How to automatically generate release notes for your project
Tags: github, productivity, opensource, maintainer
Published: 2021-11-26 04:52:10

When you ship a new version for your product, the last thing you want to worry about are release notes. They can take a lot of time, you might forget things, and they are often so much hassle maintainers leave them out entirely.

Now, with GitHub's new automatically generated release notes feature, you'll never miss your changelog. Plus auto-generate notes will even include thanks to first time contributors :heart:.

Here's how to automatically generate release notes for your project's next release.

## Create a release for your project

When you want to create a new release for your project, make sure you've merged all the pull requests you want to include for that release. Then follow these steps:

<ol>1. Navigate to your project's GitHub repo</ol>
<ol>2. Click "Releases" on the left side of the screen:</ol>
![Releases](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/o89vngxp5lhsgc6n8cpy.JPG)
<ol>3. Click "Create a new release"</ol>
![Create release](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ewbayi623h2d6ksxmkdf.JPG)
<ol>4. Click "Choose a tag":</ol>
![Choosing a tag](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5xq88umqmchzv9lf7md7.JPG) 
<ol>5. Type a new version number to create a new tag:</ol>
![Select your release version](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/t1tg3xqacfnuc34n0cl3.JPG)
<ol>6. Select the target branch:</ol>
![Automatically generate release notes](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/lbsitb3hkg67tfyrkryz.JPG) 
<ol>7. If you've selected to create a release from a new tag, the "Auto-generate release notes" button will now be unlocked:</ol> 
![automatically generate release notes](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/m2wwvssmz6qh4at21nyc.JPG)
<ol> 8. Instead of typing your release notes, click the "Auto-generate release notes" button:</ol>
![auto generate release notes](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/rmxsnu9436nraglop9xn.JPG) 

Now your release notes will be automatically generated. A title will be created for your release notes along with the body content. You'll notice there are auto-generated headings, each change is listed along with the contributor, and link to the PR. First time contributors even get a special mentione :sparkles:
![auto generate release notes](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/eutrf6ojz7s3ta6t9ml5.JPG)

<ol>9. Click "Publish release" to see your notes:</ol>
![Release notes](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/aq6f3y5swgcpcwaigtc4.JPG)

With this new feature, you'll never miss another changelog. Users can react to your release notes. Your release notes will also automatically generate a link to the full changelog where users can compare the changes. The more PRs merged since the previous release, the longer, and more detailed your new release notes.

## Auto-generate release notes

We've also created a short video to show the above steps in action. You can check it out on our [YouTube Shorts page](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyqZjOrez0g&list=UUSH7c3Kb6jYCRj4JOHHZTxKsQ&ab_channel=GitHub).

{% youtube 8ryjj5x6FlQ %}

Try this out on your project for your next version release. Read more about [auto-generated release notes on the GitHub Docs](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/releasing-projects-on-github/automatically-generated-release-notes). If you have a major version release coming up, considering [submitting your project](https://github.com/github/release-radar) to be featured in the [GitHub Release Radar](https://github.blog/?s=release+radar).