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Elastic GitHub connector referenceedit

The Elastic GitHub connector is a connector for GitHub. This connector is written in Python using the Elastic connector framework.

View the source code for this connector (branch main, compatible with Elastic 8.15).

Choose your connector reference

Are you using a native connector on Elastic Cloud or a self-managed connector client? Expand the documentation based on your deployment method.

Native connector (Elastic Cloud)edit

View native connector reference

Availability and prerequisitesedit

This connector is available as a native connector as of Elastic version 8.11.0.

To use this connector natively in Elastic Cloud, satisfy all native connector requirements.

Create a GitHub connectoredit

Use the UIedit

To create a new GitHub connector:

  1. Navigate to the Search → Connectors page in the Kibana UI.
  2. Follow the instructions to create a new native GitHub connector.

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

Use the APIedit

You can use the Elasticsearch Create connector API to create a new native GitHub connector.

For example:

PUT _connector/<my-github-connector>
{
  "index_name": "<my-elasticsearch-index>",
  "name": "Content synced from GitHub",
  "service_type": "github",
  "is_native": "true"
}
You’ll also need to create an API key for the connector to use.

The user needs the cluster privileges manage_api_key and write_connector_secrets to generate API keys programmatically.

To create an API key for the connector:

  1. Run the following command, replacing values where indicated. Note the id and encoded return values from the response:

    POST /_security/api_key
{
  "name": "<connector_name>-connector-api-key",
  "role_descriptors": {
    "<connector_name>-connector-role": {
      "cluster": [
        "monitor"
      ],
      "indices": [
        {
          "names": [
            "<index_name>",
            ".search-acl-filter-<index_name>",
            ".elastic-connectors-v1*"
          ],
          "privileges": [
            "all"
          ],
          "allow_restricted_indices": false
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

  2. Use the encoded value to store a connector secret, and note the id return value from this response:

    POST _connector/_secret
{
  "value": <encoded_api_key>
}

  3. Use the API key id and the connector secret id to update the connector:

    PUT /_connector/<connector_id>/_api_key_id
{
  "api_key_id": "<API key id>",
  "api_key_secret_id": "<secret id>"
}

Refer to the Elasticsearch API documentation for details of all available Connector APIs.

Usageedit

To use this connector as a native connector, see Native connectors (managed service).

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

GitHub personal access tokenedit

Configure a GitHub personal access token to fetch data from GitHub.

Follow these steps to generate a GitHub personal access token:

  • Go to GitHub Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Tokens(classic).
  • Select Generate new token.

  • Add a note and select the following scopes:

    • repo
    • user
    • read:org
  • Select Generate token and copy the token.
GitHub Appedit

Configure a GitHub App to fetch data from GitHub.

Follow these steps to create a GitHub App:

  • Go to GitHub Settings → Developer settings → GitHub Apps.
  • Select New GitHub App.
  • Add a name and Homepage URL, deselect Active under Webhook.
  • Under Permissions, select Read-only for Commit statuses, Contents, Issues, Metadata and Pull requests under Repository permissions, select Read-only for Members under Organization permissions.
  • Select Any account for Where can this GitHub App be installed?.
  • Click Create GitHub App.
  • Scroll down to the section Private keys, and click Generate a private key.
  • Click Install App in the upper-left corner, select the organizations/personal accounts you want to install the GitHub App on, click Install.
  • You can choose to install it on all repositories or selected repositories, and click Install.

Compatibilityedit

Both GitHub and GitHub Enterprise are supported.

Configurationedit

The following configuration fields are required:

Data source
Toggle between GitHub Cloud or GitHub Server.
Server URL
URL of the GitHub Server instance. (GitHub Server only)
Authentication method
The method to authenticate the GitHub instance. Toggle between Personal access token and GitHub App.
Token
GitHub personal access token to authenticate the GitHub instance. This field is only available for Personal access token authentication method.
Repository Type
Toggle between Organization and Other. Note that document level security (DLS) is only available for Organization repositories.
Organization Name
Name of the organization to fetch data from. This field is only available when Authentication method is set to Personal access token and Repository Type is set to Organization.
App ID
App ID of the GitHub App. This field is only available when Authentication method is set to GitHub App.
App private key
Private key generated for the GitHub App. This field is only available when Authentication method is set to GitHub App.
List of repositories

Comma-separated list of repositories to fetch data from GitHub instance. If the value is * the connector will fetch data from all repositories present in the configured user’s account.

Default value is *.

Examples:

  • elasticsearch,elastic/kibana
  • *

Repository ownership

If the "OWNER/" portion of the "OWNER/REPO" repository argument is omitted, it defaults to the name of the authenticating user.

