Since 2.1, a goal is provided to validate your changes.xml file.
You can attach this goal to the pre-site phase if you want the validation to be performed automatically when you generate the site.
First you must configure the plugin and tell it to validate your changes.xml file.
<project> ... <build> <plugins> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-changes-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.9</version> <executions> <execution> <id>validate-changes</id> <phase>pre-site</phase> <goals> <goal>changes-validate</goal> </goals> <configuration> <!-- if set to true the build will fail if the changes file is invalid, if set to false warnings will be logged. --> <failOnError>true</failOnError> </configuration> </execution> </executions> </plugin> </plugins> </build> ... </project>