chore: add tone calibration to release notes prompt

[jdx]

Summary

• Add tone calibration instructions to the release notes LLM prompt so it matches tone and length to the actual significance of changes
• Add title guideline for smaller releases to keep titles understated
• Change summary instruction from fixed "1-2 paragraphs" to "proportional to significance"

Test plan

• Prompt-only change, no code logic affected
• Verify next release notes generation produces appropriately-toned output

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Note

Low Risk
Prompt-only copy changes that affect release-notes wording/length but do not touch code execution paths or data handling.

Overview
Updates the xtasks/gen-release-notes LLM prompt to better calibrate output to the actual size/impact of a release.

Adds guidance for more modest titles on small releases and replaces the fixed “1–2 paragraph” opener with a summary explicitly proportional to the significance of the changes, discouraging overly enthusiastic write-ups for minor releases.

^{Written by Cursor Bugbot for commit 3a8d396. This will update automatically on new commits. Configure here.}

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello @jdx, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request refines the instructions provided to the Large Language Model (LLM) responsible for generating release notes. The primary goal is to enhance the accuracy and appropriateness of the generated content by guiding the LLM to calibrate the tone and length of the release notes based on the actual impact and scope of the changes. This ensures that minor updates are not over-inflated, and significant features receive the detailed attention they warrant.

Highlights

• Tone Calibration for Release Notes: New instructions have been added to the release notes LLM prompt to ensure the tone and length of the generated notes match the actual significance of the changes.
• Title Guidelines for Smaller Releases: A new guideline advises keeping release titles understated and modest for smaller or less impactful updates.
• Dynamic Summary Length: The instruction for the initial summary has been changed from a fixed '1-2 paragraphs' to 'proportional to the significance of the changes', allowing for more flexible and accurate summaries.

Changelog

• xtasks/gen-release-notes
  • Added a new title guideline: 'For smaller or less impactful releases, keep the title understated and modest'.
  • Introduced a new 'TONE CALIBRATION' section with detailed instructions on matching tone and length to significance, being upfront about small releases, and reserving enthusiasm for genuinely significant changes.
  • Modified the first point under 'RELEASE NOTES' from 'Start with 1-2 paragraphs summarizing key changes' to 'Start with a summary proportional to the significance of the changes'.

Activity

• The author provided a summary of the changes, highlighting the addition of tone calibration, title guidelines, and dynamic summary instructions.
• A test plan was included, noting that the change is prompt-only and does not affect code logic, with verification pending for future release notes generation.
• The pull request was generated using Claude Code.

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR enhances the release notes generation prompt to ensure the tone and length of generated release notes are proportional to the actual significance of changes. The change prevents artificially inflating the importance of minor releases.

Changes:

• Added tone calibration guidelines to match output to release significance
• Added title guidance for smaller releases to remain understated
• Changed summary instruction from fixed length to significance-proportional

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[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request improves the LLM prompt used for generating release notes by adding instructions for tone calibration. The goal is to make the tone and length of the notes proportional to the significance of the release, which is a great enhancement. My review includes a suggestion to further refine the prompt's structure for better clarity and potentially more consistent results from the language model.

[gemini-code-assist]

The TONE CALIBRATION section can be structured more clearly for the LLM by using nested points. This groups the related instructions for minor and major releases under the main principle, which can lead to more consistent output from the language model.

- Match the tone and length to the actual significance of the changes:
  - For minor releases (e.g., mostly bug fixes), keep the summary brief (1-2 sentences) and do not inflate the importance.
  - For major releases with significant new features, a more enthusiastic and detailed summary is appropriate.

[github-actions]

Hyperfine Performance

mise x -- echo

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
mise-2026.2.4 x -- echo	21.8 ± 0.6	20.5	24.3	1.00
mise x -- echo	22.7 ± 0.9	20.8	26.7	1.04 ± 0.05

mise env

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
mise-2026.2.4 env	21.9 ± 1.0	20.1	28.7	1.00
mise env	22.3 ± 0.9	20.5	25.6	1.02 ± 0.06

mise hook-env

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
mise-2026.2.4 hook-env	22.3 ± 0.9	20.7	30.8	1.00
mise hook-env	23.5 ± 1.1	21.3	26.4	1.06 ± 0.07

mise ls

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
mise-2026.2.4 ls	20.4 ± 0.6	18.7	22.8	1.00
mise ls	20.9 ± 1.0	18.7	24.0	1.03 ± 0.06

xtasks/test/perf

Command	mise-2026.2.4	mise	Variance
install (cached)	119ms	118ms	+0%
ls (cached)	74ms	75ms	-1%
bin-paths (cached)	78ms	78ms	+0%
task-ls (cached)	561ms	564ms	+0%