Connecting GitHub

A GitHub connection is one personal access token plus a base URL, shared across every repo you add from it. Each repo then decides — independently — whether it feeds issues to a board, code intelligence, or both.

deckgauge · Add source · GitHub

Ada-Systems 3 repos found

✓RepoDefault branchState

☑ada-systems/platformmainselected

☑ada-systems/checkoutmainselected

☐ada-systems/docs-sitemain—

The GitHub repo picker inside the Add-source wizard.

What it does, and where the data comes from

One connection stores a base URL (https://api.github.com by default — set your GitHub Enterprise URL to point elsewhere) and one PAT. Adding repos runs the live picker against that token, then bulk-binds the repos you select; each repo gets its own hot/warm/cold sync tier based on recent push activity, so quiet repos are polled less often than busy ones.

Field	Value
API base URL	Defaults to `https://api.github.com`; override for GitHub Enterprise
Personal access token	Classic or fine-grained, with the scopes below
Repository	Selected from the live picker, or bulk-added by pattern

How to connect GitHub

Create a token with the scopes repo, read:org, and read:user. Use repo for private repositories, or public_repo if you only need public ones.
If the repos live in an SSO-enforced organization, authorize the token for that org from GitHub's token settings — an unauthorized token can read your own repos but is silently refused on the org's.
Add source → GitHub — paste the token and click Create & test; the wizard then lists the repos your token can see.
Select repos and, per repo, choose Feed issues to board and/or Use for code intelligence.

What syncs

Per repo: pull requests, reviews, commits, issues, and milestones. Board issue-feed and code intelligence are independent toggles — a repo can do either, both, or (if you leave both off) neither, in which case it sits in the connection unused.

Code intelligence is opt-in per repoUse for code intelligence is a separate switch from feeding issues to a board. A repo with no PR/commit sync available on the connection shows "unavailable" and can't be turned on until the connection itself is populated with that data.

Under the hood

GitHub enforces SSO authorization per token, per organization — it isn't something Deckgauge configures. A token that works fine against your personal repos will fail (usually with a 403, sometimes a silent empty result) against an SSO-protected org's repos until you explicitly authorize it for that org from GitHub's own token settings page.

Repos sync on a shared rate-limit budget (roughly 4,000 requests/hour) split across hot/warm/cold tiers, with a self-healing backfill on boot — a big org doesn't need manual rate-limit tuning to stay inside GitHub's limits.

If it looks wrong

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Org repos don't appear in the picker, personal repos do	Token isn't SSO-authorized for that organization	Authorize the token for the org from GitHub's token settings, then retry
"Use for code intelligence" is disabled	No PR/commit sync available on this connection yet	Wait for the repo's first sync, or re-check the connection's token
Reconnect banner says the token is invalid	PAT expired or was revoked	Paste a fresh token via Update token & retry on the source card

Mapping source statuses — GitHub labels plus the synthetic open/closed values, matched case-insensitively.
When your data refreshes — sync tiers, watermarks, and manual sync.
When a connection breaks — the health badge and reconnect flow.
Engineering intelligence — what code-intelligence data powers.

Last updated 17 August 2026