Getting Started with ReleaseRay

Ship code faster. Communicate better. Stop writing release notes by hand.

If you're reading this, you probably just merged a dozen PRs, your PM is asking "what shipped?", your support team has no idea what changed, and you're staring at a blank Google Doc titled "v2.4.0 Release Notes" with a blinking cursor mocking your existence.

We've been there. That's why we built ReleaseRay.

In this guide, you'll go from zero to published release notes in under 5 minutes. No kidding.

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Why Another Tool?

The problem isn't writing. The problem is that you need to write the same information three different ways:

• For engineers: "Refactored authentication middleware to support OAuth2 PKCE flow"
• For your sales team: "We now support enterprise single sign-on"
• For customers: "Log in faster with your company account"

Writing this manually for every release? That's not engineering—that's data entry disguised as content marketing.

ReleaseRay does what you'd do if you had infinite time: It reads your PRs, understands what changed, and generates tailored release notes for every audience. Automatically.

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Step 1: Connect GitHub (30 seconds)

First things first: we need to see your PRs.

1. Sign up at app.releaseray.com
2. Connect your GitHub org (OAuth—no tokens to manage)
3. Select repositories you want to track

That's it. ReleaseRay immediately starts listening for merged PRs.

What happens under the hood

When you connect, we install a GitHub App that:

• Subscribes to pull_request and issues webhooks
• Requests read access to PRs, issues, and metadata
• Requests write access to Contents and Pull Requests (for optional CHANGELOG.md publisher)
• Never touches your source code—only reads PR/issue data and optionally updates CHANGELOG.md

Every time a PR merges, we capture:

• PR title, body, and labels
• Linked issues (via "closes #123", "fixes #456")
• Author and reviewer metadata
• Merge timestamp

This data becomes the raw material for your release notes.

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Step 2: Define Your Release Range (1 minute)

Release notes need boundaries. What changed between v2.3.0 and v2.4.0?

Option A: Use Git Tags (Recommended)

If you tag releases, we'll auto-detect them:

git tag v2.4.0
git push --tags

ReleaseRay sees the new tag and says: "Show me everything merged since v2.3.0."

Option B: Manual Selection

In the dashboard:

1. Click "New Release"
2. Choose "From tag" → select v2.3.0
3. Choose "To tag" → select v2.4.0 (or main for "what's merged but not tagged")
4. Hit "Create Range"

Now you have a Release Range — a collection of PRs and issues that shipped between those two points.

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Step 3: Generate Notes for Each Persona (2 minutes)

Here's where the magic happens.

Click "Generate Drafts" and ReleaseRay spins up three parallel LLM calls, each tailored to a different audience:

🛠 Engineer Persona

Style: Technical, detailed, upgrade-focused

Example Output:

Features

• Added OAuth2 PKCE support (#245)
• Implemented Redis session store with connection pooling (#248)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed race condition in webhook processor (#251)
• Resolved type inference issue with generic repository pattern (#253)

Breaking Changes

• AuthService.login() now returns Promise<Session> instead of User

Upgrade Instructions:

// Before
const user = await authService.login(credentials);

// After
const session = await authService.login(credentials);
const user = session.user;

Who reads this: Your engineering team, open-source contributors, technical integration partners.

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👔 Internal/CSM Persona

Style: Customer-impact focused, talking points for Sales/Support

Example Output:

Highlights

Enterprise SSO is Live
Customers can now log in using their company credentials (Google Workspace, Okta, Azure AD). This was our #1 requested feature from enterprise accounts.

Talking points for customer calls:

• Faster onboarding: New users don't need to create yet another password
• Better security: IT admins control access centrally
• Compliance-friendly: Meets SOC 2 and ISO 27001 requirements

What customers will notice:

• New "Log in with SSO" button on the login page
• Admins can configure SSO in Settings > Authentication

What to watch for:

• Some customers may need help mapping their identity provider attributes
• Docs are here: SSO Setup Guide

Who reads this: CSMs prepping for customer calls, sales reps updating prospects, support agents fielding "what changed?" tickets.

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🎯 Customer Persona

Style: Benefit-driven, jargon-free, friendly

Example Output:

What's New

Log in with your company account
You can now use your work email to sign in—no more remembering another password. If your company uses Google Workspace, Okta, or Azure AD, just click "Log in with SSO" and you're in.

Faster performance
We've sped up the dashboard by 40%. Pages load quicker, especially if you have lots of projects.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue where some charts wouldn't load on Safari
• Resolved a problem with email notifications not sending

Who reads this: End users checking your changelog, subscribers to your release email, customers who clicked "What's new?" in your app.

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Step 4: Review, Edit, Publish (1 minute)

ReleaseRay generates drafts, not gospel. You're still the human in the loop.