In the examples provided here:

  • the elasticsearch repo synced will be the <OWNER>/elasticsearch repo
  • the kibana repo synced will be the Elastic owned repo

The "OWNER/" portion of the "OWNER/REPO" repository argument must be provided when GitHub App is selected as the Authentication method.

This field can be bypassed by advanced sync rules.

Enable SSL
Enable SSL for the GitHub instance.
SSL certificate

SSL certificate for the GitHub instance. Example: 

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIID+jCCAuKgAwIBAgIGAJJMzlxLMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMHoxCzAJBgNVBAYT
...
7RhLQyWn2u00L7/9Omw=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
Enable document level security
Toggle to enable document level security (DLS). When enabled, full syncs will fetch access control lists for each document and store them in the _allow_access_control field. DLS is only available when Repository Type is set to Organization.

Documents and syncsedit

The connector syncs the following objects and entities:

  • Repositories
  • Pull Requests
  • Issues
  • Files & Folder

Only the following file extensions are ingested:

  • .markdown
  • .md
  • .rst
  • Content of files bigger than 10 MB won’t be extracted.
  • Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elasticsearch Index.
Sync typesedit

Full syncs are supported by default for all connectors.

This connector also supports incremental syncs, but this feature is currently disabled by default. Refer to the linked documentation for enabling incremental syncs.

Sync rulesedit

Basic sync rules are identical for all connectors and are available by default. For more information read Types of sync rule.

Advanced sync rulesedit

A full sync is required for advanced sync rules to take effect.

The following section describes advanced sync rules for this connector. Advanced sync rules are defined through a source-specific DSL JSON snippet.

The following sections provide examples of advanced sync rules for this connector.

Indexing document and files based on branch name configured via branch keyedit
[
  {
    "repository": "repo_name",
    "filter": {
      "branch": "sync-rules-feature"
    }
  }
]
Indexing document based on issue query related to bugs via issue keyedit
[
  {
    "repository": "repo_name",
    "filter": {
      "issue": "is:bug"
    }
  }
]
Indexing document based on PR query related to open PR’s via PR keyedit
[
  {
    "repository": "repo_name",
    "filter": {
      "pr": "is:open"
    }
  }
]
Indexing document and files based on queries and branch nameedit
[
  {
    "repository": "repo_name",
    "filter": {
      "issue": "is:bug",
      "pr": "is:open",
      "branch": "sync-rules-feature"
    }
  }
]

All documents pulled by a given rule are indexed regardless of whether the document has already been indexed by a previous rule. This can lead to document duplication, but the indexed documents count will differ in the logs. Check the Elasticsearch index for the actual document count.

Advanced rules for overlappingedit
[
  {
    "filter": {
      "pr": "is:pr is:merged label:auto-backport merged:>=2023-07-20"
    },
    "repository": "repo_name"
  },
  {
    "filter": {
      "pr": "is:pr is:merged label:auto-backport merged:>=2023-07-15"
    },
    "repository": "repo_name"
  }
]

If GitHub App is selected as the authentication method, the "OWNER/" portion of the "OWNER/REPO" repository argument must be provided.

Content Extractionedit

See Content extraction.

Known issuesedit

There are currently no known issues for this connector. Refer to Known issues for a list of known issues for all connectors.

Troubleshootingedit

See Troubleshooting.

Securityedit

See Security.

Connector client (self-managed)edit

View connector client reference

Availability and prerequisitesedit

This connector is available as a self-managed connector client.

This connector client is compatible with Elastic versions 8.10.0+.

To use this connector, satisfy all connector client requirements.

Create a GitHub connectoredit

Use the UIedit

To create a new GitHub connector:

  1. Navigate to the Search → Connectors page in the Kibana UI.
  2. Follow the instructions to create a new GitHub connector client.

For additional operations, see Using connectors.

Use the APIedit

You can use the Elasticsearch Create connector API to create a new self-managed GitHub connector client.

For example:

PUT _connector/my-github-connector
{
  "index_name": "my-elasticsearch-index",
  "name": "Content synced from GitHub",
  "service_type": "github"
}
You’ll also need to create an API key for the connector to use.

The user needs the cluster privileges manage_api_key and write_connector_secrets to generate API keys programmatically.

