Bellnote turns your merged PRs into published changelog entries. This guide takes you from zero to your first published entry and a live widget.
1. Create your project
Sign up and create a workspace — every workspace starts on the Free plan (1 project, 25 published entries). Then create a Project: give it a name and a slug. The slug determines your hosted changelog page URL.
2. Connect GitHub
Click Connect GitHub in your project settings. You'll be redirected to install the Bellnote GitHub App on the repository you ship from. Bellnote requests read-only access — we never ask for write permissions. Once installed, we register for webhook events on merged pull requests and pushes to your default branch.
See Connect GitHub for trigger modes and details.
3. Generate your first draft
Merge a PR — or click Generate test draft from latest merge in the draft queue. Within seconds a draft appears, written from the PR title, body, labels, and commit messages, in a voice profile learned from your past entries.
Pure chore PRs (dependency bumps, internal refactors) are filtered out automatically unless you enable "draft everything" mode.
4. Edit and publish
Open the draft in the markdown editor. Edit freely — your edits teach the voice profile, so drafts keep getting closer to how you write. Set a category, then click Publish (or schedule it for later).
One publish goes everywhere:
- the embeddable widget (bell + unread badge) in your app,
- your hosted changelog page,
- email to your subscribers (paid plans),
- your Slack channel via incoming webhook.
5. Install the widget
After publishing you'll see the install snippet — one script tag, no build step:
<script src="https://cdn.bellnote.dev/widget.js" data-project="PROJ_ID" async></script>
Paste it before </body> on your site. Full details in Install the widget.
You're done
From here, every merge produces a draft. Approve in about 30 seconds and your users always know what you shipped. When you outgrow the Free plan, Starter is $9/mo flat — and your price never changes.