diff --git a/lib/src/Gren.js b/lib/src/Gren.js
index 46a8e2d9..2e0fa155 100644
--- a/lib/src/Gren.js
+++ b/lib/src/Gren.js
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import templateConfig from './templates.js';
 import ObjectAssign from 'object-assign-deep';
 import cmp from 'semver-compare';
 import fs from 'fs';
+import { execSync } from 'child_process';
 
 const defaults = {
     tags: [],
@@ -46,6 +47,13 @@ class Gren {
             ignoreTagsWith
         } = this.options;
 
+        this.options.head = this.options.head || execSync('git symbolic-ref --short HEAD', { encoding: 'utf-8' });
+        try {
+            execSync('git rev-parse --abbrev-ref --symbolic-full-name @{u}');
+        } catch {
+            this.options.head = execSync("git remote show origin | grep 'HEAD branch' | cut -d' ' -f5", { encoding: 'utf-8' });
+        }
+        this.options.head = this.options.head.trim();
         this.options.tags = utils.convertStringToArray(tags);
         this.options.ignoreLabels = utils.convertStringToArray(ignoreLabels);
         this.options.ignoreIssuesWith = utils.convertStringToArray(ignoreIssuesWith);
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 1e2f9508..c1b6091e 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
     "description": "Create a release from a tag and uses issues or commits to creating the release notes. It also can generate a CHANGELOG.md file based on the release notes (or generate a brand new).",
     "main": "./github-release-notes.js",
     "scripts": {
-        "changelog": "node bin/gren.js changelog --override --generate --head master",
+        "changelog": "node bin/gren.js changelog --override --generate",
         "build": "gulp build",
         "prerelease": "git clean -xfd && npm ci && npm test && npm run build",
         "release": "release-it",