Question 1

What does Shipcast actually do?

Accepted Answer

It watches what ships (GitHub commits, pull requests, and releases, plus closed Linear or Jira tickets) and once a week turns that into a drafted changelog entry, two LinkedIn posts in different registers, and an email digest. Drafts land in an approval queue where you edit, approve, or discard them. The hosted changelog page publishes what you approve, nothing else.

Question 2

What if a draft is wrong, or just not me?

Accepted Answer

Nothing publishes without your approval. Every draft waits in the queue until you say so. Edit inline and Shipcast keeps the diff, so future drafts learn what you changed. If a whole week's set misses, discard it and trigger a fresh run. Auto-publish exists, but it is off by default and Pro-only.

Question 3

How does voice calibration work?

Accepted Answer

You paste three to five things you actually wrote: LinkedIn posts, launch emails, changelog entries. Shipcast extracts traits: tone, sentence length, formality, phrases you like, and the things you never do, like exclamation marks or hype words. Every draft is generated against that profile, and you can recalibrate whenever your writing changes.

Question 4

Does Shipcast publish to LinkedIn for me?

Accepted Answer

Not yet. It drafts two variants (usually one narrative, one list) and you post the one you like with a click-to-copy flow. Direct LinkedIn publishing is planned, but drafts-first is deliberate: a wrong auto-post on your personal profile costs more than the ten seconds copying saves.

Question 5

What happens in a quiet week?

Accepted Answer

The noise filter already drops chores, dependency bumps, and merge commits, so a quiet week produces a short, honest draft. Below a minimum threshold, Shipcast suggests skipping the week entirely instead of inflating two bug fixes into an announcement. No fabricated momentum.

Question 6

Can I point my own domain at the changelog?

Accepted Answer

On Pro and Team. Add a CNAME record, Shipcast provisions the certificate, and your changelog serves from something like changelog.yourproduct.com. Lite and Solo pages live at shipcast.dev/c/your-workspace, still server-rendered and indexable, just on our domain.

Question 7

Which sources can I connect?

Accepted Answer

GitHub for commits, pull requests, and releases; Linear and Jira for closed tickets. Sources merge into one event stream, so a PR and the ticket it closes become one theme rather than two bullet points. GitLab is the most requested next source. Email us if that is the one you need.

Question 8

What access does Shipcast need to my repositories?

Accepted Answer

Read-only metadata: commit messages, PR titles and descriptions, release notes, and ticket titles with their status. The GitHub app does not request your file contents, and Shipcast never clones your repository. You choose which repositories it can see, and you can revoke access from GitHub at any time.

Question 9

Is my code used to train AI models?

Accepted Answer

No. Shipcast sends only event metadata (commit messages, titles, ticket summaries) to the Anthropic API to draft your comms, and that API traffic is not used for model training. Your file contents never leave GitHub because Shipcast never reads them. Delete your workspace and the stored events go with it.

Question 10

What is the catch with the free Lite plan?

Accepted Answer

Small and visible: one repository, two generation runs a month, and a "Powered by Shipcast" footer on your public changelog. That footer is how new people find us, which is why Lite can stay free. Paid plans remove it.

Question 11

Do I need a credit card for the trial?

Accepted Answer

No. Paid plans start with a 14-day trial and we ask for a card only when you decide to keep one. If you do nothing at the end of the trial, your workspace drops to Lite. The changelog page stays up and nothing is deleted.

Question 12

Can I cancel anytime?

Accepted Answer

Yes, from settings, without emailing anyone. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period. Your changelog history exports as markdown, and the public page either continues on Lite terms or comes down. Your choice.

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