Setup

Connect your GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps repositories for automated AI-powered code reviews.

New to Code Review? Start with the Overview to understand how it works before connecting your repositories.

Prerequisites

• A GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps account with repository access
• Familiarity with Git workflows and Pull Requests/Merge Requests
• A CloudThinker workspace

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Quick Start

1. Connect Repository

   Choose your Git provider and authenticate to grant CloudThinker access.

2. Create Pull Request

   Open a new PR on your connected repository — CloudThinker detects it automatically.

3. Review Findings

   View status in CloudThinker and detailed findings directly on your PR.

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Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Connect Repository

1. Open Code Review

   Go to Code Review from the navigation menu.

   
2. Start setup

   Click Get Started with Code Review to open the setup wizard.

   
3. Choose provider

   Select GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps as your Git provider.

   
4. Authenticate

   GitHub

   Click Install GitHub App to begin the GitHub App installation.

   You will be redirected to GitHub to select an organization and grant repository access. After authorizing, you are returned to the setup wizard automatically.

   Installing CloudThinker to a GitHub Organization requires Organization Owner permissions. If you are not an owner, please request an owner to install the app.

   GitHub webhooks are registered automatically by the GitHub App — no manual webhook configuration is needed.

   GitLab (OAuth)

   Click Connect to GitLab to authenticate via OAuth. This is the simplest option for GitLab.com users.

   After connecting, you will need to configure a webhook manually.

   GitLab (Access Token)

   Use a Project Access Token or Group Access Token for self-hosted GitLab instances or if you prefer manual token management.

   Why use Project/Group tokens?

   • Comments appear from a bot user, not your personal account
   • Tokens are scoped to specific projects or groups
   • Easier to manage and revoke access

   Connection Details:

   1. GitLab URL: Enter https://gitlab.com for GitLab.com, or your self-hosted instance URL (e.g., https://gitlab.example.com)
   2. Token Type: Select Project Access Token (single project) or Group Access Token (all projects in a group)
   3. Access Token: Paste your generated token

   Self-Hosted GitLab Support: CloudThinker supports GitLab self-hosted instances running version 12.0 and above.

   How to create a Project Access Token

   1. Go to your project → Settings → Access Tokens
   2. Click Add new token
   3. Set role to Developer or higher
   4. Select scope: api
   5. Set an expiration date (recommended)
   6. Copy the generated token

   How to create a Group Access Token

   1. Go to your group → Settings → Access Tokens
   2. Click Add new token
   3. Set role to Developer or higher
   4. Select scope: api
   5. Set an expiration date (recommended)
   6. Copy the generated token

   Role Requirements: The token must have Developer role or higher to post code review comments. Guest and Reporter roles cannot post comments on merge requests.

   After connecting, you will need to configure a webhook manually.

   Bitbucket (OAuth)

   Click Connect to Bitbucket to authenticate via OAuth. You will be redirected to Bitbucket to authorize workspace access.

   Bitbucket webhooks are registered automatically — no manual webhook configuration is needed.

   Bitbucket (Access Token)

   Connect using a Bitbucket Access Token. Choose the token type that matches your access level:

   Token Type	Scope	Plan Required
   Workspace Access Token	All repositories in a workspace	Premium
   Project Access Token	All repositories in a project	Premium
   Repository Access Token	Single repository only	Free

   Connection Details:

   1. Token Type: Select the token scope from the dropdown
   2. Bitbucket Workspace: Enter your workspace slug (from the URL: bitbucket.org/<workspace>/repo)
   3. Repository Slug (Repository tokens only): Enter the repository slug
   4. Access Token: Paste your generated token

   Click Validate Token first to verify access, then click Connect to complete.

   Required Token Permissions:

   • Account: Read
   • Repositories: Read, Write
   • Pull requests: Read, Write
   • Webhooks: Read and write
   • Pipelines: Read, Write

   How to create a Workspace Access Token

   1. Go to Workspace → Settings → Access tokens
   2. Click Create workspace access token
   3. Enable the required permissions listed above
   4. Set an expiration date (recommended)
   5. Copy the generated token

   How to create a Project Access Token

   1. Go to Project → Project settings → Access tokens
   2. Click Create project access token
   3. Enable the required permissions listed above
   4. Set an expiration date (recommended)
   5. Copy the generated token

   How to create a Repository Access Token

   1. Go to Repository → Repository settings → Access tokens
   2. Click Create Repository Access Token
   3. Enable the required permissions listed above
   4. Set an expiration date (recommended)
   5. Copy the generated token

   Bitbucket webhooks are registered automatically — no manual webhook configuration is needed.

