Your customers’ bugs already live in GitHub Issues. Now they arrive with the fix.
The short answer
If your team logs customer problems as GitHub issues, you do not need a help desk to use Watari. Add a label, mention @watariai, assign the issue to an account you choose, or let a rule pick up new issues. Watari reads the issue like a support ticket, works out whether it is a real bug, writes a report an engineer can act on, points to the file and function behind it and, when it is confident, opens a draft pull request that points back at the issue.
How to hand an issue to Watari
- Label
- Someone adds a label you list, such as watari. It notifies nobody.
- Mention
- Someone types @watariai in the description or a comment, on any issue, new or old.
- Assignment
- GitHub does not list apps as assignees, so name a GitHub account you own and assign issues to it.
- Every new issue
- Watari picks up each issue created in the repositories you choose, optionally only those with one of your labels. Your existing backlog is never pulled in.
Set it up
Install the Watari GitHub App
In Watari, open Settings, then Connected tools, and install the GitHub App on the repositories you want.
Connect your repositories
Connect the repositories under Codebase. Watari picks up issues only from repositories you connected, and indexes them so it can find where a reported bug lives.
Turn on issue pickup
Open the GitHub settings in Watari, switch on Pick up issues from GitHub Issues, and choose the repositories to read issues from.
Hand over a test issue
Label one issue, or mention @watariai on it, and watch it appear in Watari within a minute or two.
Step by step, with every setting explained: the GitHub Issues setup guide.
What comes back on the issue
- A comment when Watari picks the issue up, and another when it drafts a fix, opened as a draft pull request. If it cannot find the cause in your code, or does not draft a fix on its own, the comment says so and what a developer can do next. When one detail would let it finish, it asks for it on the issue.
- A Source issue comment on the pull request, so the pull request shows up on the issue’s timeline. Merging it never closes your issue for you.
- The full report in Watari: the steps to reproduce, severity, and the files and functions most likely behind the bug, ranked. Comments never list file paths.
The update for your customer
When the fix ships and your team approves the customer-facing summary in Watari, it is posted on the issue for your team to pass on, but only when the issue’s repository is private. On a repository other people can read, it stays in Watari.
It waits for the deploy that carries the fix, so nobody on your team passes on a fix that is not live yet.
What it does not do
- On public and internal repositories, only owners, members and collaborators can hand an issue over. A stranger typing the handle, or an issue template adding your label for them, starts nothing.
- On a repository that is not private, Watari’s comments carry the status and a link to Watari only.
- Each repository you read issues from must be connected, and counts toward your plan’s repository limit.
- It is off until an owner or admin of your Watari workspace turns it on, and it reads only the places you choose.
- Watari needs your code on GitHub or Azure DevOps (cloud). GitLab and Bitbucket are not supported yet.
Frequently asked questions
Can anyone on the internet start work on a public repository?
No. On a public or internal repository only an owner, a member of your organization or a collaborator can hand an issue over. Nothing anyone else writes starts work, and an issue skipped for that reason is listed as skipped so nothing is silently ignored.
Will Watari file a second issue for an issue it picked up?
No. An issue Watari picked up is its own issue, and Watari posts progress on it. Issues Watari files for help-desk tickets are never picked up as new reports, so both can run in the same repository.
Will Watari pull in our whole GitHub backlog?
No. The rule for every new issue picks up issues created after you switch it on, and issues already in your backlog are never pulled in by it. An older issue is picked up only when someone hands it over.
Is a GitHub issue billed differently from a support ticket?
No. An issue Watari picks up is billed exactly like a support ticket, only when it becomes a Mapped Issue. Progress comments on the issue, draft pull requests and the customer update are included.
What happens to an issue that is not a bug?
A question, a setting or a how-to gets a suggested answer for your team and no pull request. An issue that is not about your code is never billed.
When a support ticket reports a bug, your engineers get a drafted fix.
Connect your help desk or your issue tracker, then GitHub or Azure DevOps. Watari maps each bug to the exact file and function in your code and drafts the fix as a pull request your CI checks.
14 days free. No card. Cancel any time.