CHANGELOG.md (Keep a Changelog)

aid: changelog-md
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/changelog-md/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: CHANGELOG.md (Keep a Changelog)
kind: standard
tags:
- Change Log
- Change Tracking
- Documentation
- Markdown
- Open Source
- Release Management
- Semantic Versioning
- Software Releases
- Versioning
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/changelog-md.png
access: Open Source
created: '2025-01-01'
modified: '2026-04-23'
position: Producer
description: CHANGELOG.md is a community convention for a human-readable, Markdown- formatted file at the root of a project
  that records notable changes between versions. The leading specification is "Keep a Changelog" by Olivier Lacan, which defines
  a stable, opinionated set of section headings (Added, Changed, Deprecated, Removed, Fixed, Security) and recommends pairing
  with Semantic Versioning (SemVer). The format is widely adopted across open source and enterprise projects as the de facto
  way to document API and software releases in a way that is readable by humans and parseable by tooling.
apis: []
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/changelog-md-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://keepachangelog.com/
- type: Specification
  url: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/
- type: LegacySpecification
  url: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/olivierlacan/keep-a-changelog
- type: RelatedSpecification
  url: https://semver.org/
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/
- type: License
  url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- name: Features
  type: Features
  data:
  - name: Markdown-Formatted
  - name: Human-Readable
  - name: Machine-Parseable
  - name: Semantic Sections
  - name: Semantic Versioning Alignment
  - name: Date-Stamped Releases
  - name: Unreleased Section
  - name: Added Section
  - name: Changed Section
  - name: Deprecated Section
  - name: Removed Section
  - name: Fixed Section
  - name: Security Section
  - name: Reverse Chronological Order
  - name: Release Comparison Links
- name: UseCases
  type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: Open Source Project Release Notes
  - name: API Change Documentation
  - name: SDK Release Notes
  - name: Package Manager Metadata
  - name: Library Deprecation Tracking
  - name: Security Disclosure
  - name: Automated Release Tooling
  - name: Monorepo Component Changelogs
  - name: Regulatory / Compliance Change Records
- name: Tools
  type: Tools
  data:
  - name: keep-a-changelog gem
  - name: changelog-from-commits
  - name: changelog-parser (npm)
  - name: git-changelog
  - name: conventional-changelog
  - name: release-please
  - name: changesets
  - name: towncrier
- name: RelatedStandards
  type: Standards
  data:
  - name: Semantic Versioning (SemVer)
  - name: Conventional Commits
  - name: CommonMark
  - name: GitHub Flavored Markdown
  - name: SPDX
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
specificationVersion: '0.19'