Quick Edits in the Dashboard

Each draft has a built-in editor:

• Add context: "This fixes the bug reported by Acme Corp"
• Remove noise: That internal refactoring? Maybe don't tell customers.
• Reorder sections: Put breaking changes front and center

One-Click Publishing

When you're happy, hit "Publish" and choose your destinations:

• ✅ GitHub Releases (automatically creates a release with your notes)
• ✅ Slack (sends to your configured Slack channel)
• ✅ Microsoft Teams (sends to your configured Teams channel)
• ✅ Intercom Help Center (updates your "What's New" article)
• ✅ Hosted Changelog (your public-facing /changelog page)
• ✅ Email Subscribers (sends to everyone who opted in)

Note: To use Slack, Teams, or Intercom, configure your integrations first in Settings → Integrations. Each integration is private to your organization.

Or export as Markdown and paste wherever you need it.

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Real-World Example: Acme Corp

Scenario: Acme Corp ships every Friday. They have:

• 12 engineers merging ~40 PRs/week
• A product marketing team that writes customer-facing release notes
• Enterprise customers who need detailed upgrade guides

Before ReleaseRay:

• PM spends 2 hours every Thursday reading PRs and writing notes
• Engineers complain: "You didn't mention my performance fix!"
• Customers complain: "Your release notes are too technical!"
• Support complains: "We had no idea that feature shipped!"

After ReleaseRay:

• Friday morning: PM clicks "Generate Drafts" for the week's PRs
• 5 minutes later: Three versions ready (engineer, internal, customer)
• PM reviews: Adds context to one feature, removes an internal refactor
• Clicks "Publish": GitHub release goes live, Intercom article updates, email sends
• Total time: 10 minutes

ROI: 2 hours → 10 minutes. That's 92% time savings. Every week.

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Tips for Maximum Impact

1. Use PR Labels

ReleaseRay is only as good as your PR metadata. Add labels like:

• type: feature
• type: bug
• type: breaking
• area: auth, area: billing, area: ui

We'll automatically group changes by category.

2. Write Good PR Titles

Bad: "fix stuff"
Good: "Fix race condition in webhook processor causing duplicate events"

Your PR title becomes the first line of your release notes. Make it count.

3. Link Issues

Use "closes #123" in your PR body. We'll pull context from the issue:

• Original problem description
• Customer impact (if mentioned)
• Relevant discussion threads

More context = better notes.

4. Customize Personas

Default "customer" persona too casual? Need hedge-fund-manager-level formality?

Custom persona customization is on our roadmap. For now, you can edit the generated content to match your brand voice.

Want to influence our roadmap? Let us know what personas you need at support@releaseray.com.

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Common Questions

"Do I need to write PRs differently?"

Nope. If you're already writing decent PR titles and linking issues, you're good. ReleaseRay works with your existing workflow.

"What if I don't use Git tags?"

No problem. You can manually select a date range: "Show me everything merged between October 15 and October 22."

"Can I edit the notes after publishing?"

Yes! Drafts are versioned. Edit, republish, and we'll update everywhere you published (GitHub, Intercom, hosted changelog).

"What about private PRs I don't want customers to see?"

Add a internal label. We'll exclude those PRs from the "customer" persona (but keep them in "engineer" and "internal" versions).

"Does this work with GitLab / Bitbucket?"

GitHub only (for now). GitLab support is on our Q2 roadmap.

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What's Next?

You're up and running! Here's how to level up:

1. Set up integrations: Configure Slack and Teams in Settings → Integrations
2. Add your team: Invite PMs, CSMs, and marketers to review drafts
3. Customize branding: Add your logo and colors to your hosted changelog
4. Track engagement: See which features get the most attention (Analytics tab)

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Join the Conversation

Thousands of teams use ReleaseRay to ship faster and communicate better. Here's what they're saying:

"We went from spending 3 hours per release on notes to 10 minutes. Game changer."
— Sarah Chen, Head of Product at Acme Corp

"Our support team finally knows what shipped before customers do. No more 'what changed?' Slack messages."
— Marcus Johnson, VP Engineering at TechCo

Want to see more examples? Check out our customer stories or browse real release notes on our public changelog.

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Get Started Today

Ready to stop writing release notes by hand?

Start your free trial →

• ✅ Free for public repos
• ✅ No credit card required
• ✅ 5-minute setup
• ✅ Cancel anytime

Questions? Hit us up at support@releaseray.com or check out our documentation.

Ship code. Communicate clearly. Get back to building.

That's the ReleaseRay promise.

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Written by the ReleaseRay Engineering Team. Follow us on Twitter for product updates, tips, and release note best practices.