generated: '2026-09-05'
method: searched
source: https://github.com/olivierlacan/keep-a-changelog/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
note: >-
  Keep a Changelog keeps its own changelog in the format it defines — the project's
  CHANGELOG.md is simultaneously the release history of the specification and the
  canonical worked example of the convention, and the spec page renders it inline as
  the example changelog. Read verbatim from the raw file on the main branch and
  cross-checked against the rendered spec page at https://keepachangelog.com/en/2.0.0/.

subject: The Keep a Changelog specification and the keepachangelog.com site
format: Keep a Changelog (self-hosted, the project's own convention)
scheme: semver
scheme_source: https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html
current_version: 2.0.0
current_version_released: '2026-06-07'
current_version_url: https://keepachangelog.com/en/2.0.0/
unreleased_section: true
change_types:
  - Added
  - Changed
  - Deprecated
  - Removed
  - Fixed
  - Security
date_format: YYYY-MM-DD (ISO 8601)
yanked_marker: '[YANKED]'
feed: none
feed_note: >-
  No RSS/Atom or JSON feed of releases is published. The machine-readable surfaces are
  the raw CHANGELOG.md on the main branch and the GitHub Releases API for the repo.
machine_readable:
  - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/olivierlacan/keep-a-changelog/main/CHANGELOG.md
  - https://api.github.com/repos/olivierlacan/keep-a-changelog/releases

entries:
  - version: Unreleased
    date: null
    breaking: false
    highlights:
      - >-
        Older spec pages no longer display an example changelog written to newer
        conventions than the page describes; each page's example is pinned to its own
        version's last release, derived at build time from CHANGELOG.md.
    counts:
      fixed: 1

  - version: 2.0.0
    date: '2026-06-07'
    url: https://keepachangelog.com/en/2.0.0/
    breaking: true
    summary: >-
      First major revision of Keep a Changelog. It breaks the guidance, not the format —
      the six change types, YYYY-MM-DD dates, and the Unreleased and [YANKED] markers are
      unchanged, so an existing changelog stays valid. What breaks is the surface around
      it: the page is restructured so some older section anchors no longer resolve, the
      recommended guidance has shifted, and existing translations lag until they catch up.
    breaking_changes:
      - Retired the tagline "Don't let your friends dump git logs into changelogs" for "Clearly document the evolution of your projects"; earlier versions keep the original.
      - Restructured the page from a flat FAQ into integrated guidance in a plainer, less first-person voice; some older section links no longer resolve.
      - Removed the FAQ scaffolding and most first-person framing, whose section anchors no longer resolve; the podcast note moved to the References section.
    highlights:
      - New format guidance — the '# Changelog' header preamble, adopting a newer version of the format without rewriting history, marking breaking changes and where upgrade steps belong, choosing between Changed/Fixed/Security, leading a Security entry with its CVE, and why the six change types do not grow.
      - New versioning guidance — schemes beyond SemVer, and linking each version to a compare diff with reference links.
      - New guidance on changelogs vs. release notes, including why a host's generated notes are vendor lock-in.
      - New automation guidance — LLM-drafted changelogs with a brief for an AGENTS.md, Conventional Commits, CI/CD, linking issues and pull requests, crediting contributors.
      - New guidance for scale — very large changelogs and monorepos.
      - Redesigned, accessible site (WCAG 2.1 AA) with light and dark themes.
      - Removed outdated specifics — the Vandamme gem reference and a GitHub-Releases discoverability note.
    counts:
      added: 3
      changed: 4
      removed: 2

  - version: 1.1.2
    date: '2024-09-27'
    breaking: false
    highlights:
      - Fifteen v1.1 translations added (German, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Persian, Polish, Slovenian, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Romanian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Korean, Indonesian).
      - French and Dutch translations improved.
    counts:
      added: 15
      fixed: 2

  - version: 1.1.1
    date: '2023-03-05'
    breaking: false
    highlights:
      - Seven more v1.1 translations (Arabic, French, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, Norwegian Bokmal, Turkish).
      - Pages default to the most recent version available for each language, and the site displays a count of available translations.
      - All links centralized into /data/links.json so they can be updated in one place.
      - Dependencies upgraded to Ruby 3.2.1 and current Middleman.

  - version: 1.1.0
    date: '2019-02-15'
    url: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/
    breaking: false
    highlights:
      - Danish and Georgian translations.
      - Changelog-inconsistency section added to Bad Practices.

  - version: 1.0.0
    date: '2017-06-20'
    url: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
    breaking: false
    highlights:
      - New visual identity, version navigation, and links from older versions to the latest release.
      - Added the "Why keep a changelog?", "Who needs a changelog?" and "How do I make a changelog?" sections, plus the Guiding Principles sub-section.
      - First wave of community translations (Chinese, German, Italian, Swedish and more).

release_cadence:
  observed: irregular
  note: >-
    Sixteen releases between 2014-05-31 and 2026-06-07. The format stabilised at 1.0.0
    (2017) and the eight years since have been translations and site work; 2.0.0 (2026)
    is the first major revision.