Set up GitHub ⇔ Jira connector

[chadwhitacre]

To support #42 we want to set up an automation that creates a shadow Jira ticket for issues in the sentry GitHub repo. The purpose of the Jira ticket is to integrate with our existing customer tagging/tracking infrastructure, as well as our sprints and planning for EPD. Most comments and content should stay on GitHub. Ideally we wouldn't create a Jira for every GitHub, but only when we want to start doing something with it in Jira (tag a customer, bring it into a sprint, etc.(?)).

Requirements

1. When someone applies Trigger: Create Jira Ticket
   1. Check the description for a link to an existing Jira.
   2. Create a new Jira if it doesn't exist, and link it in the description.
   3. Remove Trigger: Create Jira Ticket
2. When resolved in Jira.
   1. Close on GitHub.
3. When unresolved in Jira.
   1. Reopen on GitHub.

To Do

• Evaluate options, integration vendors vs. diy with eng-pipes.
• Pin down requirements.
• Investigate Unito a little more.
  • Understand permissions.
  • Try to guess how it will break for us.
  • Pin down pricing.
  • Have a call with Unito.
• Submit SaaS intake.
• Go through legal / security review.
• Buy Unito.
• Do a little label maintenance.
  • Add Sync: Jira label sentry#42447
  • Tweak Trigger: labels sentry#42452
    • This is a sidebar, but I'm thinking of Trigger and Sync as cousins and want to use the same color.
• Configure Unito in sentry.
  • Install Unito on GitHub.
  • Install Unito on Jira.
  • Put the thing in Advanced Options to avoid status jump on unlabel.
• Add to remaining repos.
  • self-hosted
  • sentry-docs
  • relay
  • sentry-javascript
  • sentry-php
  • sentry-python
  • sentry-react-native
  • sentry-laravel
  • sentry-cocoa
  • sentry-dart
  • sentry-dotnet
  • sentry-java
  • sentry-native
  • sentry-ruby
  • sentry-symfony
  • sentry-unity
  • sentry-android-gradle-plugin

[BYK]

Sounds like you may wanna try Pipedream out.

[chadwhitacre]

Yeah, maybe! I saw when you first linked that a while ago (probs on Twitter?). Are you actively using it?

[chadwhitacre]

Options:

• Pipedream
• Zapier
• eng-pipes
• ???

[BYK]

@chadwhitacre we've been using it at Formsort for many things and it works quite well. I think for Sentry's scale, you'd need to pay for the pro/team account up front as the daily limit of 66 invocations is a bit too low. The individual dev plan has more headroom for initial testing though.

We did build out that magical "automated changelog based on SaaS deploys powered by Jira tickets" thing we have been thinking about :)

[chadwhitacre]

Why should we use a nocode solution instead of eng-pipes?

[BYK]

It is not a no-code solution. You do write code but don't have to deal with the boring and error-prone parts like authentication, tokens etc. Arguably, you can probably replace whole eng-pipes with Pipedream workflows.

[chadwhitacre]

Link dump:

https://exalate.com/ppc-jira-github-integration/
https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1218053/github-jira-two-way-sync
https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/integrate-with-github/

[chadwhitacre]

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/integrate-with-github/ - doesn't apply, it only covers code on GitHub not issues

https://exalate.com/ppc-jira-github-integration/

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1218053/github-jira-two-way-sync => https://unito.io/integrations/jira-github/, I started looking at this a long time ago.

So that's Exalate and Unito in addition to Pipedream and Zapier.

[chadwhitacre]

Twitter Followers

Company	n
Zapier	70,253
Pipedream	6,524
Unito	1,067
Exalate	21

I checked, we don't already have any of these.

[chadwhitacre]

No-one ever got fired for buying Zapier? :o)

[chadwhitacre]

There's a "New Label in GitHub" event in Zapier but not afaict an "Apply label to issue" event.

[chadwhitacre]

Same with Pipedream, but there is a "create it" option.

[chadwhitacre]

I looked through Pipedream's issues and PRs and didn't see anything already in the works for this event.

[BYK]

@chadwhitacre I think you are looking for "New or Updated Issue (Instant)"?

It is essentially the same logic with GitHub actions: new/updated issue -> filter by update type & label

[chadwhitacre]

Afaict Zapier and Pipedream are focused on one-way automations, vs. Unito and Exalate which are focused on bidirectional syncing between objects in disparate systems.

[chadwhitacre]

Unito was super easy to set up, no code! 😁

org-3392dc2e/testing#1

---

---

[chadwhitacre]

[chadwhitacre]

Seeing an unexpected result, when I remove the label from the GitHub issue, it moves the Jira ticket to "Done" and vice versa.

[chadwhitacre]

Also seeing that Jira is using my auth (I selected OAuth 2 on setup). Not sure what's best, ideal might be to have issue author's auth used, more likely will need to set up a bot account on Jira.

[chadwhitacre]

Looking into Unito/Jira auth ...

https://guide.unito.io/a-guide-to-unitos-jira-integration
https://guide.unito.io/what-permissions-are-required-for-jira-users

[chadwhitacre]

Unito GitHub perms FTR ...

https://guide.unito.io/what-permissions-are-required-for-github-users

[chadwhitacre]

Note: Before setting up permissions, we recommended you create a Jira bot user.

