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Overview

GitHub is a one-click connector that gives Rootly AI read access to your organization’s repositories during investigations. When an incident correlates with a recent deploy or a suspicious code change, Rootly AI can pull the deploy log, the exact commit diff, and the CODEOWNERS entry for the affected files automatically — no responder has to switch tabs. Every query is read-only. Rootly AI can inspect commits, PRs, deploys, and file ownership but cannot push code, comment on PRs, or modify anything on the GitHub side.

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Before You Start

  • A GitHub organization you have permission to install third-party GitHub Apps on.
  • Permission to install the Rootly AI GitHub App for that organization — GitHub org Owners can install directly; other roles need install rights granted by an Owner.

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Setup

Open Configuration → AI → Connectors and click Connect on the GitHub card. Sign in to GitHub and install the Rootly AI GitHub App for the organization you want to connect — choose All repositories for broad coverage, or Only select repositories to scope Rootly AI to a specific set. When the install completes, the card flips to Connected.

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What Rootly AI Can Read

  • Deploys — recent deploy events on connected repositories, including deploy time and target environment.
  • Code diffs — the exact commits that landed in a given time window, per file.
  • File ownership — CODEOWNERS entries so Rootly AI can suggest who owns the code area that broke.
  • Pull requests — recent merged PRs, their descriptions, and their authors.
Rootly AI reaches for GitHub when a question is about “what changed?” — pairing it with an observability connector (Sentry, Datadog) gives the strongest “what caused this?” signal.

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During an Incident

“This error started 8 minutes after a deploy. Here’s the diff that likely caused it.” Rootly AI correlates a spike in errors against your recent GitHub deploys, then pulls the exact commit range that landed. During the investigation output, responders see the failing exception paired with the specific line-by-line change that introduced it — and the CODEOWNERS entry for the affected file, so they know who to page.

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Best Practices

  • Install with broad repo access. Rootly AI can only see repositories the GitHub App installation covers. Selecting a narrow set of repositories on install means Rootly AI can’t find the deploy that caused an incident in an unselected repo — choose All repositories unless you have a specific reason to restrict.
  • Keep CODEOWNERS current. Rootly AI leans on CODEOWNERS to suggest owners for affected files. A stale CODEOWNERS file leads to stale owner suggestions.
  • Pair with a CI/CD connector. GitHub tells Rootly AI what changed; a CI connector (Semaphore, or your team’s own via Custom) tells it whether the deploy pipeline succeeded.

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Troubleshooting

The Rootly AI GitHub App installation doesn’t cover those repos. On the GitHub side, open Settings → GitHub Apps → Rootly AI → Configure, then either switch to All repositories or add the missing repos to the selected list. Rootly AI will pick up the new scope on the next investigation — no reconnect needed.
CODEOWNERS may be out of date, or the file isn’t covered by any CODEOWNERS pattern. Update the file in your repository; Rootly AI will pick up the new owners on the next investigation.
If a GitHub admin uninstalls the Rootly AI GitHub App from the organization, Rootly’s card still shows Connected but every query fails. Reconnect from Rootly to reinstall the app.

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Frequently Asked Questions

No. Every connector is read-only. Rootly AI can read GitHub data but never invoke write actions.
Coverage depends on how your GitHub Enterprise instance is reachable. Contact support if you’re on a self-hosted GitHub Enterprise Server and want to confirm compatibility.
Rootly does not maintain a persistent copy of GitHub data — queries run at investigation time and the response is used in reasoning only. Query results do appear in the LLM traces Rootly logs for quality monitoring, as with every tool call Rootly AI makes. See Data Privacy for Rootly AI for the retention boundary.

Connectors Overview

All connectors and how they fit together.

Sentry

Pair GitHub with Sentry for the strongest “what caused this?” signal.

Data Privacy for Rootly AI

What Rootly AI sees, retention, and model training controls.