Changelog entries

[kaos]

As our PR titles are still used as the high level captions for the changelog entries, I have a suggestion that we prefix them with the relevant area/backend of Pants to help users find the entries they care about.

Being a polyglot tool, I think it's time we start embracing the fact that if you don't use Python in your monorepo you may not be interested in the changelog entries pertaining to the python backend. As such, it would be helpful to be able to scan the left edge of all entries only stopping on those topics that are of interest.

I don't think this is a huge deal today, but as we get more and better ecosystem support for a more and more languages etc this will become more relevant, imo.

I tried this out as an example on #20098 to see what it could feel like. Now, the other question (the first being, should we do this it all?) is how to format it and a potential third question of what categories/labels do we want to use.

I see a couple natural alternatives on formatting:

• Using a separator, such as :, e.g. Python: This is the change description.
• Bracketing, e.g. [Python] This is the change description.

Any other suggestions for formatting?

As for categories/topics, I think we don't need to be too strict/restrictive, but have some guidelines in place. Perhaps something like "Always start with the language/ecosystem and append tool/feature as needed to narrow it down as needed using / as separator".

This could look like:

[Python/ruff] Add support to apply code formatting with the fix goal.
or
[Docker/BuildKit] Add image_output to the docker_image target.

Or using : instead of brackets:

Python/ruff: Add support to apply code formatting with the fix goal.
or
Docker/BuildKit: Add image_output to the docker_image target.

And for anything not relating to a backend, use Core, PluginAPI or similar..

[stuhood]

Everyone was in favor of doing this in the meeting. The only question that seemed open was whether to do it via requiring a Github label, or via requiring that the literal prefix be added.

[kaos]

I'm in favour of automation as far as feasible. That would be: add prefix based on label(s), if no relevant label, look at changed paths. Override the automation with manually adding a literal prefix on the PR title.