know what actually changed, and whether it’s safe to update, before you run the update.

Install

This skill isn't packaged in an installable registry. It's a plain SKILL.md file you can copy directly. Copy it from the SKILL.md tab and save it at the path for your assistant:

Use it in your AI assistant

Claude Code

.claude/skills/changelog-digest/ (or ~/.claude/skills/changelog-digest/ for all projects)

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

.github/skills/changelog-digest/

OpenAI Codex

.codex/skills/changelog-digest/

Cursor

.cursor/skills/changelog-digest/ (or ~/.cursor/skills/changelog-digest/ globally)

Compatibility

Any WordPress site. Reads changelogs from the WordPress.org plugin API or a plugin’s own readme.txt; no write access needed.

The complete SKILL.md for this skill:

---
name: changelog-digest
description: Use when a user asks "what changed" in a plugin or core update, wants a changelog summarized, or wants to know if an available update is safe to run.
---

# Changelog Digest

## When to use
One or more plugins (or WordPress core) have a pending update, and the user wants to know what changed before applying it, not the raw changelog text.

## Procedure
1. Fetch the changelog for the current installed version through to the available version (WordPress.org plugin info API, or the plugin's own readme.txt/CHANGELOG.md if self-hosted).
2. Bucket entries into: Security fixes, Breaking changes, New features, Bug fixes, Housekeeping.
3. Write one plain-English sentence per bucket that has entries, skip empty buckets rather than padding.
4. Call out explicitly: any security fix (update sooner), anything described as breaking/deprecated (test on staging first), and anything that touches a hook or filter the site's active theme/plugins might depend on.
5. End with a one-line recommendation: "Safe to update" / "Update, but test on staging first" / "Hold, breaking change, check compatibility."

## Guardrails
- Never downplay a security-labeled entry to make the digest read cleaner.
- If the changelog is missing or unreadable, say so plainly rather than inventing plausible-sounding changes.