How to Automate Product Release Notes with AI

Let’s face it—writing release notes can be tedious. You’ve just finished juggling development deadlines, testing cycles, and last-minute bug fixes. Now, you’re tasked with the job of summarizing everything for your stakeholders. It’s boring. It’s time-consuming. And let’s be honest, it’s the first thing everyone ignores after it lands in their inbox.

What if you could turn hours spent writing release notes into seconds? Introducing the Jira Release Notes Generator—an automated tool that transforms raw Jira data into polished, audience-friendly release notes in seconds. Whether you’re managing a small project or running an enterprise-level release, this tool saves you hours of manual work while ensuring your updates are professional and engaging.

Why Automate Your Release Notes?

Release notes are the unsung hero of product communication. They keep your stakeholders informed, reduce tickets by addressing known changes or fixes, and build transparency and trust with users.

And yet, most release notes are either overly technical or vague, and creating them manually can take hours. That’s where automation steps in. The Jira Release Notes Generator uses powerful AI tools to free up your time for what really matters—shipping great products.

Time is your most valuable resource. With the Jira Release Notes Generator, you can:

Save Hours: Automate what used to take half a day.
Increase Accuracy: Say goodbye to manual errors and inconsistencies.
Delight Your Stakeholders: Provide clear, professional updates that everyone can understand.

This isn’t just a productivity tool—it’s a game-changer for anyone managing software releases.

How the Jira Release Notes Generator Works

Using Jira exports or direct API integration to fetch issue data, the Jira Release Notes Generator summarizes each issue with OpenAI’s GPT-4. From there, it organizes them into categories like “Bug Fixes” or “Feature Enhancements.” The result? A set of clean, concise, and professionally-formatted HTML release notes you can copy-paste into emails, blogs, or documentation.

Features

The Jira Release Notes Generator gives you:

Flexibility: Works with both CSV exports and live API calls from Jira.
Automation: Generates concise, single-sentence release notes tailored for non-technical audiences.
Categorization: Automatically organizes notes into intuitive sections for clarity.
Customization: Define your own categories, adjust prompts, and tweak formatting.

Step-by-Step Guide: Using the Release Notes Generator

Option 1: Using a CSV Export

If you prefer a manual approach:

Use a JQL query like this to filter your issues:

project = "GNP" AND labels = release_notes AND fixversion = 12-13-2024 ORDER BY key DESC, created DESC

Export the results as a CSV file and save it to your system.
Set the DATA_SOURCE variable in the notebook to "csv".
Update the CSV_FILE_PATH with the path to your export file.

Option 2: Using the Jira API

For a fully automated experience:

Generate an API token from your Jira account.
Update the following variables in the notebook:
- JIRA_BASE_URL
- JIRA_EMAIL
- JIRA_API_TOKEN
- JQL_QUERY
Set the DATA_SOURCE variable to "api". The notebook will handle the rest.

Run the Notebook

Open the notebook in Jupyter or VSCode.
Install dependencies with:
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```
Execute the cells in order, customizing variables as needed.
View your beautifully formatted release notes, ready for publication!

Example Output

Here’s what the generated release notes look like (you can customize this output in the notebook to fit your style and formatting requirements):

<p>
  The most recent product release became effective on <strong>July 7th, 2025</strong>.
</p>
<p><strong>General Bug Fixes and Enhancements</strong></p>
<ul>
  <li>Fixed a transparency issue within a dropdown on user home page.</li>
  <li>Restored the functionality of the unordered list button in the rich text editor.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Security</strong></p>
<ul>
  <li>Updated user input fields to better sanitize HTML code.</li>
</ul>

You can copy and paste this HTML directly into your documentation, email templates, or web pages.

What’s Next?

The Jira Release Notes Generator is a part of the Prompt Library you can download and use.

Stop wasting time on the mundane. Automate your way to clarity and efficiency.