Changelog examples
What good changelogs do, from Linear and Vercel to PostHog and Raycast: the formats, the writing, the visuals, and how to keep one people actually read.
TLDR
- A changelog is proof your product is alive. People check it before they buy, especially developers.
- The good ones are dated, written like a person, visual for anything visual, and frequent.
- Worth looking at: Linear, Vercel, PostHog, Raycast, and Supabase.
What good changelogs do
They’re dated, and frequent. The date is the first thing anyone looks at. A changelog with an entry from this week says “this team ships”. One with the last entry in March says the opposite, even if they’ve been busy.
They say what changed, not what you built. “You can now filter by colour” beats “Introducing our new colour intelligence engine”. The reader cares what they can do now.
They show it. A screenshot or a ten-second video for anything visual. Linear and Raycast are great at this: short clips that show the feature in use, no voiceover needed.
They group the small stuff. One headline feature with a proper write-up, then a list of fixes and improvements underneath.
They link out. To the docs, the settings page, or the blog post with the long version.
Formats that work
- One entry per release with a hero image (Linear, Raycast). Feels like a mini launch every time.
- A feed of small posts (Vercel, Supabase). Lots of entries, one change each, easy to skim and to link.
- A changelog plus a weekly roundup (PostHog). Good when you ship more than anyone can read.
The writing
This is where most changelogs die. “Various improvements and bug fixes” is what you write when you’ve stopped caring. Write it like you’d tell a customer over coffee: what changed, why it matters, and where to find it. Short sentences. No “we’re excited to announce”. (Ours is written by one person, at the Savepad changelog, and yes, I hold myself to this.)
Keep the ones you like
Changelog pages scroll forever and get reorganised. If you like how a product announces things, save the entry, not the page. In Savepad, a saved page gets a full-page snapshot, so the entry you liked stays as it looked. Put them in a folder next to your product launch examples and your favourite developer docs, and you’ve got a playbook for shipping out loud.
FAQ
What should a changelog include?
The date, what changed in plain words, a screenshot or short video for anything visual, and a link to docs if it needs explaining. Group fixes at the bottom.
How often should you publish a changelog?
Whenever something ships, or weekly if you ship daily. Regular beats big. A changelog that hasn't moved in three months makes a product look dead.
Is a changelog marketing?
Yes. It's proof the product is alive and getting better, it's great for SEO on feature names, and existing customers read it to find things they didn't know existed.