GitHub Integration

Create issues, comment on pull requests, and list commits from runbooks.

Integrate GitHub with AI SRE runbooks to automate pull request management during incident response.

Use cases

Use GitHub runbook actions to:

• Create pull requests for hotfixes

• List open pull requests for incident correlation

• Track incident remediation through pull requests

• Automate PR creation for code changes

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Prerequisites

• GitHub account with repository access

• GitHub personal access token or GitHub App

• Repository permissions: repo, read:org (minimum)

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Configure the GitHub integration

Set up the connector with these steps:

1. Go to Project Settings, then Third-Party Integrations for AI SRE.

   

   Third-Party Integrations for AI SRE
2. Select the connector you want to use or create a new one.

3. Provide your GitHub credentials:

   • Personal Access Token: Generate from GitHub settings

   • Permissions: repo, read:org (minimum)

4. Test the connection.

5. Save the integration.

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Available actions

Create pull request

Create a pull request in a GitHub repository.

Required fields:

• Owner: Repository owner (user or organization)

• Repository: Repository name

• Source Branch: Branch with changes

• Target Branch: Branch to merge into

• Title: Pull request title

• Body: Pull request description (optional)

List pull requests

List pull requests from a GitHub repository.

Required fields:

• Owner: Repository owner (user or organization)

• Repository: Repository name

• State: Filter by state (open, closed, or all)

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Use GitHub actions in runbooks

GitHub actions are configured through the runbook action form in the UI:

1. In your runbook, click New Step, then Action.

   

   New Step Menu
2. In the Select Action dialog, go to the Tickets & Code category.

3. Select GitHub from the available actions.

   

   Select Action Dialog
4. Choose the action type (Create GitHub Pull Request or List GitHub Pull Requests).

5. Fill in the form fields using the Data Picker to insert dynamic values like incident.severity, incident.title, etc.

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Available Mustache variables

Use these variables to map AI SRE incident data to GitHub fields:

Variable	Description	Example Value
{{Activity.title}}	Incident title	API Gateway Outage
{{Activity.summary}}	Incident summary	Payment API returning 500 errors
{{Activity.severity}}	Incident severity	0, 1, 2, 3, 4
{{Activity.status}}	Incident status	Detected, Investigating, Resolved
{{Activity.service}}	Affected service name	payment-service
{{Activity.environment}}	Environment	production, staging
{{Activity.owner}}	Incident owner email	[e-mail]
{{Activity.created_at}}	Incident creation timestamp	2026-05-06T20:30:00Z
{{Activity.url}}	Incident URL in AI SRE	https://app.harness.io/...
{{Activity.id}}	Unique incident identifier	abc123...
{{Activity.short_id}}	Human-readable ID	INC-123

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Example runbook actions

Create a pull request for a fix

Use case: Create a pull request for incident remediation with full context.

Runbook configuration:

1. In the runbook editor, add a Create GitHub Pull Request action.

2. Configure the form fields:

   • Owner: myorg

   • Repository: payment-service

   • Source Branch: hotfix/incident-{{Activity.short_id}}

   • Target Branch: main

   • Title: Fix for incident {{Activity.short_id}}: {{Activity.title}}

   • Body:

     ## Incident Fix
     
     **Incident**: [{{Activity.short_id}}]({{Activity.url}})
     **Severity**: SEV{{Activity.severity}}
     **Service**: {{Activity.service}}
     **Environment**: {{Activity.environment}}
     
     ### Description
     {{Activity.title}}
     
     ### Related
     - Incident URL: {{Activity.url}}

Result: Pull request created with title Fix for incident INC-123: API Gateway Outage targeting main from hotfix/incident-INC-123.

List open pull requests

Use case: List all open pull requests to check for existing fixes before creating a new one.

Runbook configuration:

1. In the runbook editor, add a List GitHub Pull Requests action.

2. Configure the form fields:

   • Owner: myorg

   • Repository: payment-service

   • State: open

Result: Returns a list of all open pull requests in the repository with details including title, branch, and URL.

Create a hotfix PR with context

Use case: Create a pull request with detailed incident context and action items.

Runbook configuration:

1. In the runbook editor, add a Create GitHub Pull Request action.

2. Configure the form fields:

   • Owner: myorg

   • Repository: payment-service

   • Source Branch: hotfix/{{Activity.short_id}}-{{Activity.service}}

   • Target Branch: main

   • Title: [SEV{{Activity.severity}}] {{Activity.title}}

   • Body:

     ## Hotfix for Incident {{Activity.short_id}}
     
     **Status**: {{Activity.status}}
     **Service**: {{Activity.service}}
     **Environment**: {{Activity.environment}}
     **Detected**: {{Activity.created_at}}
     
     ### Incident Summary
     {{Activity.summary}}
     
     ### Action Items
     - [ ] Code changes implemented
     - [ ] Tests added
     - [ ] Reviewed and approved
     - [ ] Ready to deploy
     
     ### Links
     - [Incident Details]({{Activity.url}})
     
     cc: {{Activity.owner}}

Result: Pull request created with full incident context and checklist for tracking remediation progress.

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PR title conventions

Use consistent PR title formats for incident-related pull requests:

By severity:

• SEV0/SEV1: [SEV0] {{Activity.title}}

• SEV2+: Fix: {{Activity.title}}

By type:

• Hotfix: Hotfix/{{Activity.short_id}}: {{Activity.title}}

• Investigation: Investigation/{{Activity.short_id}}: {{Activity.title}}

• Post-incident: Post-incident/{{Activity.short_id}}: {{Activity.title}}

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Branch naming conventions

Use consistent branch naming for incident-related work:

# Pattern examples: <a href="#pattern-examples" id="pattern-examples"></a>
hotfix/incident-{{Activity.short_id}}
fix/{{Activity.service}}-{{Activity.short_id}}
incident/{{Activity.short_id}}-{{Activity.severity}}

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Security best practices

Follow these practices to secure the GitHub integration:

• Use fine-grained personal access tokens

• Limit repository access to only what is needed

• Rotate tokens regularly

• Use GitHub Apps for organization-wide access

• Enable two-factor authentication

• Audit integration usage regularly

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Next steps

• Configure Runbook Actions: Add GitHub actions to runbooks.

• Runbook Best Practices: Review automation patterns.