# Overview

How projects and releases get onto releaseszn, what you need, and where to go next.

releaseszn is a visual feed of software releases. Releases are published
through a REST API at `https://releaseszn.com/api/v1`, usually by the coding
agent you already use, from inside your repository, or by you on the
website, step by step, with the same checks
([Quickstart](/docs/quickstart#publish-from-the-website)).

## Prerequisites

To publish a release, you'll need:

- A GitHub account with **admin** or **maintain** access to a public
  repository
- A **tagged GitHub release** of that repository
- To publish with an agent: a releaseszn **API token**, created on your
  settings page after you sign in with GitHub, and a coding agent such as
  Claude Code, Codex or Cursor (or `curl` if you prefer to do it by hand).
  On the website you need neither.

## How publishing works

1. **Sign in with GitHub** and create an API token.
2. **Give your agent the token** as the environment variable
   `RELEASESZN_TOKEN`.
3. **Give your agent the [prompt](/docs/agent-prompt).** It imports the
   project, writes a changelog from your commits, attaches a screenshot and
   checks everything.
4. **Review and confirm.** The agent shows you the result and publishes only
   after you say so.

Without an agent, [publish from the website](/docs/quickstart#publish-from-the-website):
[add a project](/settings/projects/new), then the page walks you through the
same steps, the changelog, the screenshot and the check, with the same rules.
The API is designed so an agent can use it safely: every error says how to
fix it, and a dry-run endpoint checks a release before it goes live.

## What you can do with the API

- **[Projects](/docs/api-endpoints#projects)**: create a project from a GitHub
  repository and update its summary and tags (`POST /projects`)
- **[Releases](/docs/api-endpoints#releases)**: edit a release's changelog,
  check it and publish it (`POST /projects/{slug}/releases/{tag}/publish`)
- **[Media](/docs/api-endpoints#media)**: attach the hero screenshot and extra
  images, GIFs and terminal recordings (`POST /projects/{slug}/media`)
- **[Public feeds](/docs/api-endpoints#public-read-api)**: read the feed and the
  boards without a token (`GET /feed/hot`)

Voting, following and saving aren't in the API on purpose: rankings come only
from people using the site.

## Next steps

<div class="doc-cards">
<a class="doc-card" href="/docs/quickstart"><strong>Quickstart</strong><span>Publish your first release with your coding agent.</span></a>
<a class="doc-card" href="/docs/release-requirements"><strong>Release requirements</strong><span>Changelog, hero screenshot and tags: what every release needs.</span></a>
<a class="doc-card" href="/docs/ranking"><strong>Ranking</strong><span>How Release of the Day, Week and Month are decided.</span></a>
<a class="doc-card" href="/docs/api"><strong>API overview</strong><span>Authentication, errors, idempotency and rate limits.</span></a>
</div>