To create an API key for the connector:

  1. Run the following command, replacing values where indicated. Note the encoded return values from the response:

    POST /_security/api_key
{
  "name": "<connector_name>-connector-api-key",
  "role_descriptors": {
    "<connector_name>-connector-role": {
      "cluster": [
        "monitor"
      ],
      "indices": [
        {
          "names": [
            "<index_name>",
            ".search-acl-filter-<index_name>",
            ".elastic-connectors-v1*"
          ],
          "privileges": [
            "all"
          ],
          "allow_restricted_indices": false
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}
  2. Update your config.yml file with the API key encoded value.

Refer to the Elasticsearch API documentation for details of all available Connector APIs.

Usageedit

To use this connector as a connector client, see Connector clients (self-managed) For additional usage operations, see Using connectors.

GitHub personal access tokenedit

Configure a GitHub personal access token to fetch data from GitHub.

Follow these steps to generate a GitHub access token:

  • Go to GitHub Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Tokens(classic).
  • Select Generate new token.

  • Add a note and select the following scopes:

    • repo
    • user
    • read:org
  • Select Generate token and copy the token.
GitHub Appedit

Configure a GitHub App to fetch data from GitHub.

Follow these steps to create a GitHub App:

  • Go to GitHub Settings → Developer settings → GitHub Apps.
  • Select New GitHub App.
  • Add a name and Homepage URL, deselect Active under Webhook.
  • Under Permissions, select Read-only for Commit statuses, Contents, Issues, Metadata and Pull requests under Repository permissions, select Read-only for Members under Organization permissions.
  • Select Any account for Where can this GitHub App be installed?.
  • Click Create GitHub App.
  • Scroll down to the section Private keys, and click Generate a private key.
  • Click Install App in the upper-left corner, select the organizations/personal accounts you want to install the GitHub App on, click Install.
  • You can choose to install it on all repositories or selected repositories, and click Install.

Compatibilityedit

Both GitHub and GitHub Enterprise are supported.

Configurationedit

When using the build a connector workflow, initially these fields will use the default configuration set in the connector source code. These are set in the get_default_configuration function definition.

These configurable fields will be rendered with their respective labels in the Kibana UI. Once connected, you’ll be able to update these values in Kibana.

The following configuration fields are required:

data_source
GitHub Cloud or GitHub Server.
host
URL of the GitHub Server instance. (GitHub Server only)
auth_method
The method to authenticate the GitHub instance. Toggle between Personal access token and GitHub App.
token
GitHub personal access token to authenticate the GitHub instance. This field is only available for Personal access token authentication method.
repo_type
Toggle between Organization and Other. Note that document level security (DLS) is only available for Organization repositories.
org_name
Name of the organization to fetch data from. This field is only available when Authentication method is set to Personal access token and Repository Type is set to Organization.
app_id
App ID of the GitHub App. This field is only available when Authentication method is set to GitHub App.
private_key
Private key generated for the GitHub App. This field is only available when Authentication method is set to GitHub App.
repositories

Comma-separated list of repositories to fetch data from GitHub instance. If the value is * the connector will fetch data from all repositories present in the configured user’s account.

Default value is *.

Examples:

  • elasticsearch,elastic/kibana
  • *

Repository ownership

If the "OWNER/" portion of the "OWNER/REPO" repository argument is omitted, it defaults to the name of the authenticating user.

In the examples provided here:

  • the elasticsearch repo synced will be the <OWNER>/elasticsearch
  • the kibana repo synced will be the Elastic owned repo

The "OWNER/" portion of the "OWNER/REPO" repository argument must be provided when GitHub App is selected as the Authentication method.

This field can be bypassed by advanced sync rules.

ssl_enabled
Whether SSL verification will be enabled. Default value is False.
ssl_ca

Content of SSL certificate. Note: If ssl_enabled is False, the value in this field is ignored. Example certificate: 

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIID+jCCAuKgAwIBAgIGAJJMzlxLMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMHoxCzAJBgNVBAYT
...
7RhLQyWn2u00L7/9Omw=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
use_document_level_security
Toggle to enable document level security (DLS). When enabled, full syncs will fetch access control lists for each document and store them in the _allow_access_control field. DLS is only available when Repository Type is set to Organization.
retry_count
The number of retry attempts after failed request to GitHub. Default value is 3.
use_text_extraction_service
Requires a separate deployment of the Elastic Text Extraction Service. Requires that pipeline settings disable text extraction. Default value is False.

Deployment using Dockeredit

You can deploy the GitHub connector as a self-managed connector client using Docker. Follow these instructions.

Step 1: Download sample configuration file

Download the sample configuration file. You can either download it manually or run the following command:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elastic/connectors/main/config.yml.example --output ~/connectors-config/config.yml

Remember to update the --output argument value if your directory name is different, or you want to use a different config file name.

