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Maintainer mode

Let your whale keep a repository healthy: it answers requests on GitHub, then comes back with a draft pull request or an honest answer. It never merges.

Works on: Not available yet. Maintainer mode is in the desktop app, but it needs you signed in and Codewhale's servers to run tickets, and neither is open yet. Until then, Repositories says "Not available yet". The phone and the web: not available yet.

Turn it on for a repository

Open Routines from the sidebar. Your repositories are listed under Repositories. If you're not signed in, press Start on Keep a repository healthy and Codewhale asks you to sign in right there.

Select a repository, then turn on Maintainer mode. On GitHub, your whale posts as Codewhale Agent (codewhale-agent[bot]). A repository shows Not set up yet until Codewhale Agent is on it: "Your organization's owner adds it."

At first, it watches

When you turn it on, the whale first only watches anything nobody asked for, such as a new issue or a failing check. Maintainer mode says until when: "Watching until … Requests get answers; anything else waits under Would have done."

What it would have taken on, and why, is under Would have done. "While it watches, nothing here is posted. Anything not confirmed is dropped quietly."

Requests are different: someone you allow asks with @codewhale, and the whale acts from the first day. It replies once to say it's on it, then once more with the result.

Choose whose requests it takes

Under Takes requests from, type a GitHub account and press Add. "Only these GitHub accounts can ask with @codewhale." Press × next to an account to remove it; the last one stays.

Choose what it does

Under What it does, set each activity to Off, Watch only or Act:

Activity What it does
Sort new issues Labels them and asks for what's missing.
Reproduce bugs Confirms a bug, or says honestly it couldn't.
Fix bugs Opens a draft pull request. Never merges.
Review pull requests Leaves comments. Never approves or merges.
Prepare releases Drafts notes and a checklist. Never tags or publishes.

Follow a ticket

Each request becomes a ticket under Tickets, with what it's doing now, who asked and what it has spent. It ends Ready with a draft pull request, or Could not reproduce. Right-click a ticket, or focus it and press Shift+F10:

Choose Letter What happens
Open on GitHub G Opens the issue.
Open pull request P Opens its draft pull request.
Allow more A Lets a ticket at its limit continue, by one ticket's limit.
Stop S Stops the ticket.

The spending limit

Under Spending you see what the whale has spent today against the day's limit, and the limit itself: up to an amount a ticket and an amount a day. Only you change it; your whale never raises it.

When a ticket reaches its limit, it stops spending and shows Needs you · spending limit. Press Allow … more to let it continue by one ticket's limit.

To change the limit, press Change limit…, set Per ticket (US$) and Per day (US$), and press Save limit. "A ticket can be $0.50 to $50, a day $1 to $500, and a ticket never more than a day." The page shows who changed it and when. A change from anywhere but a person is refused.

What stays with you

Merging, approving pull requests, tagging and publishing releases, and the spending limit stay with people. The whale opens draft pull requests, leaves comments and drafts release notes; it never merges, approves, tags or publishes.

Notifications

You get a desktop notification when a ticket needs you or finishes, only while you're not using the app. Select it to open the repository. Codewhale never sends email.

Not available yet

  • Open ticket conversation and Take over in a ticket's menu.
  • Maintainer mode itself, until signing in on the desktop and Codewhale's servers for it are open.

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This page as Markdown: maintainer-mode.md