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Do I still need to add a release note to commit messages?

Yes. They serve different purposes. The release note field is specifically for updating the release notes published with a release. The “Release note” text identifies what changed in the product. Those texts are used in our public-facing release notes as well as by our Docs team to identify product changes that might require documentation.

The epic ref / issue ref / docs note is provides additional context for helping inform the documentation team of what needs updating in the documentation more generally for a releaseDocs team about why the change was made.