Install the GitHub App

Installing the Orbi GitHub App is how Orbi gets access to a repository, and you choose exactly which repositories it covers. Signing in tells Orbi who you are. The App installation is the separate, revocable grant that lets it read your Issues and open pull requests. You approve it on GitHub, you scope it on GitHub, and you can remove it on GitHub.

Install it

Right after your first sign-in, Orbi shows a Connect repository page that says The Orbi GitHub App is not installed yet. Until the App is installed, the same page appears whether you open the status page or the connect page. The page states what you need to know before installing: installation is free, and Orbi can only change the GitHub repositories you select. Open All permissions for the full list. Click Install the Orbi GitHub App and you are taken to GitHub’s installation screen. On GitHub’s installation screen:

Choose the account or organization that owns the repository you want Orbi to work in.
Select Only select repositories.
Tick only the repository you want to hand to Orbi and click Install. One small repository is enough to try Orbi; you can add more to the installation later.

GitHub returns you to Orbi Cloud. If Confirming the GitHub App installation appears, let it refresh; after a minute, click Select repository. On first setup, a single eligible authorized repository connects automatically on its default branch and opens the status page. With several repositories, you choose one on Connect a repository. The install page also has two folded sections:

Cannot find your repository?: if the repository belongs to an organization, choose that organization on GitHub’s installation screen first. If the button reads Install and request or Request, an organization administrator has to approve the installation.
No repository on GitHub yet?: use Create a repository from Orbi’s example to create one, then come back and install. One verified official example copy is exempt from the repository limit and free-delivery count. See trying the example.

Installing on an organization creates a separate Orbi tenant for that organization, with its own subscription and usage. Installing on your personal account creates a personal one. They are not shared.

What the permissions are for

GitHub shows you the full permission list before you approve. On Orbi’s install page, All permissions summarizes it: in the GitHub repositories you select, read/write access to code, Issues, PRs, GitHub Actions workflows and Actions variables; read access to repository settings, check results and Actions run history; no ability to change repository settings; and read access to your GitHub email address. Here is what each one is used for:

Permission	Access	Why Orbi needs it
Issues	Read and write	To read the Issue handed to it, add the `ai-*` labels, and post progress and failure comments. On GitHub, labels, comments and milestones all fall under this one permission
Pull requests	Read and write	To open the pull request, comment on it, and merge it once the check passes
Contents	Read and write	To fetch your repository and push the branch the task works on
Checks	Read-only	To read the CI result on a commit before merging and releasing
Actions	Read-only	To read the check results on Orbi’s pull requests in private repositories, so it merges only after your CI passes. Without it Orbi cannot see the checks and waits on the merge indefinitely
Workflows	Read and write	So a task that changes a file under `.github/workflows/` is not silently rejected by GitHub
Variables	Read and write	To sync the repository variable the triage workflow reads
Administration	Read-only	To read repository settings such as branch protection rules, so Orbi can tell you before handing off, and on the status page, when a rule requires an approval before merge. It cannot change repository settings
Commit statuses	Read-only	To read the status results on Orbi’s pull requests before merging. Without it Orbi stops the delivery and asks you to approve the permission
Metadata	Read-only	To read basic repository information, such as the repository list and default branch
Email addresses	Read-only	An account-level permission to read your GitHub email address

These are the permissions that let an agent do the job you are asking it to do: write code on a branch, open a pull request, and merge it after the check. If your organization’s policy does not permit granting write access to pull requests and contents, Orbi Cloud cannot deliver into that repository.

Changing which repositories are covered

The App installation decides which repositories Orbi can see; connecting a repository decides which ones it works in. How many you can connect at once depends on your plan. See limits and quotas. If your target repository is not offered on the connect page, the App was installed without it. To fix that, open Don’t see your repository? on the connect page and follow its GitHub App settings link. Under Repository access, add the repository and click Save. GitHub does not send you back to Orbi afterwards, so return to Orbi Cloud and refresh the connect page.

Revoking

Uninstall the Orbi GitHub App from GitHub at any time: in GitHub’s Settings → Applications → Installed GitHub Apps, find Orbi, click Configure, then Uninstall (for an organization, the same path under the organization’s settings). Uninstalling immediately removes Orbi’s access to your code. The status page detects it: the headline becomes Orbi is stuck and needs you, the card says The GitHub App was uninstalled, and it offers a Reinstall the Orbi GitHub App button.

Uninstalling the App does not cancel a subscription. Cancel that separately through billing.

If you reinstall

Reinstalling the App on the same account reconnects it to your existing tenant. Your task history and settings are still there. You may need to reconnect your repository afterwards; the status page tells you when that is the case.

Start here

Set up

Deliver

Reference

Install the GitHub App

Install it

What the permissions are for

Changing which repositories are covered

Revoking

If you reinstall

​Install it

​What the permissions are for

​Changing which repositories are covered

​Revoking

​If you reinstall

Install it

What the permissions are for

Changing which repositories are covered

Revoking

If you reinstall