Conflict-Free Changelog Management System

[vcolin7]

What does this PR do?

This PR implements a GitLab-inspired changelog management system that eliminates merge conflicts on CHANGELOG.md by using individual YAML files for changelog entries. The system includes automation scripts, multi-server support, and comprehensive documentation.

Addresses: #646

What's Changed

Core System:

• ✅ Individual YAML files per changelog entry
• ✅ JSON schema validation for entry consistency
• ✅ Three PowerShell automation scripts for the complete workflow
• ✅ Multi-server support (Azure.Mcp.Server, Fabric.Mcp.Server, etc.)

Scripts Added:

• eng/scripts/New-ChangelogEntry.ps1 - Interactive generator for creating changelog entries
• eng/scripts/Compile-Changelog.ps1 - Compiles YAML files into CHANGELOG.md
• eng/scripts/Sync-VsCodeChangelog.ps1 - Syncs main CHANGELOG to VS Code extension CHANGELOG

Documentation:

• docs/changelog-entries.md - User guide for contributors
• docs/design/changelog-management-system.md - Design document and implementation details
• eng/schemas/changelog-entry.schema.json - JSON schema for validation

Infrastructure:

• Created a servers/<server-name>/changelog-entries/ folder for each server
• Created VS Code CHANGELOG.md files for each server
• Updated CONTRIBUTING.md, AGENTS.md, and new-command.md with changelog workflow

Key Features

1. No More Merge Conflicts Contributors create individual YAML files with a unique name instead of editing CHANGELOG.md directly:

section: "Features Added"
description: "Added support for User-Assigned Managed Identity"
pr: 1033

2. Multi-Server Support All scripts support multiple MCP servers

3. Smart Compilation

• Groups entries by section and subsection
• Handles multi-line descriptions with nested lists
• Auto-creates "Unreleased" sections when needed
• Supports compiling to specific version sections
• Removes empty sections from output

4. VS Code Extension Integration Automatically syncs main CHANGELOG to VS Code extension CHANGELOG with section mapping:

• "Features Added" → "Added"
• "Breaking Changes" + "Other Changes" → "Changed"
• "Bugs Fixed" → "Fixed"

Usage Examples

For Contributors:

# Create a changelog entry in one line
./eng/scripts/New-ChangelogEntry.ps1 -ChangelogPath "servers/Azure.Mcp.Server/CHANGELOG.md" -Description "Added new feature" -Section "Features Added" -PR 1234

# Interactive mode
./eng/scripts/New-ChangelogEntry.ps1

For Release Managers:

# Preview compilation
./eng/scripts/Compile-Changelog.ps1 -ChangelogPath "servers/Azure.Mcp.Server/CHANGELOG.md" -DryRun

# Compile and delete YAML files
./eng/scripts/Compile-Changelog.ps1 -ChangelogPath "servers/Azure.Mcp.Server/CHANGELOG.md" -DeleteFiles

# Sync to VS Code extension
./eng/scripts/Sync-VsCodeChangelog.ps1 -ChangelogPath "servers/Azure.Mcp.Server/CHANGELOG.md"

Technical Details

• Filename convention: Unix timestamp in milliseconds (e.g., 1731260400123.yml)

  • Pre-PR friendly (can create before PR number is known)
  • Chronologically sortable
  • 1000 unique values per second (collision-resistant)

• Version handling: Supports both ## 2.0.0 (Unreleased) and ## [0.0.1] - 2025-09-16 formats

• Validation: All entries validated against JSON schema during creation and compilation

Benefits

• 🚀 Zero merge conflicts on CHANGELOG.md
• ✅ Automated formatting - consistent output every time
• 🎯 Structured data - validated against schema
• 🌐 Multi-server ready - works across all MCP servers in the repo

Testing

Tested with:

• ✅ Creating entries for Azure.Mcp.Server and Fabric.Mcp.Server
• ✅ Compiling to Unreleased and specific version sections
• ✅ Multi-line descriptions with nested bullet lists
• ✅ Empty section removal
• ✅ VS Code CHANGELOG syncing
• ✅ Both interactive and non-interactive modes

Migration Notes

Existing workflow remains valid during transition:

• Old entries in CHANGELOG.md stay as-is
• New entries use YAML files going forward
• Scripts handle both scenarios gracefully

Related Documentation

• See docs/changelog-entries.md for contributor guide
• See docs/design/changelog-management-system.md for design details
• Inspired by GitLab's changelog system

GitHub issue number?

Pre-merge Checklist

• [ ] Required for All PRs
  • [x] Read contribution guidelines
  • [x] PR title clearly describes the change
  • [x] Commit history is clean with descriptive messages (cleanup guide)
  • [ ] Added comprehensive tests for new/modified functionality
  • [ ] Updated servers/Azure.Mcp.Server/CHANGELOG.md and/or servers/Fabric.Mcp.Server/CHANGELOG.md for product changes (features, bug fixes, UI/UX, updated dependencies)
• [ ] For MCP tool changes:
  • [ ] One tool per PR: This PR adds or modifies only one MCP tool for faster review cycles
  • [ ] Updated servers/Azure.Mcp.Server/README.md and/or servers/Fabric.Mcp.Server/README.md documentation
  • [ ] Validate README.md changes using script at eng/scripts/Process-PackageReadMe.ps1. See Package README
  • [ ] Updated command list in /servers/Azure.Mcp.Server/docs/azmcp-commands.md and/or /docs/fabric-commands.md
  • [ ] Run .\eng\scripts\Update-AzCommandsMetadata.ps1 to update tool metadata in azmcp-commands.md (required for CI)
  • [ ] For new or modified tool descriptions, ran ToolDescriptionEvaluator and obtained a score of 0.4 or more and a top 3 ranking for all related test prompts
  • [ ] For tools with new names, including new tools or renamed tools, update consolidated-tools.json
  • [ ] For new tools associated with Azure services or publicly available tools/APIs/products, add URL to documentation in the PR description
• [ ] Extra steps for Azure MCP Server tool changes:
  • [ ] Updated test prompts in /servers/Azure.Mcp.Server/docs/e2eTestPrompts.md
  • [ ] 👉 For Community (non-Microsoft team member) PRs:
    • [ ] Security review: Reviewed code for security vulnerabilities, malicious code, or suspicious activities before running tests (crypto mining, spam, data exfiltration, etc.)
    • [ ] Manual tests run: added comment /azp run mcp - pullrequest - live to run Live Test Pipeline