diff --git a/CHANGELOG.yml b/CHANGELOG.yml
index a42d24e..2fd4b4f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.yml
+++ b/CHANGELOG.yml
@@ -4,14 +4,16 @@ project:
   homepage: https://git.babyl.ca/yanick/App-Changelord
 releases:
   - version: ~
+    date: ~
     changes:
       - Initial release
+      - desc: Doing the thing
 change_types:
-  - feat:
-      level: minor
-      title: Features
-    keywords: []
-  - fix:
-      level: patch
-      title: Bug fixes
-    keywords: []
+  - keywords:
+      - feat
+    level: minor
+    title: Features
+  - keywords:
+      - fix
+    level: patch
+    title: Bug fixes
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord.pm b/lib/App/Changelord.pm
index 3c2d1bf..2a91a2e 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord.pm
@@ -1,39 +1,47 @@
 package App::Changelord;
+# SYNOPSIS: cli-based changelog manager
 
 # version next latest
 
 use 5.36.0;
 
 use Moo;
-use CLI::Osprey;
+use CLI::Osprey
+    desc => 'changelog manager';
+
 use YAML;
 
 use List::AllUtils qw/ pairmap partition_by /;
 
 use App::Changelord::Role::ChangeTypes;
 
-option source => (
-    is => 'ro',
-    format => 's',
-    doc => 'changelog yaml file',
-    default => 'CHANGELOG.yml',
-);
-
-has changelog => ( is => 'lazy' );
-
-sub _build_changelog($self) {
-    return YAML::LoadFile($self->source)
-}
-
-with 'App::Changelord::Role::ChangeTypes';
-with 'App::Changelord::Role::Render';
-
 sub run($self) {
-    no warnings 'utf8';
-    print $self->as_markdown;
+    App::Changelord::Command::Print->new(
+        parent_command => $self,
+    )->run;
 }
 
 subcommand $_ => 'App::Changelord::Command::' . ucfirst $_ =~ s/-(.)/uc $1/er
-    for qw/ schema validate version bump init add git-gather /;
+    for qw/ schema validate version bump init add git-gather print /;
 
 1;
+
+__END__
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+C<App::Changelord> offers a collection of cli commands to
+interact with a YAML-based CHANGELOG file format, from which
+a Markdown CHANGELOG fit for general comsumption can be generated.
+
+See the original blog entry in the C<SEE ALSO> section for the full
+motivation.
+
+For a list of the commands, C<changelord --help>, then to
+get information on the individual commands C<changelord *subcommand* --man>.
+
+=head1 SEE ALSO
+
+L<Changelord, registrar of deeds extraordinaire|https://techblog.babyl.ca/entry/changelord> - the introducing blog entry.
+
+
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Add.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Add.pm
index 9074fb7..1fd3209 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Add.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Add.pm
@@ -3,15 +3,17 @@ package App::Changelord::Command::Add;
 use 5.36.0;
 
 use Moo;
-use CLI::Osprey desc => 'add a change to the changelog';
+use CLI::Osprey
+    desc => 'add a change to the NEXT release',
+    description_pod => <<'END';
+Add a change entry to the NEXT release.
+END
 
 use PerlX::Maybe;
 use Path::Tiny;
 use App::Changelord::Command::Init;
 
-has changelog => ( is => 'lazy' );
-
-sub _build_changelog ($self) { $self->parent_command->changelog }
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::Changelog';
 
 # TODO validate the type
 option type => (
@@ -48,7 +50,7 @@ sub next_release($self) {
 }
 
 sub save_changelog($self) {
-    my $src = $self->parent_command->source;
+    my $src = $self->source;
 
     path($src)->spew( App::Changelord::Command::Init::serialize_changelog($self) );
 }
@@ -63,6 +65,8 @@ sub run ($self) {
     };
 
     $self->save_changelog;
+
+    say "change added to the changelog";
 }
 
 'end of App::Changelog::Command::Add';
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Bump.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Bump.pm
index aaf25e3..ddea6ac 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Bump.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Bump.pm
@@ -3,7 +3,11 @@ package App::Changelord::Command::Bump;
 use 5.36.0;
 
 use Moo;
-use CLI::Osprey desc => 'bump next version';
+use CLI::Osprey desc => 'bump next version',
+description_pod => <<'END';
+Set a version for the NEXT release based on the types of its changes.
+Also set the release date of that release to today.
+END
 
 use Path::Tiny;
 use JSON;
@@ -11,15 +15,11 @@ use YAML           qw/ Bless /;
 use List::AllUtils qw/ first min uniq /;
 use Version::Dotted::Semantic;
 
