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Choose what your changelog records
“How do I get all releases from the GitHub API?” has a direct answer: use the releases listing endpoint for the repository. But it returns release records, not every Git tag or every development event. GitHub documents the releases endpoints and release-note generation in its REST API releases reference.
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- Published releases: Use the releases listing when each changelog entry should correspond to a repository release.
- Tags: If your project treats every tag as a changelog entry, query tags separately; ordinary tags that are not associated with releases are omitted from the releases listing.
- Pull requests or other activity: Define which events qualify and build against the corresponding API resources or webhook events. A release, tag, merged pull request, and repository event are different data, not interchangeable labels.
This editorial choice affects the entry format, completeness checks, and refresh mechanism. Do not combine sources unless your changelog policy explains how duplicate or overlapping events are handled.
Build a release-based changelog
A practical release workflow is to request the repository’s releases, explicitly identify the API version, and continue through all response pages. GitHub’s release API also documents an endpoint for generating release notes; use it when generated notes fit your conventions, and review the result if your publication process requires curation.
#1 Best Overall
Example request
For a private repository, use a suitable authorization credential supplied securely by your server or job. The following is a shell example; replace the owner and repository values with your own. It requests one page, so it is not by itself a complete history when the response contains a next-page link.
curl --fail-with-body
-H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json"
-H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN"
-H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10"
"https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/releases?per_page=100"For public data that does not require authorization, omit the Authorization header. Do not embed an app secret or token in browser-side code. Choose a credential with only the access this job needs, and use GitHub’s credential guidance for the token type you select.
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Turn records into entries
Map the fields you need—such as release name, tag, publication date, and release description—into your own stable changelog format. Preserve the source release identifier or tag in your stored record so later refreshes can update or deduplicate entries rather than adding copies. Stable ordering and deduplication are implementation choices; GitHub does not guarantee your local store’s behavior.
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If generating release notes, check the release-note endpoint’s current request parameters and repository configuration in the releases documentation. Generation does not decide your editorial policy: review what belongs in the public changelog before publishing.
Rank #3
Pin the API version
Send an explicit X-GitHub-Api-Version header so the integration’s API behavior is deliberate. GitHub’s current versioning documentation lists 2026-03-10 and 2022-11-28 as supported versions; requests without the header currently default to 2022-11-28. GitHub says a previous version is supported for at least 24 months after a new version is released, and its documentation lists March 10, 2028 as the end-of-support date for 2022-11-28. These details can change, so check the API Versions documentation when maintaining or deploying the integration.
Record the selected version in configuration, not as an undocumented assumption. Before upgrading, review GitHub’s breaking-change notes and test the integration against the version you plan to use.
Fetch every page
Do not treat the first response as the full release history. GitHub paginates REST responses. Inspect the response’s Link header and request the URL marked rel="next" until there is no next link. Use per_page where the endpoint supports it to reduce the number of requests, but do not assume a larger page size removes the need to paginate.
GitHub’s pagination guide gives 30 items as the default in its issues-endpoint example; that is not a universal default for every endpoint. Follow the releases endpoint’s actual response links rather than relying on that example or a guessed page count. See Using pagination in the REST API.
Best Value
Choose polling or webhooks
Use polling when a scheduled refresh is sufficient and you prefer a job that can rebuild or reconcile the changelog from API records. Use webhooks when you need event notifications without repeatedly checking for changes. GitHub recommends considering webhooks for event notifications, but does not prescribe them for every integration; see About the REST API.
| Approach | What creates an entry | Update timing | Completeness and recovery | Request considerations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Release listing | A release record; unassociated regular tags are excluded. | When the polling job runs. | Follow pagination. A scheduled reconciliation can re-fetch records after a missed or failed run. | Consumes REST requests for pages fetched; conditional requests can reduce repeat-work cost when supported. |
| Webhook-driven | An event selected by your event-specific design. | On event notification, subject to delivery and processing. | Requires reliable delivery handling and a recovery or reconciliation plan; event scope determines what is covered. | Avoids routine polling for notifications, but webhook setup and delivery processing add complexity. |
A hybrid is reasonable when low-latency notification matters but the changelog must also recover from processing failures: use event notifications for prompt updates and periodically reconcile against the authoritative records your policy defines.
Control authentication and rate limits
GitHub documents different primary request limits by authentication context. Its current REST rate-limit documentation lists 60 requests per hour for unauthenticated requests to public data, 5,000 requests per hour as the typical authenticated-user primary limit, and 1,000 requests per hour per repository for GITHUB_TOKEN; GitHub Enterprise Cloud resources have a higher stated limit. These are documented limits, not a guarantee that every integration can use that many requests: secondary limits also apply.
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The same documentation lists a shared secondary limit of 100 concurrent requests across REST and GraphQL APIs. Check response rate-limit headers, avoid unnecessary concurrent work, and back off when a request is rate-limited. Do not assume one numeric limit applies to every endpoint, credential, or organization. See Rate limits for the REST API.
Reduce repeat requests and make failures recoverable
For scheduled polling, use conditional requests when the endpoint supports validators. Cache the validator from a response and send it on the next request; an authorized conditional request that returns 304 Not Modified does not count against the primary rate limit, according to GitHub’s best practices for integrators. Confirm the specific endpoint’s validator behavior rather than assuming it is available.
Quick Recap
- Persist progress only after a page or event has been processed successfully.
- Make processing idempotent so retries do not create duplicate entries.
- Keep the selected API version, repository scope, and refresh schedule in configuration.
- Log rate-limit headers and failures so a job can pause and resume instead of retrying aggressively.
- For webhook delivery, verify and process events safely, and retain a way to reconcile missed or failed processing.
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