How to Generate Release Notes from GitHub to Jira with Power Automate

My flows > + New flow > Automated cloud flow

Create automated cloud flow

Navigate to make.powerautomate.com and sign in with your work account. Click 'My flows' in the left sidebar, then the blue '+ New flow' button. Select 'Automated cloud flow' from the dropdown menu. Name your flow 'GitHub Release Notes Generator' and leave the trigger selection for the next step.

1. 1Click 'My flows' in the left navigation
2. 2Click the blue '+ New flow' button
3. 3Select 'Automated cloud flow'
4. 4Enter 'GitHub Release Notes Generator' as the flow name
5. 5Click 'Skip' on trigger selection

Flow designer > Choose trigger > GitHub > When a release is created

Add GitHub release webhook trigger

Click 'Choose your flow's trigger' and search for 'GitHub'. Select the GitHub connector, then choose 'When a release is created' trigger. You'll need to sign in to GitHub and authorize Power Automate to access your repositories. Select your target repository from the dropdown that appears.

1. 1Click 'Choose your flow's trigger'
2. 2Type 'GitHub' in the search box
3. 3Select the GitHub connector
4. 4Choose 'When a release is created' trigger
5. 5Sign in to GitHub when prompted
6. 6Select your repository from the dropdown

Flow designer > + New step > Compose

Parse release body for ticket references

Add a 'Compose' action to extract Jira ticket IDs from the release notes. GitHub releases often contain ticket references like 'Fixes ABC-123' or 'Closes DEF-456'. We'll use a regular expression to find these patterns. In the Compose action, add an expression that searches the release body for your Jira project keys.

1. 1Click '+ New step' below the GitHub trigger
2. 2Search for 'Compose' and select it
3. 3Click in the Inputs field
4. 4Select 'Expression' tab
5. 5Enter the regex formula for ticket extraction

Flow designer > + New step > Initialize variable

Add variable for ticket list

Initialize an array variable to store the Jira ticket IDs we found. Click 'New step' and search for 'Initialize variable'. Set the variable name to 'TicketIDs', type to 'Array', and value to the output from the previous Compose action. This variable will hold all ticket references for processing.

1. 1Click '+ New step'
2. 2Search for 'Initialize variable' and select it
3. 3Set Name to 'TicketIDs'
4. 4Set Type to 'Array'
5. 5Set Value to the Compose output from previous step

Flow designer > + New step > Jira > Get issue

Connect to Jira

Add a Jira action to establish the connection. Search for 'Jira' and select 'Get issue' as a test action. You'll be prompted to create a connection to your Jira instance. Enter your Jira server URL, username, and API token. For Jira Cloud, use your email and an API token generated from your Atlassian account settings.

1. 1Click '+ New step'
2. 2Search for 'Jira' and select the connector
3. 3Choose 'Get issue' action
4. 4Click 'Create new' for connection
5. 5Enter your Jira server URL
6. 6Provide email and API token for authentication

Flow designer > + New step > Apply to each

Create apply to each loop

Add an 'Apply to each' control to process each ticket ID individually. This loop will iterate through our TicketIDs array and perform actions on each ticket. Select the TicketIDs variable as the input for the loop. All subsequent Jira actions will go inside this loop container.

1. 1Click '+ New step'
2. 2Search for 'Apply to each' under Control
3. 3Select the control action
4. 4Click in 'Select an output' field
5. 5Choose 'TicketIDs' from dynamic content

Apply to each > Add an action > Jira > Get issue

Get ticket details inside loop

Inside the Apply to each loop, add a 'Get issue' Jira action. Set the Issue Key to the current item from the loop iteration. This will retrieve full ticket details including summary, description, and current status. We need this data to compile the release notes and check if status updates are needed.

1. 1Click 'Add an action' inside the Apply to each loop
2. 2Search for 'Get issue' under Jira
3. 3Set Issue Key to 'Current item' from dynamic content
4. 4Leave other fields at default values

Apply to each > Add an action > Jira > Transition issue

Update ticket status to Done

Still inside the loop, add a 'Transition issue' Jira action. Set the Issue Key to current item and Transition to your 'Done' status ID. Different Jira projects use different transition IDs - you may need to check your project's workflow configuration. This marks each ticket as completed when the release is published.

1. 1Click 'Add an action' inside the loop
2. 2Search for 'Transition issue' under Jira
3. 3Set Issue Key to 'Current item'
4. 4Enter your Done transition ID number
5. 5Add any required resolution fields

Apply to each > Add an action > Append to array variable

Collect ticket summaries

Add an 'Append to array variable' action inside the loop to build your release notes content. Initialize a new string variable called 'ReleaseNotes' before the loop, then append each ticket's key and summary in a formatted string. This creates a bulleted list of completed features for your release documentation.

1. 1Go back above the loop and add 'Initialize variable'
2. 2Set name to 'ReleaseNotes', type to 'String', value empty
3. 3Inside the loop, add 'Append to string variable'
4. 4Select 'ReleaseNotes' as variable name
5. 5Format the value as bullet points with ticket key and summary

Flow designer > + New step > GitHub > Create a comment

Create GitHub release comment

After the Apply to each loop completes, add a GitHub 'Create a comment' action. Set the repository to your connected repo, Issue Number to the release ID, and Body to your compiled ReleaseNotes variable. This adds the formatted ticket list as a comment on the GitHub release for easy reference.

1. 1Click '+ New step' after the Apply to each loop
2. 2Search for GitHub 'Create a comment'
3. 3Select your repository
4. 4Set Issue Number to release ID from trigger
5. 5Set Body to ReleaseNotes variable content

Flow designer > Save > Test

Test and save flow

Click 'Save' in the top right to save your flow. Then click 'Test' to run a manual test. You'll need to create a test GitHub release to trigger the flow. Monitor the run history to verify each step executes successfully and check that Jira tickets are updated and release notes are generated correctly.

1. 1Click 'Save' in the top toolbar
2. 2Click 'Test' next to the Save button
3. 3Select 'Manually' for test trigger
4. 4Create a test release in GitHub
5. 5Monitor the flow execution in real-time

Add this expression in the Compose action to extract Jira ticket IDs using regex matching. Paste this formula in the Expression tab when configuring the ticket parsing step.

split(replace(replace(body('When_a_release_is_created')?['body'], ' ', '|'), '
', '|'), '|')
|> filter(item, contains(item, variables('ProjectKey')))

split(replace(replace(body('When_a_release_is_created')?['body'], ' ', '|'), '
', '|'), '|')
|> filter(item, contains(item, variables('ProjectKey')))
|> map(item, 
  if(
    contains(item, '-'),
    trim(split(item, ' ')[0]),
    null
  )
)
|> filter(item, not(equals(item, null)))