General
What is AutoChangelog?
AutoChangelog is a service that automatically generates customer-friendly changelogs from your GitHub repositories. When you deploy code, our AI analyzes your commits and pull requests to create clear release notes that explain what changed and why it matters to your users.
How does it work?
You add a webhook call to your deployment pipeline that triggers after successful deployment. AutoChangelog receives the request, fetches your recent commits and pull requests from GitHub, sends them to our AI for analysis, and creates a changelog entry. This ensures your changelog reflects what's actually deployed, not just what's been merged.
Do I need to create GitHub Releases?
No. AutoChangelog uses a webhook-based approach that you trigger from your deployment pipeline. You don't need to create GitHub Releases. We track commits independently and generate changelogs when you tell us to via the webhook.
Can I use AutoChangelog with any CI/CD platform?
Yes. Any platform that can make HTTP requests will work. We have detailed examples for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, and others in our CI/CD Integration documentation. The webhook is just a simple HTTP POST request.
Privacy and Security
Do you store my code?
No. We fetch commits and pull requests from GitHub in real-time when generating a changelog. Once the AI creates your entry, the raw GitHub data is discarded. We only store the generated changelog entries and minimal metadata like the last commit SHA we documented.
Can you access my private repositories?
Only if you grant access. When you install our GitHub App, you choose which repositories to give us access to. We can only read from repos you've explicitly authorized, and you can revoke access at any time from GitHub's settings.
Do you write to my repositories?
No. Our GitHub App has read-only permissions. We never create commits, webhooks, issues, or any other changes in your repositories. The access is strictly read-only.
Is my data sent to OpenAI?
Yes, we use OpenAI's API to generate changelog summaries. We send commit messages, PR titles and descriptions, and file change summaries. OpenAI's API does not use this data for training their models. See our Privacy Policy for complete details.
Features
Can I edit the generated content?
Yes. Every entry has a rich text editor where you can modify the title, summary, body, tags, and version number before publishing. The AI-generated content is a starting point, not the final word.
Can I write entries manually?
Yes. Click "Create New Entry" to write a changelog entry from scratch without any AI generation. This is useful for announcements, policy changes, or other updates that aren't tied to code changes.
What's the difference between drafts and published entries?
Draft entries are only visible to you in the dashboard. Published entries appear on your public changelog page. Whether new entries are created as drafts or published immediately depends on your auto-publish setting.
What does the auto-publish setting do?
When auto-publish is enabled, new entries are published immediately without manual review. When disabled, entries are created as drafts so you can review them before publishing. You can change this setting for each repository.
Can I password-protect my changelog?
Yes, on Pro and Team plans. Enable password protection in your repository settings and visitors will need to enter the password to view your entries. This is useful for private beta products or internal changelogs.
Billing
Is there a free plan?
Yes. The Free plan includes one repository and 10 changelog entries per month. It's enough to try out AutoChangelog or use it for a small personal project.
What happens if I exceed my monthly limit?
Webhook calls will return a 403 error and no new entries will be created until your limit resets (30 days from your first entry of the cycle) or you upgrade to a paid plan with higher limits.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel from the billing portal anytime. Your plan remains active until the end of your current billing period, then reverts to free plan limits.
Technical
How do I set up the webhook?
See our Webhook API documentation for the complete API reference. You'll need your webhook URL and secret from your repository settings, then add a step to your deployment pipeline that makes a signed HTTP POST request.
What version numbering do you support?
We support semantic versioning like v1.2.3 or 1.2.3. You can specify exact versions in your webhook request, or use bump types (patch, minor, major) to auto-increment from your last version. You can also manually edit the version number in the entry editor.
Can I use a custom domain?
Yes, on Pro and Team plans. See our Custom Domains guide for setup instructions. You'll add a CNAME record pointing to our servers, and we'll handle SSL certificates automatically.
Can I embed the changelog in my website?
Yes. We provide an embed widget that displays your full changelog inline, and an in-app bubble that shows a floating notification button. See Embedding Your Changelog for details and embed codes.
Still Have Questions?
Reach out to us at hello@autochangelog.com and we'll be happy to help with any questions not covered here.