Mentions and assignments

You reach kanman in the tools your team already uses. Mention it in an issue, a pull or merge request or a Jira comment, or assign it an issue, and it answers right there, with a link into kanman where you can follow along. Slack and Microsoft Teams work the same way (see Slack and Microsoft Teams).

kanman’s accounts in your tools

kanman works best with an account of its own in each tool, the way a new colleague gets one. Create it once and enter it in the accounts card at the top of Team > Chat and mentions. The card holds all of kanman’s accounts in one place, GitHub, GitLab and the tracker; Code review shows the same accounts and links here. Old links to the former Mentions page land on this card.

On GitLab, give your runner a personal access token of kanman’s own user. kanman then also reads that user’s to-do list, so every mention and assignment reaches it, even on a GitLab behind a VPN that sends no webhooks.

When kanman has no account in a tool, it still answers:

• "@kanman" in a comment counts as a mention. Change the text under Mention text if your team uses another name.
• The pickup label (Team > Repositories and tracker, Tracker card, kanman by default) counts as an assignment.

When you mention kanman

kanman reads the comment together with the issue or pull request it was written on, and answers in place:

• A question ("@kanman what is the status of PU-43?") gets an answer.
• A request for work ("@kanman can you take this?") becomes draft stories you review and approve in kanman, like any other requirement. If something is unclear, kanman asks first.
• A review request on a pull or merge request ("@kanman please review") starts a code review when the person asking has write access to the repository and the team reviews people’s merge requests on request or every one.
• A comment in a review thread on kanman’s own pull request is answered by the review follow-up: kanman fixes, answers or asks, as described in Code review.

Every answer ends with a link into kanman. kanman answers each comment once, also when it arrives both by webhook and by the regular check of a GitLab behind a VPN.

When you assign kanman

Assign an issue or Jira ticket to kanman’s account, or give it the pickup label:

• In Ready (the column your team maps to Ready): kanman starts it through the team’s normal path, with the same limits, checks and budget as every other story. Assigning never skips Ready.
• Anywhere else: kanman refines it. It writes the issue up as a story with acceptance criteria, asks what is missing, and updates the issue once you approve the draft. Move it to Ready when it should start. Turn this off with Refine issues assigned outside Ready.

Assigning a pull or merge request to kanman asks it for a review.

Who kanman takes requests from

kanman knows who is asking when that person connected the tool in kanman (their GitHub or GitLab connection, or their Jira connection). Requests from everyone else are answered and drafted for the person who connected the team’s tool, but they never answer a question or change the board. Turn Answer people without a kanman account off to answer only people kanman knows.

To keep a busy project calm, kanman takes up to 30 mentions and assignments per team and hour.

What you need to set up

1. Create kanman’s accounts as listed above and enter them in Team > Chat and mentions.
2. For a GitLab behind a VPN: give the workspace’s runner a token of kanman’s own GitLab user. No webhook is needed.
3. For Jira without webhooks: nothing more. kanman checks the team’s project every few minutes.