Authored by GitHub, this guide introduces a prompt-driven solution for keeping an ongoing changelog.md with GitHub Copilot—capturing work before committing and preserving session history for developers.

Never lose your GitHub Copilot session history again

Author: GitHub

Overview

Maintaining a running changelog of development work is essential for tracking and transparency. This guide presents a clever method for having GitHub Copilot automatically keep an updated changelog.md file reflecting your progress—even before code is committed. By using a simple but effective prompt, developers can ensure that session history and interim changes are never lost.

How It Works

By applying a tailored prompt in GitHub Copilot, you can instruct Copilot to generate and update a changelog.md as you work. This enables real-time documentation of your thought process, changes, and features, which is especially useful:

  • For retrospective review of coding sessions
  • As a workspace history backup before formal commits
  • To improve project documentation practices

Key benefits:

  • Never lose details on what was changed or why
  • Retain incremental progress history
  • Enhance collaboration with transparent interim updates

Example Prompt

While the exact prompt isn’t provided in the excerpt, the described method involves asking Copilot to maintain and append to a changelog.md file during your workspace session. This can typically be initiated with a prompt such as:

“Keep a running changelog.md of this project and append each meaningful change or reason as I work.”

Developers can adapt and refine the prompt based on their needs and workflow preferences.

Learn More

For a deeper exploration of this workflow and a live demonstration, watch the full “GitHub Copilot deep dive” video:

Stay Connected with GitHub

About GitHub

GitHub is a developer platform where more than 100 million users collaborate to create, share, and deliver software. The platform supports developers in writing code, contributing to open-source projects, and building software for a global audience. Learn more at github.com.