Release Notes Template: Markdown, Word, Confluence, Jira & Email (2026)

A release notes template is the fixed set of sections a release announcement needs, in the order readers expect them, so that writing one means filling in facts rather than deciding on a structure. Every good template answers the same three questions in the same order: what version shipped and when, what changed and does it affect me, and what do I need to do. This page gives you six release notes templates, one per format you might paste into — plain text and Markdown, a Word or Google Docs document, a Confluence page, a Jira sprint note, a deployment note for operations, and an email to subscribers — followed by a guide to choosing between them, one real release generated from a repository's commits, and how to fill a template from your own. Every block is free to copy. There is no file to download: the blocks are the template.

Release notes template (plain text and Markdown)

The universal form. It works as the body of a GitHub Release, an entry on a changelog page, a section in a README or a plain-text file attached to a build. Replace every {placeholder}, delete the sections a release does not need, and keep the order.

# {Product} {version}: {the one-line headline}

Released {Month D, YYYY}

{Two or three sentences: what this release is for and who benefits.}
Who should upgrade: {everyone | users of {feature} | nobody needs to act}

## Breaking changes
- {What no longer works} — do this instead: {replacement or setting}

## New
- **{Feature}** — {what it lets the reader do, in one sentence}

## Improved
- {What got faster, clearer or more reliable, and by how much if you can say}

## Fixed
- {What now works, described from the reader's side}

## Upgrade
{The exact command, download or steps. Link the migration guide if there is one.}

## Known issues
- {Issue} — workaround: {workaround}

Docs: {link} · Full changelog: {link} · Questions: {support link}

This is the software release notes template most teams end up with whether they start from a tool or a blank file, because the reader's questions do not change with the product. Two public conventions are worth borrowing: Semantic Versioning lets the version number itself say whether to expect breaking changes, and Keep a Changelog fixes the grouping (Added, Changed, Deprecated, Removed, Fixed, Security) for the running changelog form that this template's "New / Improved / Fixed" headings map onto.

Release notes template for Word and Google Docs

When release notes are a document — a PDF for customers, a sign-off for an enterprise account, an attachment to a contract deliverable — the template gains a header block and numbered headings and loses the Markdown. There is no .docx or Google Docs file to download here; paste the layout into a new document and map the numbered lines below to Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles, and the header block to a two-column table. This is the release notes template word processors want, and the same layout is the release notes document template teams keep in a shared drive.

1. Summary
   {Three sentences: what this release is for, who it affects, whether action is needed.}

2. What's new
   2.1 {Feature} — {what it lets the reader do}
   2.2 {Feature} — {…}

3. Improvements
   3.1 {What got better, and by how much if you can say}

4. Fixes
   4.1 {What now works}

5. Breaking changes and upgrade steps
   5.1 {What changed} — {what to do instead}
   5.2 Upgrade: {steps, in order}

6. Known issues
   6.1 {Issue} — workaround: {workaround}

7. Support and links
   Documentation: {link} · Support: {email or portal} · Previous release notes: {link}

Keep the summary on the first page: a reader who only opens the document to check whether they must act should find the answer without scrolling. Everything after section 1 is for the reader who stays.

Release notes template for Confluence

In a wiki the template is a page per version under a parent index page, with the facts a search needs sitting in a properties table at the top. Name pages consistently — {Product} {version} release notes — {YYYY-MM-DD} — so the index sorts itself and a link to "the 4.2 notes" stays guessable a year later. The same layout serves as a project release notes template for internal projects that never ship to customers.

Summary
{Two or three sentences. Who should read this, and whether anything is required of them.}

Highlights
- {The one or two changes most readers care about}

What changed
New
- {Feature} — {what it lets the reader do}
Improved
- {What got better}
Fixed
- {What now works}

Breaking changes and migration
- {What changed} — {what to do instead}
Migration steps: {numbered list, or "none"}

Known issues
- {Issue} — workaround: {workaround}

Links
Documentation: {link} · Previous version: {link to the earlier page}

Confluence is a document format on this page, nothing more: Shipstar does not read from or publish to Confluence. If the notes also need to reach customers, the Markdown or email form above and below is the one to publish.

Sprint release notes template (Jira)

An agile release notes template is written per sprint rather than per version: the sprint is the release. The issue keys below are placeholders — a real note carries the keys of the stories that actually shipped, grouped the way the reader thinks (what is new, what is better, what is fixed), not the way the board was organised. Jira is the source of the list, not of the prose; the prose is still written for the reader.

# {Product}: Sprint {N} release notes

Sprint: {Month D} – {Month D, YYYY} · Released {Month D, YYYY}
Sprint goal: {one sentence, as written at planning}

## Shipped
New
- {PROJ-123} {Feature} — {what it lets the reader do}
Improved
- {PROJ-124} {What got better}
Fixed
- {PROJ-125} {What now works}

## Carried over
- {PROJ-126} {Story} — now planned for sprint {N+1}

## Known issues
- {Issue} — workaround: {workaround}

Demo recording: {link} · Board: {link}

Two habits keep sprint notes readable. First, "Carried over" is a sentence, not an apology: say when the story is now planned. Second, if nothing customer-visible shipped in a sprint, say so in one line rather than listing refactors as if they were features.

