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Notra automatically generates changelogs from your GitHub pull requests, commits, and releases. Transform your development activity into polished, well-organized updates that keep your users informed.

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How It Works

Notra analyzes your repository activity and creates structured changelogs with intelligent categorization and prioritization.
1

Connect Your Repository

Link your GitHub repository to Notra. The system will start tracking pull requests, commits, and releases.
2

Configure Your Schedule

Set up automatic changelog generation on a schedule (daily, weekly, or monthly) or trigger it manually based on events like releases.
3

AI Analyzes Activity

Notra’s AI agent examines your repository activity within the specified lookback window, categorizing changes by type and impact.
4

Review and Publish

Generated changelogs appear as drafts in your dashboard. Review, edit with AI assistance, and publish when ready.

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Changelog Structure

Every changelog follows a consistent, reader-friendly format:

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Summary

A concise overview (120-180 words) that captures the essence of what changed and why it matters.

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Highlights

Up to five most important changes, selected based on:
  • Security fixes and improvements
  • Breaking changes
  • Major new features
  • Reliability and performance improvements
Highlights are filtered for high-signal updates with clear user impact. Low-impact maintenance work is automatically excluded.

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More Updates

Remaining changes organized by category:
  • Security: Security patches and improvements
  • Features & Enhancements: New capabilities and improvements
  • Bug Fixes: Resolved issues
  • Performance Improvements: Speed and efficiency gains
  • Infrastructure: Backend and deployment changes
  • Internal Changes: Refactoring and code quality
  • Testing: Test coverage and quality improvements
  • Documentation: Docs updates and additions

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Lookback Windows

Control how far back Notra looks for changes when generating scheduled changelogs:
WindowDescriptionBest For
current_dayToday’s changes onlyReal-time daily updates
yesterdayPrevious day’s activityMorning recaps
last_7_daysPast weekWeekly team updates
last_14_daysPast two weeksBi-weekly releases
last_30_daysPast monthMonthly summaries
For event-based triggers (like GitHub releases), Notra automatically determines the relevant timeframe by comparing the current release with the previous one.

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Tone Customization

Choose the tone that matches your brand voice: Conversational (Default)
Warm and authentic, like a founder sharing updates with the developer community. Professional
Polished and precise, ideal for enterprise audiences. Casual
Friendly and approachable, great for community-driven projects. Formal
Structured and technical, perfect for regulated industries.
Set your organization’s tone profile in Settings → Brand Voice. All generated content will automatically match your selected tone.

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Configuration Options

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Output Settings

Customize how changelogs are generated: 
{
  "outputType": "changelog",
  "outputConfig": {
    "publishDestination": "webflow" // Optional: auto-publish to Webflow, Framer, or custom endpoint
  }
}

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Source Configuration

Control what triggers changelog generation: Event-Based Triggers 
{
  "sourceType": "github_webhook",
  "sourceConfig": {
    "eventTypes": ["release", "push"]
  }
}
Scheduled Generation 
{
  "sourceType": "cron",
  "sourceConfig": {
    "cron": {
      "frequency": "weekly",
      "hour": 9,
      "minute": 0,
      "dayOfWeek": 1 // Monday
    }
  },
  "lookbackWindow": "last_7_days"
}

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Best Practices

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Write Meaningful PR Titles and Descriptions

Notra uses your PR titles and descriptions as source material. Clear, descriptive PRs lead to better changelogs. Good PR Title
Add email verification flow with expiration handling Poor PR Title
Fix bug

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Use Labels for Better Categorization

While Notra intelligently categorizes changes, GitHub labels help ensure accuracy:
  • security: Security-related changes
  • breaking-change: Breaking changes
  • enhancement: New features
  • bug: Bug fixes
  • performance: Performance improvements

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Set Appropriate Lookback Windows

Match your lookback window to your release cadence:
  • Ship daily? Use yesterday or current_day
  • Weekly releases? Use last_7_days
  • Monthly updates? Use last_30_days

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Review Before Publishing

All changelogs are created as drafts. Review them to:
  • Verify technical accuracy
  • Add context that GitHub activity might not capture
  • Adjust highlights for your audience
  • Use the AI editor to refine specific sections
The AI editor can help you expand sections, adjust tone, or simplify technical language for non-technical readers.

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Example Changelog

Here’s what a generated changelog looks like: 
# Product Updates - Week of March 2, 2026

This week brought significant improvements to developer experience and
reliability. We shipped enhanced error handling for cached components,
improved email verification flows, and optimized authentication state
management. The team also focused on security hardening with rotated
webhook secret handling and cross-browser UI consistency improvements.

## Highlights

### Cache component support with actionable error guidance
Runtime guardrails now catch unsupported auth calls in cached contexts
and provide clear migration guidance with the correct usage pattern.

### Email link verification for signup flows
Signup verification now supports secure email-link completion flows
with clear status handling for expiration and mismatch cases.

### Async initial state support for modern React apps
Initial auth state can resolve asynchronously at hook usage points,
reducing root layout complexity and keeping top-level rendering predictable.

## More Updates

### Security
- **Rotated webhook signing secret handling** [#131](https://github.com/org/repo/pull/131) -
  Improves secret lifecycle controls. (Author: [@lee](https://github.com/lee/))

### Bug Fixes
- **Fixed null-state crash in trigger editor** [#140](https://github.com/org/repo/pull/140) -
  Prevents editor crashes for partially configured triggers. (Author: [@sam](https://github.com/sam/))

### Features & Enhancements
- **Added repository filter presets** [#142](https://github.com/org/repo/pull/142) -
  Speeds up common workflow setup. (Author: [@alex](https://github.com/alex/))

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Common Issues

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Changelog is Too Short or Missing Expected Changes

Cause: Lookback window might not cover the relevant timeframe, or PRs lack sufficient detail. Solution:
  1. Verify your lookback window settings match your release cadence
  2. Check that PRs have descriptive titles and descriptions
  3. Ensure PRs are merged (not just created) within the lookback period

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Too Many Low-Impact Items in Highlights

Cause: Limited high-impact changes during the timeframe. Solution:
  • Notra automatically limits highlights to truly important changes
  • If you see maintenance items in highlights, adjust your brand voice settings to be more selective
  • Consider a longer lookback window to capture more significant work

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Changes from Private Repositories Not Appearing

Cause: Missing or expired GitHub token. Solution:
  1. Navigate to Integrations → GitHub
  2. Re-authenticate your GitHub connection
  3. Ensure the token has access to private repositories
Need help? Check out Brand Voice Configuration to customize how your changelogs are written and prioritized.

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