How to Get GitHub Slack Integration?

What is GitHub Slack?

GitHub is a web-based interface that lets multiple users share code and work collaboratively on private and open-source software at the same time. It is the perfect place for teams to work together from anywhere to build and edit their site content. You can use GitHub to host code for your projects and carefully control how others collaborate on your projects. 

Slack is a platform that allows team communication – offering instant messaging and document sharing from anywhere. A great way to coordinate, Slack can be automated to get all business information in real-time. 

With the GitHub integration for Slack, you can get link previews for public warehouses, launch notifications with slash commands, and stay updated on project activity all the time. This open-source integration project is built and maintained by GitHub.  The integration provides you and your teams with absolute visibility of your GitHub projects in Slack channels, so that it gets easier to build ideas, triage issues, and make collaborations with other teams to stay on top of your work. 

How to Integrate Github to Slack?

GitHub Slack integration allows you to do more than just connect 2 apps. In GitHub, you can automate your operations from start to finish, and boost the efficiency of your internal processes. In Slack, you can send instant messages to users or channels.  

Here’s how you can integrate Github to Slack:

Step 1: Authenticate GitHub and Slack

Step 2: Select one of the apps as a trigger, which will start the automation.

Step 3: Select a resulting action to be performed from the 2nd app.

Step 4: Choose data that you want to transfer from one app to the other.

Step 5: Voila! Your GitHub + Slack Integration is done. Click Save Integration. 

With GitHub Slack integration, you can get these updates on your Slack channel:

• Issues
• Pull Requests
• Commits
• Deployment Statuses

Some popular GitHub Slack Integrations are:

• Sending direct message in Slack on a new Issue in GitHub
• Sending direct message in Slack on a new Commit in GitHub
• Sending Channel Message in Slack on a new Issue in GitHub
• Sending Channel Message in Slack on a new Commit in GitHub
• Sending direct message in Slack on an Issue labelled in GitHub
• Sending direct message in Slack on a new Collaborator in GitHub
• Sending direct message in Slack on a new Mention in GitHub
• Setting Status in Slack on a new Issue in GitHub

You can also create your own integration the way you want. 

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How to Install the GitHub for Slack?

Install the app GitHub for Slack by following these steps:

1. Visit slack.github.com and click on Add to Slack.
2. Sign into your workspace with your Slack URL
3. Review the permissions needed by the app to access. Click on ‘Continue’ to allow permission.
4. Select the channels that the app can access – all public channels, specific channels or none.
5. After app installation, the GitHub app will send you direct message to guide you on how to complete the setup. You’ll receive instructions on how to use the GitHub slash (/github) command. 

How to Customize Notifications

With the GitHub app, it becomes easy to customize your notifications, this is, you can choose which activity gets posted in Slack. Subscribe to activity that is important for the whole channel to view and unsubscribe from activities that are less relevant. 

Command to customize notifications:

/github subscribe owner/repo [feature]

/github unsubscribe owner/repo [feature]

There are certain activities that get notified by default, while some others do not. 

Some features that get notified by default:

• issues
• pulls
• deployments
• statuses
• commits
• public

Features that do not get notified by default:

• reviews
• comments
• branches
• commits – all

What’s New in the GitHub and Slack integration?

The GitHub and Slack Integration has developed a few new features to help you stay on top of your projects. The app now supports Deployments API, Checks API, and draft pull requests that can further boost your productivity in Slack.

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Create Deployments

The GitHub Slack app lets you act on your repository with the help of commands to open, close and reopen pull requests or issues. The new features in GitHub Slack enables users to use Deployments API to enlist and create deployments in the repositories while staying in your Slack channel. 

Besides the updates that you receive in your Slack channels about the happenings in GitHub, you can now get status of checks on pull requests, and notifications about new draft pull requests – all while staying in the Slack channel. 

Commands to:

List deployments on a repository - /github deploy [owner]/[repo] list

Create deployment - /github deploy [owner]/[repo]  

For ‘create deployment’ command, a dialog box will open, prompting you to choose the branch or tag to be deployed and to which environment. You can also specify a task and a payload. 

The new slash commands can be used by a GitHub organization owner or repository admin upon acceptance of updated permissions in the GitHub Slack app. You can view the request in the Applications tab under settings, or via email notifications sent to relevant users.  

View Checks on Pull Requests

Status updates are presently reported on open pull requests. New features in GitHub Slack extend support to checks. Any pull requests you open in the last half hour will push Slash message attachment updates from integrations that use the checks API. 

Get Notifications on New Draft Pull Requests

The GitHub and Slack app supports draft pull requests. Whenever a repository that you’ve subscribed to contains a new draft pull request, you’ll get a notification in Slack. The message is displayed with a gray bar to indicate the draft status. You’ll also receive a notification when the pull request is ready to be reviewed, so you know the task is no longer in progress. 

Open Source, Open Platform

The GitHub Slack integration is open source and developed with the same public APIs that are used to build apps in the GitHub and Slack ecosystems. This open-source, open platform allows users to submit feature requests, contribute code, or error reports, and to work collaboratively on private and open-source software.  

Integration is what catapults GitHub and Slack into a solution to centralize all your notifications into one searchable place where your team can collaborate and take actions on each. 

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