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::Changelog';
 with 'App::Changelord::Role::ChangeTypes';
-
-has changelog => ( is => 'lazy' );
-
 with 'App::Changelord::Role::Versions';
 with 'App::Changelord::Role::Stats';
 
-sub _build_changelog ($self) { $self->parent_command->changelog }
-
 sub run ($self) {
     my $bump = shift @ARGV;
 
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ sub run ($self) {
         Bless($_)->keys( [ uniq qw/ version date changes /, sort keys %$_ ] );
     }
 
-    path( $self->parent_command->source )->spew( YAML::Dump($change) );
+    path( $self->source )->spew( YAML::Dump($change) );
 
     say "new version minted: $version";
 }
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/GitGather.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/GitGather.pm
index 8d0f8e8..94385fa 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/GitGather.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/GitGather.pm
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ Git messages are compared to the regular expression
 configured at `project.commit_regex`. If none is found, it
 defaults to
 
-    ^(?<type>[^:]+):(?<desc>.*?)(\[(?<ticket>[^\]]+)\])?$
+    ^(?<type>[^: ]+):(?<desc>.*?)(\[(?<ticket>[^\]]+)\])?$
 
 The regular expression must capture a C<desc> field, and may
 capture a C<type> and C<ticket> as well.
@@ -41,10 +41,7 @@ END_POD
 use Path::Tiny;
 use Git::Repository;
 
-has changelog => ( is => 'lazy' );
-
-sub _build_changelog ($self) { $self->parent_command->changelog }
-
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::Changelog';
 with 'App::Changelord::Role::Versions';
 with 'App::Changelord::Role::ChangeTypes';
 
@@ -59,7 +56,7 @@ has commit_regex => (
 
 sub _build_commit_regex($self) {
     my $regex = $self->changelog->{project}{commit_regex};
-    my $default = '^(?<type>[^:]+):(?<desc>.*?)(\[(?<ticket>[^\]]+)\])?$';
+    my $default = '^(?<type>[^: ]+):(?<desc>.*?)(\[(?<ticket>[^\]]+)\])?$';
     if(!$regex) {
         warn "project.commit_regex not configured, using the default /$default/\n";
         $regex = $default;
@@ -69,7 +66,7 @@ sub _build_commit_regex($self) {
 
 sub lower_bound($self) {
     # either the most recent commit in the current release
-    my @sha1s = grep { $_ } map { $_->{commit} } $self->next_release->{changes}->@*;
+    my @sha1s = grep { $_ } map { $_->{commit} } grep { ref } $self->next_release->{changes}->@*;
 
     return pop @sha1s if @sha1s;
 
@@ -92,7 +89,7 @@ sub munge_message($self,$message) {
 }
 
 sub save_changelog($self) {
-    my $src = $self->parent_command->source;
+    my $src = $self->source;
 
     path($src)->spew( App::Changelord::Command::Init::serialize_changelog($self) );
 }
@@ -104,7 +101,7 @@ sub run ($self) {
     # figure out lower bound
     my $from = $self->lower_bound;
 
-    say "checking from ", ( $from || 'the dawn of time' ), " on";
+    say "checking since ", ( $from || 'the dawn of time' );
 
     my @messages = map { $self->munge_message($_) } $self->get_commits($from);
 
@@ -121,7 +118,7 @@ sub run ($self) {
 
     $self->save_changelog;
 
-    say $self->parent_command->source, " updated";
+    say $self->source, " updated";
 }
 
 1;
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Init.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Init.pm
index 4108ac8..a35b47e 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Init.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Init.pm
@@ -12,13 +12,9 @@ use List::AllUtils qw/ first min uniq /;
 use Version::Dotted::Semantic;
 
 with 'App::Changelord::Role::ChangeTypes';
-
-has changelog => ( is => 'lazy' );
-
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::Changelog';
 with 'App::Changelord::Role::Versions';
 
-sub _build_changelog ($self) { $self->parent_command->changelog }
-
 sub serialize_changelog($self, $changelog = undef) {
 
