Quickstart

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you’ll need:

A Shipstar account (sign up here)
An API key from your Dashboard
At least one GitHub repository connected

Get Your API Key

Go to app.shipstar.ai and log in to your account.

Navigate to API Keys

Click on API Keys in the sidebar to access your API key management.

Create a New Key

Click Create API Key, give it a name, and copy your new API key.

Store your API key securely. You won’t be able to see it again after creation.

Connect a GitHub Repository

Before generating content, install the Shipstar GitHub App and select repositories to track:

Install the GitHub App

In the dashboard, go to Sources and click Install GitHub App. GitHub asks which organization (or personal account) to install on and which repositories Shipstar may read — access is read-only (repository metadata and commits). Non-admins can request the install; an org admin approves it.

Select Repositories

Back in Sources, choose which of the installed repositories this project tracks. Shipstar analyzes commits from these repos when generating content.

Installed Shipstar from GitHub first? Sign in and use Link existing installation on the Sources page — or open the link on the post-install page — to attach it to your project. Existing connections made through the legacy GitHub OAuth flow keep working; Sources offers a one-click upgrade.

Generate Your First Content

Generate a Changelog

Use the following request to generate a changelog from your recent commits:

curl -X POST "https://api.shipstar.ai/api/internal/sources/github/changelog" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}'

const response = await fetch('https://api.shipstar.ai/api/internal/sources/github/changelog', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({})
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

import requests

response = requests.post(
    'https://api.shipstar.ai/api/internal/sources/github/changelog',
    headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'},
    json={}
)

data = response.json()
print(data)

Example Response

{
  "content_id": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
  "status": "pending"
}

Content generation runs in the background. The status will transition from pending to processing to completed.

Check Content Status

Poll for the result using the content ID:

curl -X GET "https://api.shipstar.ai/api/internal/sources/content/a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

const result = await fetch(
  'https://api.shipstar.ai/api/internal/sources/content/a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890',
  {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'
    }
  }
);

const content = await result.json();
console.log(content);

import requests

result = requests.get(
    'https://api.shipstar.ai/api/internal/sources/content/a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890',
    headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'}
)

content = result.json()
print(content)

Customize the Date Range

By default, Shipstar analyzes the last 7 days of commits. You can specify a custom range:

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.shipstar.ai/api/internal/sources/github/changelog" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "start_date": "2025-03-01T00:00:00Z",
    "end_date": "2025-03-31T23:59:59Z",
    "product_name": "My Product"
  }'

Steer the Audience and Focus

Every generation endpoint also accepts an optional guidelines object — a technical-depth preset (audience) and free-text instructions that override your project’s content guidelines for this one run:

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.shipstar.ai/api/internal/sources/github/changelog" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "guidelines": {
      "audience": "business",
      "instructions": "Don'\''t mention changes to the marketing website or docs site."
    }
  }'

audience is one of technical, business, or mixed; instructions is up to 2000 characters. Omit either field to inherit the project default.

Publish Your Content

Once content is generated, publish it to get a public URL:

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.shipstar.ai/api/internal/content/a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890/publish" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Response

{
  "public_slug": "my-product-changelog-march-2025",
  "is_published": true,
  "public_url": "https://api.shipstar.ai/api/v1/changelog/my-product-changelog-march-2025"
}

Published content is accessible without authentication at the public URL and includes an RSS feed.

Try Other Content Types

Replace the endpoint path to generate different types of content:

Content Type	Endpoint
Daily Product Update	`POST /sources/github/daily-product-update`
Weekly Product Update	`POST /sources/github/weekly-product-update`
Blog Post	`POST /sources/github/blog-post`
LinkedIn Post	`POST /sources/github/linkedin-post`
Twitter Thread	`POST /sources/github/twitter-thread`
Feature Page	`POST /sources/github/feature-page`
KB Articles	`POST /sources/github/kb-articles`
Changelog	`POST /sources/github/changelog`
Release Notes Email	`POST /sources/github/release-notes-email`

All endpoints accept the same request body with optional start_date, end_date, product_name, guidelines ({ "audience", "instructions" }), and repos (a list of tracked repository full names to restrict the commit source — omit to use every active tracked repo); blog posts additionally accept idea and blog_options.

Next Steps

How It Works

Learn how Shipstar transforms commits into content

Authentication

Deep dive into API authentication

Error Handling

Learn how to handle API errors

API Reference

Explore the full API documentation

Get Started

Guides

Prerequisites

Get Your API Key

Connect a GitHub Repository

Generate Your First Content

Generate a Changelog

Example Response

Check Content Status

Customize the Date Range

Steer the Audience and Focus

Publish Your Content

Try Other Content Types

Next Steps

How It Works

Authentication

Error Handling

API Reference

​Prerequisites

​Get Your API Key

​Connect a GitHub Repository

​Generate Your First Content

​Generate a Changelog

​Example Response

​Check Content Status

​Customize the Date Range

​Steer the Audience and Focus

​Publish Your Content

​Try Other Content Types

​Next Steps

How It Works

Authentication

Error Handling

API Reference

Prerequisites

Get Your API Key

Connect a GitHub Repository

Generate Your First Content

Generate a Changelog

Example Response

Check Content Status

Customize the Date Range

Steer the Audience and Focus

Publish Your Content

Try Other Content Types

Next Steps