How to get a GitHub releases RSS feed

Every public GitHub repository has a releases RSS feed (strictly, an Atom feed) at https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/releases.atom, and any feed reader can subscribe to it. If you want the reader to tell you only about the releases that matter, such as a new major version, AyeWatch does that filtering for you and is the better pick once you follow more than a few projects.

Here is how the feed works, what it leaves out, and when to put an AI monitor on top.

The URL pattern

Take the repository's releases page and add .atom:

We checked all three on 26 October 2026: each returns a valid Atom document with no login, with one entry per release and the release notes in the body. Most readers accept Atom wherever they ask for RSS, so you can paste the URL straight in.

A note on support: GitHub does not describe these feeds in its documentation, and there is an open request on the GitHub docs repository asking it to. The feed works today, but treat it as an unofficial convenience rather than an API with promises attached.

What the feed does not do

• Private repositories. The feed is for public repositories. Most readers cannot send the login a private repo needs.
• Filtering. You get every release, including pre-releases, nightlies and patch builds. A busy project can post several a day.
• Context. The entry is the release notes as written. If the breaking change is explained in a migration guide or blog post, the feed will not point you there.
• Delivery. A feed is something you check. Whether you hear about a release quickly depends on your reader and its notification settings.

The official alternative

If you would rather stay inside GitHub, the supported route is the repository's Watch menu: choose Custom and tick Releases. GitHub then notifies you in its web inbox, in GitHub Mobile, and by email if you have email notifications on. It is free and does not need a reader, but it has the same all-or-nothing behaviour per repository.

Adding filters with AyeWatch

A feed of every tag is fine for two or three repositories. For a whole dependency list, AyeWatch works at the level above the feed. You write a topic such as "New major versions or deprecations in Vite, Vitest and esbuild", add a condition like "skip patch and pre-release builds", and AyeWatch sends an alert with a short summary and its sources when a release matches.

Because a topic is not tied to one feed, it also picks up what surrounds a release: the project blog, a changelog page you paste in, or the Hacker News thread where people report what broke. Alerts arrive as push notifications and in the feed on every plan; paid plans add email, Slack, Discord and webhooks.

Which to use

• Release Atom feed: you already live in a feed reader, follow a few public repos, and read every release.
• GitHub Watch > Custom > Releases: you want an official, free notification inside GitHub.
• AyeWatch: you follow many projects and only want to hear about the releases that change your code. There is a free preview, and paid plans start at $9 a month.

You can run them together. Keep the feed for the one or two projects you read closely, and let an AyeWatch topic watch the rest of the stack.