In response to global carbon neutrality targets, there is an urgent need for large-scale, clean hydrogen production technologies to supplant fossil fuels and underpin the establishment of a ‘hydrogen economy’. The prospect of large-scale on-site green hydrolysis of Mg-based materials for hydrogen production has attracted wide attention. Aiming at the problems of easy formation of inert oxide layer on its surface and the production of Mg(OH)₂ to hinder the hydrolysis process, it is urgent to explore efficient, low-cost and green modification strategies. In this work, the green modification strategy for hydrolyzing hydrogen production of Mg-based materials was summarized, and the fast initial kinetics and high hydrogen production rate could be achieved by adjusting hydrolysis medium conditions and modifying Mg-based material. The significance of hydrolytic hydrogen production technology and device development for the realization of Mg-based hydrolytic hydrogen production was evaluated. Meanwhile, this work looks forward to the future direction of hydrogen production modification by hydrolysis of Mg-based alloy, and gradually optimizes the hydrolysis performance of industrial multi-component waste Mg alloy under the premise of green hydrogen production, and proposes the goal of efficient modification of waste Mg alloy, high-quality utilization of seawater, and low-cost and controllable hydrogen production process.