Skip to content

Connect a Repository

Connecting a repository tells Colony Cloud to manage that repository’s issues through the autonomous pipeline. You can connect multiple repositories under the same organization.

  1. In Colony Cloud, open Repositories from the left navigation.
  2. Click Enable repository. A list of repositories accessible to the colony-coder GitHub App appears. If your target repository is not listed, check that colony-coder is installed on the correct GitHub account or organization under Settings → VCS Connections.
  3. Select the repository you want to connect and click Enable.

Enabling a repository writes two records simultaneously:

  • A row in the Colony Cloud database (org_repos) linking the repository to your organization.
  • Records in Colony’s Pipeline Store (tenants, repos, repo_configs) that register the repository with the autonomous pipeline and apply your organization’s default configuration.

After enabling, the repository appears in the Repositories list with a status of Active. Colony begins monitoring new issues immediately.

Each repository has its own pipeline configuration. Open the repository’s settings to customize how Colony handles it.

  1. In Repositories, click the repository name to open its detail page.
  2. Select the Settings tab.

The most important configuration for a repository is its .colony/conventions.md file — a Markdown document that describes the codebase’s tech stack, coding conventions, forbidden patterns, and review priorities. Colony’s agents read this file before analyzing, developing, or reviewing any issue in the repository.

Place .colony/conventions.md in the repository root and commit it to the default branch. Colony reads the file on every pipeline run — changes take effect immediately without reconfiguring the repository in Colony Cloud.

See Build and Maintain Repository Conventions for what belongs in the file and how to validate it.

Self-improvement (SI) tracks let Colony propose work proactively — analyzing the repository on a schedule and filing issues for improvements such as test coverage, type tightening, or dependency updates — without waiting for a human to file an issue. Tracks are configured per repository on the SI Tracks tab of the repository detail page.

For full configuration and monitoring details, see Self-Improvement Tracks.

Worker capacity is managed under Settings → Workers. Organizations with multi-repository pool mode configure a tenant-wide pool size; other BYO deployments use the repository-scoped commands generated with a registration token. The repository settings page does not reserve a private Worker allocation for one repository.

See Workers and Operate and Scale Workers before changing capacity.

Disabling a repository tells Colony to stop processing new issues. It does not delete any history or configuration.

  1. In Repositories, click the repository name.
  2. On the Settings tab, scroll to Danger zone and click Disable repository.
  3. Confirm the dialog.

When you disable a repository:

  • Colony stops picking up new issues immediately.
  • Issues currently being worked (in states such as ready-for-dev or in-review) are allowed to finish their current task. They are not aborted mid-run.
  • The repository row in org_repos is marked inactive. No Pipeline Store data is deleted.
  • The repository disappears from the Active list and moves to Disabled. Re-enable it at any time by clicking Enable from the Disabled tab.