Deployment release notes template

The internal note operations and support read before and after a deploy. It adds the facts a customer-facing note leaves out — environment, window, rollback, verification — and drops the marketing. A worked example of this template, with fictional values, is on the release notes examples page.

# Deployment: {service} {version or date tag}

Environment: {production | staging} ({region})
Deploy window: {Day Mon D, YYYY, HH:MM–HH:MM UTC}
Owner: {name} · On call: {name}
Rollback: {redeploy tag X | revert migration Y} (tested in {environment} on {date})

## What ships
- {Change} ({new | improved | fixed})

## Customer-visible?
{Yes — what they will notice | No}

## Migrations
{Description, or "none"} · Downtime: {none | expected duration}

## Verification
- {Metric or check} — {threshold} for {duration} after deploy

## Known issues
- {Issue, or "none open"}

Release notes email template

Email is the one form that has to earn its open, so the template is the shortest. A subject line that names the product and the headline change, a preview sentence, three to five grouped items and a single link outperform a page's worth of detail pasted into a message.

Subject: {Product} {version}: {headline change}
Preview: {One sentence on who benefits.}

{Headline change}

{Two sentences: what shipped and why it matters to the reader.}

New
- {Feature} — {what it lets you do}
Improved
- {What got better}
Fixed
- {What now works}

Read the full release notes: {link}

You are receiving this because you subscribed to {Product} updates.
Unsubscribe: {one-click link}

This is the shape Shipstar uses when it writes a release notes email from a release window's commits and merged pull requests: the draft waits in review, and on approval it goes to the project's mailing lists — up to 20 lists per project, 500 active recipients each, with a one-click unsubscribe link on every message. A generation costs 100 credits and sending is free. The release notes newsletter page covers the email side end to end, including the subscriber flow.

Which release notes template should you use?

Pick by where the notes will live, not by how formal the release feels. Most teams need two of these — one for the public record and one for the inbox — and fill both from the same list of changes.

Sections every release notes template needs, whatever the format:

• Version and date — so the reader knows whether it applies to them.
• Summary — two or three sentences: the headline change and who benefits.
• Breaking changes first — anything that stops working, with what to do instead, before anything new.
• New, Improved, Fixed — one line per change, written as what the reader can now do.
• What to do — upgrade steps, migration, or an explicit "nothing".
• Links — docs, the full changelog, support.

The customer-facing form — the release notes content type — is the Markdown or email template with the internal sections removed; the internal forms add fields, they never change the order.

A sample release notes template, filled in from 33 commits

Every template above is blank by design. This one is filled in, and it is real: the Shipstar changelog for Oct 30 – Nov 6, 2026, generated by Shipstar itself from 33 commits and published without anyone drafting it. It carries eight entries — six New, two Improved; here are two of them, quoted as published.

New — Brand your audience emails with your logo and accent colour. Release notes and changelog emails sent to your subscribers can now show your project's logo and match your brand colour — including accessible button and link tints — instead of defaulting to Shipstar's styling. Set your branding under Destinations → Email → Branding, and preview the header and button live in the dashboard.

Improved — Rebuilt account pages with clearer navigation and stronger session control. Account settings are now organised into four focused tabs — Profile, Sign-in & security, Notifications, and Data & privacy — with deep links, mobile-friendly layout, and your email notification preferences moved into Notifications where they belong. The Security tab shows your active sessions, lets you sign out other devices, and password changes and resets now end all other sessions immediately.

Set it against the Markdown template: a headline, a dated period, entries grouped by type, each written as what the reader can now do. The generator is instructed to produce exactly that shape, and the provenance line under the heading ("Generated by Shipstar from 33 commits") is the real count, published with every period on the changelog.

How to fill a release notes template from your commits

The facts a template asks for are already in the repository: the commits say what changed and the pull request descriptions say why. Shipstar reads the commits and merged pull requests in a GitHub repository for a release window, drafts release notes in the shape above in your project's configured voice, holds them in a review queue, and on approval publishes them to a hosted page and embed widget and emails your mailing lists in the email format above. The automated release notes generator page covers the workflow; the git-native workflow page explains why the commit window is the source rather than a ticket export. GitHub is the only source today — Confluence, Jira, Word and Google Docs are formats you paste into, not integrations. The Free plan is $0 with no card: one project and 1,000 credits a month, with a release-notes generation costing 100 credits, so about ten a month cost nothing. Solo is $25/month or $240/year. Connect a repository and compare the generated draft with the template you would have filled in by hand.

Is there a free release notes template to download?

Every template on this page is free to copy, and copying is the whole process: there is no file, no sign-up and no watermark. Paste the block into the tool you use — a GitHub Release, a document, a Confluence page, a sprint summary, a runbook or an email — replace the placeholders and keep the order. The one case where a file would help is the Word and Google Docs layout, and there the layout in that section is the file: a header table and seven numbered headings.

What is the difference between a release notes template and a changelog template?

Release notes announce one release and are written to be read once, so their template has a summary, prose and a "what to do" section. A changelog is the running, dated record of every release, newest first, so its template is a single file with one block per version and no prose. Both are filled from the same commits. For the changelog side — the CHANGELOG.md file, the Keep a Changelog format and worked examples — see changelog examples and template.