Development (beta)
Ask the agent to change your product, talk it through, then have it open a pull request, merge it and tell you when it's live.
Development lets you ask the agent to change your product: its code, its website, its wording or its pictures. You talk it through in a chat, the agent opens a pull request, and it's merged and deployed when you say so. The agent then watches the deploy and tells you when the change is live.
A beta feature: proceed with caution
The agent can't run or test its changes. A change can be wrong, or break something else. Review the pull request before you merge, and see the terms: you're responsible for what you deploy.
Who can use it#
Owners and admins choose, person by person and platform by platform:
- 1
Go to Your account › Team.
- 2
Open the person's ⋯ menu and choose Platforms and access….
- 3
Switch on Development for each platform they may use it on. A platform they can't see shows Needs access first: switch on Can see it for it first. Owners and admins can see every platform already.
- 4
Click Save.
Only people with Development see the Development tab, and only they can see the requests. On the Team list they have a small violet Dev mark next to the platform. Taking a platform away from someone also takes away their Development there.
Everyone with access can have the agent build a change, press Merge, and turn on Merge and deploy without asking.
The agent changes only repositories that allow fixes (Settings › Code, Fixes allowed), and only when code changes are switched on for your organisation. If something is missing, the Development page shows The agent can't make changes here yet and says what.
The Development page#
Your requests are in a table: Request, Stage, Pull request and Opened. Under each request is its number and who asked. Click a request to open it.
| Stage | What it means |
|---|---|
| Waiting for you | The agent has answered, or its plan waits for you. |
| Agent working | The agent is reading your code or writing an answer. |
| Building | The agent is making the change. |
| Pull request open | The change is ready for you to review and merge. |
| Watching the deploy | It's merged. The agent is watching the build and the deploy. |
| Merged | It's merged, and the agent has finished watching. |
| Failed | The agent couldn't finish its last piece of work. |
| Done | Someone marked the request as done. |
Asking for a change#
- 1
Open Development and click New request.
- 2
In What is it about?, give it a short title, such as "Team photo on the About page".
- 3
In What should change?, say what you want, as you would to a developer. For example: "Put the attached photo at the top of the About page, full width, with the caption 'Our team'."
- 4
Click Attach pictures or files to add any that help, or that should go on the site. Up to 10 at a time, each up to 10 MB: pictures, PDFs and text files. Each file shows as a small chip. Click its × to take it off.
- 5
Click Send to the agent.
The agent reads your code, looks at what you attached, and answers in the conversation. It may ask questions first.
Talking it through#
The request opens with the conversation on the left and the Pull request panel on the right.
When the change is clear, an amber card, The agent's plan, shows above the conversation. It says what the agent will change, the Repository, the Files, and the Risk. Not happy with it? Say so in the conversation, and the agent changes the plan.
Write to the agent in the box at the bottom of the conversation and click Send to the agent. You can attach more pictures to any message.
Building it#
Click Build it on the plan, or tell the agent "go ahead". It makes the change and the service opens a pull request. The request shows Pull request open, and the panel on the right links to it.
Asking again adds to the same pull request. While the agent adds to it, the panel shows Being updated, and Merge waits until it's done. If there's nothing new to add, because the change is already in it, the agent says so and points you to Merge.
Merging and deploying#
Review the pull request on GitHub or GitLab. When you're happy, click Merge in the Pull request panel. You're asked Merge and deploy?, because merging usually deploys the change to your live product. Click Merge and deploy to go ahead. You can also tell the agent "merge it".
After the merge, the agent watches the build and the deploy for up to 30 minutes, and says in the conversation when the change is live, or what went wrong.
If the change stops the build, your live product stays as it was. When the agent can fix it, it plans the fix: click Build it, or with Merge and deploy without asking ticked it builds and merges the fix by itself.
The agent writes to you in plain words. The technical detail of each change is in its pull request.
Merge and deploy without asking#
Tick Merge and deploy without asking to skip the waiting. It's at the bottom of the Pull request panel, and in the New request pop-up. The agent then builds the change as soon as it's clear, without waiting for "go ahead", and the pull request is merged and deployed as soon as it's open. Ticked while a pull request is already open and ready, it merges that one straight away. It still asks first if the request is unclear, or if the change could lose data, take money or lock people out.
Untick it at any time: Merge comes back.
Nobody checks these changes
With this on, changes reach your live product without anyone reviewing them. Use it for small, low-risk changes, such as text and pictures.
Finishing#
When you're done, click Mark as done at the top of the request, then Mark as done again to confirm. The agent stops working on it. Start a new request for anything else.
What stays private#
Development requests never reach your requesters or your ticket system. They don't appear in the Queue, the Tickets list, Metrics or notifications.