     $changelog //= $self->changelog;
@@ -42,7 +38,7 @@ sub serialize_changelog($self, $changelog = undef) {
 }
 
 sub run ($self) {
-    my $src = $self->parent_command->source;
+    my $src = $self->source;
     die "file '$src' already exists, aborting\n" if -f $src;
 
     my $change = {
@@ -51,7 +47,7 @@ sub run ($self) {
             homepage => undef,
             with_stats => 'true',
             ticket_url => undef,
-            commit_regex => /^(?<type>[^:]+):(?<desc>.*?)(\[(?<ticket>[^\]]+)\])?$/,
+            commit_regex => q/^(?<type>[^: ]+):(?<desc>.*?)(\[(?<ticket>[^\]]+)\])?$/,
         },
         change_types => $self->change_types,
         releases => [
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Print.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Print.pm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54b586e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Print.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+package App::Changelord::Command::Print;
+
+use 5.36.0;
+
+use Moo;
+use CLI::Osprey
+    desc => 'print the changelog',
+    description_pod => <<'END';
+Render the full changelog. The default is to render the changelog
+in markdow, but the option C<--json> can be used to have a JSON
+version instead.
+
+To generate the changelog without the NEXT release, uses the
+C<--no-next> option.
+END
+
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::Changelog';
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::ChangeTypes';
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::Render';
+
+option json => (
+    is => 'ro',
+    default => 0,
+    doc => 'output schema as json',
+);
+
+option next => (
+    is => 'ro',
+    default => 1,
+    negatable => 1,
+    doc => 'include the NEXT release. Defaults to true.',
+);
+
+sub run($self) {
+    no warnings 'utf8';
+    print $self->as_markdown( $self->next );
+}
+
+'end of App::Changelog::Command::Print';
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Schema.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Schema.pm
index dd65e3b..a32ccb5 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Schema.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Schema.pm
@@ -4,7 +4,14 @@ package App::Changelord::Command::Schema;
 use 5.36.0;
 
 use Moo;
-use CLI::Osprey;
+use CLI::Osprey
+    doc => 'print JSON schema for the changelog format',
+    description_pod => <<'END';
+Print the JSON schema describing the data format used by changelord.
+
+By defaults prints the schema in YAML. Can also be printed as JSON
+via the C<--json> option.
+END
 
 use Path::Tiny;
 use JSON;
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Validate.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Validate.pm
index f86181c..9701fac 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Validate.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Validate.pm
@@ -3,13 +3,19 @@ package App::Changelord::Command::Validate;
 use 5.36.0;
 
 use Moo;
-use CLI::Osprey;
+use CLI::Osprey
+    doc => 'validate the changelog yaml',
+    description_pod => <<'END';
+Validate the changelog against the JSON Schema used by changelord.
+END
 
 use Path::Tiny;
 use JSON;
 use YAML::XS;
 use JSON::Schema::Modern;
 
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::Changelog';
+
 option json => (
     is => 'ro',
     default => 0,
@@ -24,7 +30,7 @@ sub run($self) {
     my $result = JSON::Schema::Modern->new(
         output_format => 'detailed',
     )->evaluate(
-        $self->parent_command->changelog,
+        $self->changelog,
         YAML::XS::Load($schema),
     );
 
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Version.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Version.pm
index c616917..af58493 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Version.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/Version.pm
@@ -13,38 +13,9 @@ use YAML::XS;
 use List::AllUtils qw/ first min /;
 use Version::Dotted::Semantic;
 
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::Changelog';
 with 'App::Changelord::Role::ChangeTypes';
-
-has changelog => (
-    is => 'lazy'
-);
-
-sub _build_changelog($self){ $self->parent_command->changelog }
-
-sub latest_version($self){
-    first { $_ } grep { $_ ne 'NEXT' } map { eval { $_->{version} } } $self->changelog->{releases}->@*;
-}
-
-sub next_version($self) {
-    my $version = Version::Dotted::Semantic->new($self->latest_version // '0.0.0');
-
-    my $upcoming = $self->changelog->{releases}[0];
-
-    if( $upcoming->{version} and $upcoming->{version} ne 'NEXT') {
-        $upcoming = { changes => [] };
-    }
-
-    my %mapping = map {
-        my $level = $_->{level};
-        map { $_ => $level } $_->{keywords}->@*
-    } $self->change_types->@*;
-
-    my $bump =min 2, map { $_ eq 'major' ? 0 : $_ eq 'minor' ? 1 : 2 } map { $mapping{$_->{type}} || 'patch' } $upcoming->{changes}->@*;
-
-    $version->bump($bump);
-
-    return $version->normal;
-}
+with 'App::Changelord::Role::Versions';
 
