Getting Started with ReleaseRay

Welcome to ReleaseRay! This guide will help you set up and generate your first release notes in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

  • A GitHub account with admin access to at least one repository
  • Repositories with merged pull requests

Step 1: Install the GitHub App

  1. Visit https://github.com/apps/releaseray
  2. Click "Install"
  3. Select the repositories you want to connect
  4. Review permissions: ReleaseRay requests access to Pull Requests, Issues, Contents, and Pull Requests
  5. Authorize the app

What Permissions Does ReleaseRay Request?

Repository Permissions:

  • 📖 Contents: Read & Write (read commits/tags, optionally update CHANGELOG.md)
  • 📖 Pull Requests: Read & Write (read PR data, optionally create PRs for CHANGELOG.md)
  • 📖 Issues: Read (link related issues for context)
  • 📖 Metadata: Read (repository information - required by GitHub)

Why Write Access?

ReleaseRay requests write permissions to enable the optional CHANGELOG.md publisher feature. This allows automatic commits and PR creation for CHANGELOG.md updates.

However:

  • ✅ You choose whether to use CHANGELOG.md publishing each time you publish
  • ✅ All other publishers work without writing to your repo (GitHub Releases, Hosted Changelog, Intercom, Slack, Teams, Email)
  • ✅ ReleaseRay won't write anything unless you select CHANGELOG.md in the publish modal

What We Never Do:

  • ❌ Read or access your source code
  • ❌ Modify any files except CHANGELOG.md (and only when you select it)
  • ❌ Create releases without your explicit action
  • ❌ Access data from repositories you don't select

Step 2: Configure Your Repositories

  1. Go to your ReleaseRay dashboard
  2. Select a repository
  3. Choose your preferences:
    • Release cadence (manual, weekly, on-tag)
    • Default personas (Engineer, Internal, Customer)
    • Publishing channels

Step 3: Generate Your First Draft

  1. Navigate to the Releases page
  2. Click "Generate New Draft"
  3. Select the tag range (or use the default: last tag to HEAD)
  4. Wait ~60 seconds for generation

Step 4: Review and Edit

  1. Switch between personas to review each version
  2. Make any edits directly in the editor
  3. Request approval if needed

Step 5: Publish

  1. Select your publishing channels:
    • GitHub Releases (create a release on GitHub)
    • Hosted Changelog (your public changelog page)
    • Slack (send to your Slack channel - configure in Settings → Integrations)
    • Microsoft Teams (send to your Teams channel - configure in Settings → Integrations)
    • Intercom Help Center (publish article - configure in Settings → Integrations)
  2. Click "Publish"
  3. Your release notes are now live!

Configure Integrations

To publish to Slack, Teams, or Intercom:

  1. Go to Settings → Integrations
  2. Add your webhook URL or API key
  3. Click "Test & Save"
  4. Now you can publish to those channels!

See the Integrations Guide for detailed setup instructions.

Next Steps

Need Help?

Questions? We're here to help!

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