Is there a way to change the auto-generated release notes header?

[AlinaWan]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

Body

Is there a way to change the "What's Changed" auto-generated release notes header, and if not, is it possible to programmatically replace it with regex before the release is published?

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[PenSul]

There is no native way to change the "What's Changed" header directly. It is hardcoded by GitHub.

However, you can programmatically replace it before publishing by using GitHub Actions and the gh CLI. The standard approach is to generate the default release notes via the API, use sed for your regex replacement, and then create the release using that modified file.

A workflow example:

name: Custom Release Notes

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*'

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  create-release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Generate, modify and publish notes
        env:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        run: |
          gh api --method POST \
            -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
            /repos/${{ github.repository }}/releases/generate-notes \
            -f tag_name="${{ github.ref_name }}" \
            -q .body > notes.md

          sed -i 's/## What'\''s Changed/## Release Highlights/g' notes.md

          gh release create ${{ github.ref_name }} \
            --title "Release ${{ github.ref_name }}" \
            --notes-file notes.md

Hope that helps.

[Mangeshthale]

You can’t change the “What’s Changed” header natively in GitHub auto-generated release notes—it’s hardcoded.

Workarounds:

• Manually edit the release notes before publishing
• Or generate notes via API / GitHub Actions and replace it (e.g., with regex) before creating the release

So yes, programmatic replacement is possible, but only outside the default UI flow