 sub run($self) {
     my $param  = shift @ARGV;
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/changelog-schema.yml b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/changelog-schema.yml
index 0f6aced..409587d 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Command/changelog-schema.yml
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Command/changelog-schema.yml
@@ -42,16 +42,18 @@ properties:
         - type: object
           additionalProperties: false
           properties:
-            version: { type: string }
+            version: { type: [ 'null', string ] }
             date: { type: ['null',string] }
             changes: { type: 'array', items: { $ref: '#/$defs/change' } }
 $defs:
   change:
-    type: object
-    required: [ desc ]
-    additionalProperties: false
-    properties:
-      desc: { type: string }
-      ticket: { type: [ string, 'null' ] }
-      type: { type: [ string, 'null' ] }
-      commit: { type: [ string, 'null' ] }
+    oneOf:
+      - type: string
+      - type: object
+        required: [ desc ]
+        additionalProperties: false
+        properties:
+          desc: { type: string }
+          ticket: { type: [ string, 'null' ] }
+          type: { type: [ string, 'null' ] }
+          commit: { type: [ string, 'null' ] }
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Changelog.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Changelog.pm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc6d49a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Changelog.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+package App::Changelord::Role::Changelog;
+
+use v5.36.0;
+
+use Moo::Role;
+use CLI::Osprey;
+
+option source => (
+    is => 'ro',
+    format => 's',
+    doc => q{changelog yaml file. Defaults to the env variable $CHANGELOG, or 'CHANGELOG.yml'},
+    default => $ENV{CHANGELOG} || 'CHANGELOG.yml',
+);
+
+has changelog => ( is => 'lazy' );
+
+sub _build_changelog($self) {
+    return YAML::LoadFile($self->source)
+}
+
+1;
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Render.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Render.pm
index 75d22ee..da1a68b 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Render.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Render.pm
@@ -40,14 +40,18 @@ sub render_refs ( $self, %links ) {
     return $output . "\n";
 }
 
-sub as_markdown ($self) {
+sub as_markdown ($self, $with_next = 1) {
     my $changelog = $self->changelog;
 
     my $output = $self->render_header;
 
     my $n = 0;
     $output .= join "\n",
-      map { $self->render_release( $_, $n++ ) } $changelog->{releases}->@*;
+      map { $self->render_release( $_, $n++ ) }
+      grep {
+          $with_next ? 1 : ( $_->{version} && $_->version ne 'NEXT' )
+      }
+      $changelog->{releases}->@*;
 
     return $output;
 }
diff --git a/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Versions.pm b/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Versions.pm
index bc37c83..889d4a4 100644
--- a/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Versions.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Changelord/Role/Versions.pm
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ use feature 'try';
 requires 'changelog';
 
 sub latest_version($self){
-    first { $_ } grep { $_ ne 'NEXT' } map { eval { $_->{version} } } $self->changelog->{releases}->@*;
+    first { $_ } grep { $_ ne 'NEXT' } map { eval { $_->{version} || '' } } $self->changelog->{releases}->@*, { version => 'v0.0.0' };
 }
 
 sub next_version($self) {
@@ -29,7 +29,10 @@ sub next_version($self) {
         map { $_ => $level } $_->{keywords}->@*
     } $self->change_types->@*;
 
-    my $bump =min 2, map { $_ eq 'major' ? 0 : $_ eq 'minor' ? 1 : 2 } map { $mapping{$_->{type}} || 'patch' } $upcoming->{changes}->@*;
+    no warnings;
+    my $bump =min 2, map { $_ eq 'major' ? 0 : $_ eq 'minor' ? 1 : 2 } map { $mapping{$_->{type}} || 'patch' }
+    map { ref ? $_ : { desc => $_ } }
+    $upcoming->{changes}->@*;
 
     $version->bump($bump);
 
diff --git a/t/basic.t b/t/basic.t
index 8781320..9129100 100644
--- a/t/basic.t
+++ b/t/basic.t
@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@ use 5.36.0;
 
 use Test2::V0;
 
-use App::Changelord;
+use App::Changelord::Command::Print;
 
-my $change = App::Changelord->new(
+my $change = App::Changelord::Command::Print->new(
     changelog => {
         project => { name => 'Foo' },
     }