Connect a GitHub repository as a Source so Dosu can learn from your code and conversations, then put that knowledge to work in issues, pull requests, and discussions. This page covers what connecting GitHub gives you, how to install the Dosu GitHub App, and what Dosu does with the access you grant.
What connecting GitHub gives you#
GitHub is usually the first Source a team connects. Once a repository is connected, Dosu indexes the activity there and can use it as a knowledge base for both people and coding agents. With GitHub connected, Dosu can:
- Answer questions and triage issues in GitHub issues and discussions, with citations back to the source.
- Apply labels to new issues and pull requests based on your repository's existing label taxonomy.
- Keep documentation current as code changes through Self-Documenting PRs, which post an in-PR review comment with Accept, Edit, and Decline.
For a growing engineering organization, connecting at the organizational level gives Dosu a shared source of truth across many repositories and teams.
Availability and prerequisites#
GitHub is generally available and self-serve on all plans.
- Public repositories are available on every plan, including the free plan.
- Private repositories require a paid plan. See the pricing page or contact Dosu for current plan details.
- To connect a private repository, you must be the user who installed the GitHub App or a collaborator with Triage permission or higher. Collaborators with Read permission cannot connect private repositories.
How to connect#
- Install the Dosu GitHub App. Choose the account or organization where your repositories live.
- Choose which repositories to grant access to. You can grant access to all repositories in the account or organization, or grant access to specific repositories. For org-wide coverage, grant access to all repositories so new repos are picked up as they appear.
- Open or create a Library and add the repository as a Source inside it.
- Create an Agent for the repository so Dosu can respond on GitHub. Installing the app lets you set the appropriate level of access, and Dosu does not post anything to your repositories until an Agent exists.
After you install the app, Dosu syncs the repositories you grant access to, the collaborators on each (used for access control in the Dosu dashboard), and the labels on each (used for auto-labeling).
What Dosu does with it#
Dosu indexes the repositories you connect, including code files (Markdown, reStructuredText, and AsciiDoc are supported as document formats), issues, pull requests, discussions, and wikis. You can narrow what gets indexed with include and ignored file patterns on the Source, using glob syntax such as docs/** or src/**/*.ts.
From that knowledge, Dosu supports several behaviors on GitHub:
- Issue triage and Q&A: Dosu answers tagged questions in issues and discussions and helps sort incoming work.
- Auto-labeling: Dosu labels new issues and pull requests and learns from your corrections over time.
- Self-documenting PRs: a Monitor watches for code changes that make documentation stale and proposes updates in the pull request.
Each behavior is configured per Agent, and your team stays in control through Review and preview modes before anything is posted or published.
Notes and limits#
- Dosu cannot be installed on forked repositories. Forked repos show a "Forked repo" badge in the installation UI and cannot be selected.
- The GitHub App requests read access to repository contents and metadata, and read and write access to issues, pull requests, and discussions so Dosu can respond and apply labels. Write access is used only when an Agent is configured to act.
- Managing access later (adding or removing repositories) is done from the GitHub App installation settings on GitHub.