Step 2: Update the configuration file for your self-managed connector

Update the configuration file with the following settings to match your environment:

  • elasticsearch.host
  • elasticsearch.api_key
  • connectors

If you’re running the connector service against a Dockerized version of Elasticsearch and Kibana, your config file will look like this:

# When connecting to your cloud deployment you should edit the host value
elasticsearch.host: http://host.docker.internal:9200
elasticsearch.api_key: <ELASTICSEARCH_API_KEY>

connectors:
  -
    connector_id: <CONNECTOR_ID_FROM_KIBANA>
    service_type: github
    api_key: <CONNECTOR_API_KEY_FROM_KIBANA> # Optional. If not provided, the connector will use the elasticsearch.api_key instead

Using the elasticsearch.api_key is the recommended authentication method. However, you can also use elasticsearch.username and elasticsearch.password to authenticate with your Elasticsearch instance.

Note: You can change other default configurations by simply uncommenting specific settings in the configuration file and modifying their values.

Step 3: Run the Docker image

Run the Docker image with the Connector Service using the following command:

docker run \
-v ~/connectors-config:/config \
--network "elastic" \
--tty \
--rm \
docker.elastic.co/enterprise-search/elastic-connectors:8.15.0.0 \
/app/bin/elastic-ingest \
-c /config/config.yml

Refer to DOCKER.md in the elastic/connectors repo for more details.

Find all available Docker images in the official registry.

We also have a quickstart self-managed option using Docker Compose, so you can spin up all required services at once: Elasticsearch, Kibana, and the connectors service. Refer to this README in the elastic/connectors repo for more information.

Documents and syncsedit

The connector syncs the following objects and entities:

  • Repositories
  • Pull Requests
  • Issues
  • Files & Folder

Only the following file extensions are ingested:

  • .markdown
  • .md
  • .rst
  • Content of files bigger than 10 MB won’t be extracted.
  • Permissions are not synced. All documents indexed to an Elastic deployment will be visible to all users with access to that Elasticsearch Index.
Sync typesedit

Full syncs are supported by default for all connectors.

This connector also supports incremental syncs, but this feature is currently disabled by default. Refer to the linked documentation for enabling incremental syncs.

Sync rulesedit

Basic sync rules are identical for all connectors and are available by default. For more information read Types of sync rule.

Advanced sync rulesedit

A full sync is required for advanced sync rules to take effect.

The following section describes advanced sync rules for this connector. Advanced sync rules are defined through a source-specific DSL JSON snippet.

The following sections provide examples of advanced sync rules for this connector.

Indexing document and files based on branch name configured via branch keyedit
[
  {
    "repository": "repo_name",
    "filter": {
      "branch": "sync-rules-feature"
    }
  }
]
Indexing document based on issue query related to bugs via issue keyedit
[
  {
    "repository": "repo_name",
    "filter": {
      "issue": "is:bug"
    }
  }
]
Indexing document based on PR query related to open PR’s via PR keyedit
[
  {
    "repository": "repo_name",
    "filter": {
      "pr": "is:open"
    }
  }
]
Indexing document and files based on queries and branch nameedit
[
  {
    "repository": "repo_name",
    "filter": {
      "issue": "is:bug",
      "pr": "is:open",
      "branch": "sync-rules-feature"
    }
  }
]

All documents pulled by a given rule are indexed regardless of whether the document has already been indexed by a previous rule. This can lead to document duplication, but the indexed documents count will differ in the logs. Check the Elasticsearch index for the actual document count.

Advanced rules for overlappingedit
[
  {
    "filter": {
      "pr": "is:pr is:merged label:auto-backport merged:>=2023-07-20"
    },
    "repository": "repo_name"
  },
  {
    "filter": {
      "pr": "is:pr is:merged label:auto-backport merged:>=2023-07-15"
    },
    "repository": "repo_name"
  }
]

If GitHub App is selected as the authentication method, the "OWNER/" portion of the "OWNER/REPO" repository argument must be provided.

Content Extractionedit

See Content extraction.

Connector client operationsedit

End-to-end testingedit

The connector framework enables operators to run functional tests against a real data source. Refer to Connector testing for more details.

To perform E2E testing for the GitHub connector, run the following command:

$ make ftest NAME=github

For faster tests, add the DATA_SIZE=small flag:

make ftest NAME=github DATA_SIZE=small

Known issuesedit

There are currently no known issues for this connector. Refer to Known issues for a list of known issues for all connectors.

Troubleshootingedit

See Troubleshooting.

Securityedit

See Security.

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