Well there ya go. :) That's for Jira.

[chadwhitacre]

Pricing

👉 https://unito.io/pricing/ 👈

The word from GTM is that this would be useful across all tier 1 repos. That's currently 2,210 open issues/PRs.

Unito prices are based on "items in sync," and each side counts for one, so if all 2,210 issues are synced from GitHub to Jira then that is 4,420 items. I don't expect all tickets will have a Jira shadow, certainly not off the bat. That said we are likely to see more tickets created in GitHub more rapidly than before. Some history:

Assumptions

1. We will be able to define "items in sync" as open GitHub issues with Sync: Jira label applied, across 27 repos.
2. Eyeballing on the above chart:
   • 3,600 total new in getsentry in 2019
   • 6,000 in 2020 / 3,600 = 1.67
   • 7,200 in 2021 / 6,000 = 1.2
   • 9,000 in 2022 / 7,200 = 1.25
3. So that is 1.2x – 1.67x growth yoy in getsentry repo. Let's assume roughly the same rate in other repos.
4. How many issues will have the Sync: Jira label applied? 10%? 50%? 80%?

Scenarios

• lo - 10% labeled, 1.2x growth
• mid - 50% labeled, 1.4x growth
• hi - 80% labeled, 1.7x growth

Base is 4,420, calculation is "items in sync".

scenario	now	now + 1yr	now + 2 yrs	now + 3 yrs
lo	442	530	637	764
mid	2,210	3,094	4,331	6,064
hi	3,536	6,011	10,219	17,372

I'm inclined to lean towards the higher estimate, because the whole point of this exercise is to get more issues created in GitHub, both by GTM teams and by customers directly. On the other hand it's not like we're going to label 3,500 issues immediately out of the gate. We'll start with zero, maybe label a couple hundred in an initial migration, and then grow from there.

Plans

The two relevant plans are:

Plan	Items	$/yr	Sync Lag
Team	150 – 2,000	288 – 1,668	~6 minutes
Company	1,500 – 15,000	2,376 – 11,700	~20 seconds

Conclusion

I think we should go for the low end of the Company plan. We don't know exactly what to expect but if we're successful we should see significant growth this year. Remember that every new labeled GitHub issue counts for two items in sync, so we only need to label/sync 1,000 of our existing 2,210 issues (let alone sync new issues) in order to max out the Team plan. The sub-minute lag time will be beneficial for maintaining flow state for the ICs creating tickets.

[chadwhitacre]

Had a call w/ sales, open questions:

1. Is it expected behavior to change status in Jira when the label is removed/re-applied? If so, is there a workaround to prevent the Jira change?
2. Are checkbox tasks in GitHub indeed considered "items in sync," or only if/when converted to issues?

[chadwhitacre]

Is it expected behavior to change status in Jira when the label is removed/re-applied?

Maaaaaybe?

If so, is there a workaround to prevent the Jira change?

They're offering a manual workaround once we have the prod flow ready.

Are checkbox tasks in GitHub indeed considered "items in sync"?

No.

[chadwhitacre]

One limitation with Unito is that we can't sync items after they've already been created. The workflow would have to be to recreate in GitHub and then go from there.

[chadwhitacre]

What happens if we edit the link in the description? 🤔

[chadwhitacre]

I clobbered the footer in both GH and Jira for org-3392dc2e/testing#5 and found that the connection appears to survive. Pure gravy.

[chadwhitacre]

Working through negotiations with Unito now, making progress.

[chadwhitacre]

NDA signed, proceeding with Security review.

[chadwhitacre]

Security review turned up a couple questions that we are waiting for answers on.

In the mean time here are a few other bidirectional sync vendors:

• Getint.io
• Exalate
• APPSeCONNECT - pricing is a non-starter

[chadwhitacre]

SO CLOSE

[chadwhitacre]

Compliance passed! Now to purchase and configure ...

[chadwhitacre]

Purchased. Installed in GitHub. Need help with Jira.

[chadwhitacre]

Got help with Jira!

[chadwhitacre]

Installed for sentry! 💃

[chadwhitacre]

Add to remaining repos.

Punting on this until there is demand. sentry-javascript has a Jira label already, will need to coordinate with them on that.

[chadwhitacre]

Put the thing in Advanced Options to avoid status jump on unlabel.

Punting. Shouldn't be common.

[chadwhitacre]

Dropping getsentry/sentry#42452 from scope here so I can close. 💃

[chadwhitacre]

jk reopening to roll out to remaining repos, first one was in sentry-dart lol

[chadwhitacre]

I've (manually) added the label in all of the Core and SDK repos. I don't think we need this in Shared repos, nobody from GTM should care about those.

[chadwhitacre]

I removed the Unito GitHub App from these repos we don't care to track:

1. snuba
2. snuba-sdk
3. responses
4. symbolic
5. symbolicator
6. craft
7. arroyo
8. cdc
9. wal2json

[chadwhitacre]

Confirmed they do care about Relay (makes sense since it's customer-facing).

[chadwhitacre]

Done rolling out to other repos.