   Azure DevOps

   Azure DevOps uses a Personal Access Token (PAT) for authentication.

   Connection Details:

   1. Organization URL: Enter your Azure DevOps organization URL (e.g., https://dev.azure.com/your-org or https://your-org.visualstudio.com)
   2. Project: Enter the project name containing your repositories
   3. Personal Access Token: Paste your generated PAT

   Click Validate PAT first to verify access, then click Connect to complete.

   Required PAT Scopes:

   • Build — Read
   • Code — Read & Write
   • Pull Request Threads — Read & Write

   How to create a PAT

   1. Go to Azure DevOps → User Settings (top-right) → Personal Access Tokens
   2. Click New Token
   3. Set the organization and expiration date
   4. Select the scopes listed above
   5. Click Create and copy the generated token

   PATs expire based on the expiration date you set during creation. Set a reminder to rotate your PAT before it expires to avoid disrupting code reviews.

   After connecting, you will need to configure webhooks manually.

5. Select repositories

   Select the repositories you want to enable for code review and click Complete to finish setup.

   

Setup Successful! Once you see your repositories listed, CloudThinker is now monitoring your Pull Requests and Merge Requests.

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Webhook Configuration

Some providers require manual webhook configuration. GitHub and Bitbucket register webhooks automatically — no action is needed.

GitLab

After connecting your GitLab account, configure a webhook in your GitLab project or group:

1. Go to your project/group → Settings → Webhooks
2. Paste the webhook URL shown in the setup wizard
3. Enter the secret token provided
4. Enable these triggers:
   • Merge request events
   • Comments
   • Pipeline events
5. Click Add webhook

Azure DevOps

After connecting your Azure DevOps project, create 4 separate service hooks in Azure DevOps:

1. Go to Project Settings → Service hooks
2. Click Create subscription and select Web Hooks
3. Create one hook for each of these events:
   • Pull request created
   • Pull request updated
   • Pull request commented on
   • Build completed
4. For each hook, paste the webhook URL shown in the setup wizard
5. Use Basic authentication with the secret token as the password (leave username empty)

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Step 2: Create Pull Request

1. Open your repository

   Navigate to your connected repository on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps.

2. Create a Pull Request

   Create a new Pull Request with your code changes. CloudThinker will automatically detect the PR and start the AI-powered review.

   

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Step 3: View Results

1. Check status in CloudThinker

   View the review status for all your Pull Requests in the CloudThinker dashboard.

   
2. View findings on your Git provider

   Open your Pull Request to see the AI-generated summary and in-line code comments with detailed recommendations.

   

   

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Review modes

CloudThinker offers two review modes that you can configure per repository:

Mode	Description
Fast	Quick analysis, lower cost. Ideal for small PRs and rapid feedback.
Advanced	Deep analysis with specialists. The review is split across specialist agents for security, performance, correctness, and patterns. Best for critical repositories.

You can switch between modes in your repository settings at any time.

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Pipeline monitoring

CloudThinker can monitor your CI/CD pipelines for failures and automatically analyze failed job logs.

When a pipeline fails, CloudThinker:

1. Detects the failed pipeline run
2. Fetches and analyzes the failed job logs with AI
3. Posts findings and suggested fixes directly on the PR

Pipeline monitoring can be toggled on or off per workspace. It is enabled by default.

For Azure DevOps, CloudThinker monitors build.complete events alongside pull request events (git.pullrequest.created, git.pullrequest.updated) to detect failures and analyze logs automatically.

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Filter configuration

Control which MRs/PRs CloudThinker reviews using label, author, and branch filters. Filters are configured per-repository in your repository settings after setup is complete.

• Label filters: Include or exclude PRs with specific labels
• Author filters: Include or exclude specific authors from reviews
• Branch filters: Include or exclude branches matching specific patterns (filters by target branch — the branch being merged into)

Exclude filters are checked first. Include filters must all pass. PRs that match an exclude filter are marked as FILTERED and skipped entirely.

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Incremental reviews

When you push new commits to an open PR, CloudThinker performs an incremental review — only the new changes are analyzed, not the entire PR. This keeps reviews fast and focused on what actually changed.

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What’s Next

Leaderboard

Track team review activity and measure code quality improvements over time

Atlassian Integration

Auto-create Jira tickets for critical findings and pull Confluence context into reviews

Notifications

Configure where code review findings are delivered

Code Review Automation

See a full end-to-end example: SQL injection found, Jira ticket created automatically