Question 1

How do I connect GitHub?

Accepted Answer

Install the Ellipsis GitHub App from app.ellipsis.dev/install. GitHub asks which account or organization to install on and which repositories to grant, either all of them or a selected list. If you are not an organization admin the same flow files a request for your admin to approve. That is the whole setup.

Question 2

Which GitHub events can start an agent?

Accepted Answer

Three surfaces. pull_request reacts to opened, pushed, merged, closed, review_submitted, and commented. push reacts to the push itself. issue reacts to opened, closed, and commented. An agent declares exactly one surface, and each carries its own filters: repositories, base and head branch, draft state, labels, and changed-path globs.

Question 3

What can an agent do with my repositories?

Accepted Answer

Exactly what the config grants. By default the session token carries the installation's permissions on the installation's repositories. The permissions.github block narrows it: read_only for read access to contents, issues, metadata, and pull requests, or an explicit map like {contents: read, pull_requests: write}, plus a repositories list. GitHub mints the token with that reduced scope, so the restriction is enforced by GitHub rather than by Ellipsis.

Question 4

Does the agent use my personal GitHub credentials?

Accepted Answer

Never. Every sandbox gets its own installation token, minted from your GitHub App installation when the sandbox starts, with a one-hour lifetime, revoked at teardown. That is what git, gh, and the agent's GitHub tools authenticate with.

Question 5

How do @ellipsis mentions work on GitHub?

Accepted Answer

Mention @ellipsis in an issue comment, in a pull request review body, or in a review comment on a specific line, and a session starts with that thread as its context. A review comment on a line hands the agent the file and line too. Replies continue the same durable conversation, and an agent with a mention trigger can replace the built-in responder with your own prompt, repositories, and budget.

Question 6

Can Ellipsis merge or approve my pull requests?

Accepted Answer

No. Agents can open pull requests and comment, always as the Ellipsis bot, but they never approve, never request changes, and never merge. Branch protection applies to the agent exactly as it does to a developer.

Run Agents from GitHub Events

Repository events start the work

Mention @ellipsis where the review is happening

A token per session, scoped in YAML

Frequently asked questions

Integrations

GitHub

Linear

Slack

Sentry

Jira