Enable Real-Time Connections in LinearB

Enabling real-time connections between LinearB and your Git repositories ensures instant updates to dashboards and timely alerts, such as notifications for CI results or code reviews. Without a real-time connection, updates can be delayed, which may affect team collaboration and efficiency.

The Importance of Real-Time Alerts

LinearB is designed to integrate seamlessly with Git repositories to provide real-time data. However, if LinearB does not have admin access to all relevant repositories, it may not establish these connections. This can result in:

• Delayed Dashboards: Activity updates may not appear promptly, reducing visibility into team workflows.
• Notification Delays: Alerts for CI test results, review updates, and approvals in Slack may be delayed, impacting pipeline awareness and team responsiveness.

Real-time alerts improve your team’s productivity by ensuring they stay informed of every stage in the development and review process.

How LinearB Collects Git Data in Real-Time

LinearB uses webhooks to collect real-time data from your repositories. Upon connecting your Git account, LinearB attempts to establish webhooks for all repositories it can access. These webhooks:

• Enable immediate updates to your dashboards, reflecting real-time changes.
• Trigger instant notifications for CI results and code review updates via Slack.
• Provide insights into potential bottlenecks in your development pipeline.

Steps to Enable Real-Time Connections

To establish real-time connections, ensure the Git account linked to LinearB has admin rights to all relevant repositories. There are several ways to enable this:

Create a Service Account for Integration Access

A service account is a dedicated user account used to authenticate LinearB integrations instead of relying on an individual employee’s account.

Using a service account helps prevent integration failures when an employee changes roles, loses permissions, leaves the company, or has their access revoked.

Service account requirements:

• Use a dedicated company-managed email account, for example linearb@companyname.com.
• Grant the account admin-level access to all repositories, projects, workspaces, and organizations LinearB needs to access.
• For multi-tenant organizations, make the service account an admin in each tenant, workspace, organization, or project that LinearB should connect to.
• Use the service account when authorizing LinearB integrations for Git providers, project management tools, and communication tools.
• Review the account’s permissions regularly to make sure access has not expired, changed, or been revoked.

Configure User Permissions for Git Platforms to Enable Real-Time Updates in LinearB

To ensure real-time updates in LinearB, the connected Git account must have appropriate permissions. Depending on your Git platform, this can involve granting Owner or Admin access at the organization, project, or repository level. Below are detailed instructions for each platform:

GitHub

Granting Organization-Level Owner Access

1. Navigate to your GitHub organization settings.
2. Click on the People tab at the top of the organization page.
3. Select the Invite member button.
4. Assign the new user the Owner role by setting their "Role in Organization" to Owner.
5. Click Send invitation to complete the process.

Granting Admin Access to Individual Repositories

1. For each repository, navigate to its settings.
2. Click on the Manage access tab.
3. Add the user and assign them Admin access.

GitLab

Granting Permissions Using Groups (Org-Level Access)

1. Create or use an existing group, such as a Global Admins group, that covers all relevant projects.
2. Add the user to the group and assign them Maintainer or Owner permissions.

   Learn more about managing groups in GitLab here.

Granting Project-Level Permissions

1. Open the project in GitLab.
2. Navigate to Settings > Members.
3. Add the user to the project and assign the Maintainer or Owner role from the dropdown menu.

   More details on managing project-level permissions can be found here.

Bitbucket

Granting Global Admin Permissions

1. Access your Bitbucket workspace settings.
2. Navigate to User Management or a similar admin section.
3. Add the user and grant them Admin permissions at the workspace level.

Assigning Admin Permissions for Projects or Repositories

• Project-Level: Add the user to the project with Admin permissions.
• Repository-Level: For each repository, add the user and assign them Admin rights.

Granting global admin permissions

Granting project-level admin permissions

Granting repo-level admin permissions

Recommendation: Assign global admin access to simplify real-time data integration with LinearB.

Upgrading Git User Permissions for LinearB

If the Git account linked to LinearB does not have sufficient permissions, follow these steps to upgrade:

Required Permissions

• GitHub: Owner role for the organization or Admin access for individual repositories.
• GitLab: Maintainer or Owner permissions.
• Bitbucket: Admin permissions at the global, project, or repository level.

Steps to Upgrade:

1. Contact your Git admin and request the required permissions.
2. Once permissions are updated, LinearB will automatically check and reconnect webhooks every two days.

If immediate updates are required, contact LinearB support to manually refresh the repository connections.

Re-Authorize a Git Integration

You can reauthorize a Git integration using a Git account with the required admin permissions. We recommend using a dedicated service account rather than an individual user account.

Steps for Re-Authorization:

1. Log out of your Git account in your browser.
2. Log into LinearB with a username that has LinearB admin access.

• Only LinearB admin accounts have permission to reauthorize Git connections.
1. Go to Settings > Company Settings > Git.
2. Find your existing GitHub account, click the three dots next to it, and select Reauthorize Git.
Ensure the account has access to all repositories previously connected to LinearB to avoid breaking the integration.
1. When prompted, reauthorize as an Admin by clicking Reauthorize GiHub, or reauthorize with an Access Token.

If you encounter any issues, contact LinearB support for guidance.

Maintaining Real-Time Connections

• Service Accounts: Consider using a service account with elevated permissions to simplify administration and avoid disruptions.
• Webhook Maintenance: LinearB periodically attempts to connect new webhooks. For changes in admin rights, reach out to LinearB support for immediate updates.

By ensuring proper permissions across your Git platform, you can unlock the full potential of LinearB’s real-time data capabilities, enabling seamless collaboration and improved development efficiency.

Successful Slack Integration

Your LinearB account is now connected to your Slack channels, enabling real-time updates on personal pull requests and code reviews. For additional information on setting up Slack integration, explore the resources below:

• Connecting and Managing WorkerB Team Alerts
• Setting Up WorkerB Personal Alerts and Commands



Setting Up an Org-Level Webhook for GitHub

GitHub cloud users can enhance real-time connectivity by installing an organization-level webhook. This ensures that all existing repositories and any new repositories added in the future are automatically connected to LinearB.

For detailed instructions, refer to the Installing a GitHub Organization-Level Webhook guide.