Edit NEWS

Maintain NEWS.md

Here we create a template for editing NEWS.md

library(rpkgkit)
#> ✔ rpkgkit v0.1.24 loaded [2 ms]
tmpdir <- tempdir()
usethis::create_package(tmpdir, open = FALSE)
#> ✔ Setting active project to "/tmp/RtmpVXV3rb".
#> ✔ Creating R/.
#> ✔ Writing DESCRIPTION.
#> Package: RtmpVXV3rb
#> Title: What the Package Does (One Line, Title Case)
#> Version: 0.0.0.9000
#> Authors@R (parsed):
#>     * First Last <first.last@example.com> [aut, cre]
#> Description: What the package does (one paragraph).
#> License: `use_mit_license()`, `use_gpl3_license()` or friends to
#>     pick a license
#> Config/roxygen2/version: 8.1.1
#> Encoding: UTF-8
#> Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)
#> ✔ Writing NAMESPACE.
#> ✔ Setting active project to "<no active project>".
writeLines(
  c("# pkgname v0.0.0.9000", "", "* This is a template for editing NEWS.md"),
  file.path(tmpdir, "NEWS.md")
)

news_md_show(path = tmpdir)
#> # pkgname v0.0.0.9000
#> 
#> * This is a template for editing NEWS.md

Add a new entry using the package version in DESCRIPTION:

news_md_add_entry(
  entry = "Add foo function",
  category = "NEW FEATURES",
  path = tmpdir
)
#> ✔ Added 1 entry to /tmp/RtmpVXV3rb/NEWS.md
#> → Version: 0.0.0.9000, Category: NEW FEATURES

news_md_show(path = tmpdir)
#> # RtmpVXV3rb 0.0.0.9000 (2026-11-06)
#> 
#> ## NEW FEATURES
#> 
#> * Add foo function
#> 
#> 
#> # pkgname v0.0.0.9000
#> 
#> * This is a template for editing NEWS.md

Specify a different category when needed:

news_md_add_entry(
  entry = "Fixed bugs in `foo()`",
  category = "BUG FIXES",
  contributor = "Jack",
  path = tmpdir
)
#> ✔ Added 1 entry to /tmp/RtmpVXV3rb/NEWS.md
#> → Version: 0.0.0.9000, Category: BUG FIXES

news_md_show(path = tmpdir)
#> # RtmpVXV3rb 0.0.0.9000 (2026-11-06)
#> 
#> ## BUG FIXES
#> 
#> * Fixed bugs in `foo()` (@Jack)
#> 
#> 
#> ## NEW FEATURES
#> 
#> * Add foo function
#> 
#> 
#> # pkgname v0.0.0.9000
#> 
#> * This is a template for editing NEWS.md

As you can see, different categories belong to the same version are grouped together.

For validating the formatting rules of NEWS.md, use news_md_check(); it is deprecated and now warns on every call, so it is only kept for backward compatibility.

rpkgkit 0.1.23

Yuxi Yang

2026-11-06

Maintain NEWS.md