Skip to content

GitHub

Connect GitHub so markdown documentation in your repositories—READMEs, docs folders, and guides—can power Mention alongside your other sources.

What gets synced

Mention discovers markdown files (names ending in .md) in each repository you grant access to. Mention uses each repo's default branch and walks the file tree so nested docs folders are included.

Other file types in the repo are not imported as individual assets through this integration.

Codebase analysis

Beyond syncing markdown files, Mention can analyze an entire repository's code and turn it into knowledge. On a connected GitHub source, open the Codebases tab and choose Analyze a repository.

Mention reads the repository's default branch and produces a tree of feature briefs—short, self-contained write-ups of the user-facing capabilities it finds in the code. You can browse the tree, open any brief to read it, and toggle the ones you want Mention to use:

  • Toggle a brief's switch to activate or deactivate it individually, or
  • Turn on Activate all briefs to surface every brief now and start new briefs active on future re-runs.

Only active briefs feed your glossaries and alignment knowledge; briefs start inactive.

If a brief fails to generate, it appears in a Failed list at the bottom of the tree with a Retry button. Retry re-writes that one brief in place—you don't need to re-run the whole analysis.

Re-running after new commits

Re-run the analysis after new commits land. A re-run is incremental: Mention compares the new commit against the last analyzed one and only re-does the work that changed—it updates briefs whose code moved, adds briefs for new features, removes briefs for features you deleted, and leaves the rest untouched. Activated briefs keep their activation across re-runs, and your glossary/playbook knowledge updates in place rather than being rebuilt. Only the latest analysis is kept per repository.

If feature groupings have drifted over many small re-runs and you want Mention to re-cluster the whole repository from scratch, use Force full re-analysis.

Scheduled re-analysis

Turn on Auto re-analyze for a codebase and Mention checks its default branch once a day and runs an incremental re-analysis automatically when the branch has moved—so your code knowledge stays current without a manual re-run. It's off by default, skips repositories whose HEAD hasn't changed, and respects your credit balance.

You can also start codebase analysis during onboarding: on the Choose assets step, choose Analyze code instead of selecting documents. The wizard waits for the analysis to finish (several minutes), then has you activate briefs. Mention analyzes your activated briefs before continuing to audience creation. See Quickstart: Admin.

How to connect

  1. Add GitHub as a source in Mention.
  2. Complete GitHub's app installation flow: you will install the Mention app and choose which repositories (or the whole org) the app may access.
  3. After installation, browse the listed .md files and activate the ones you want Mention to use.

If you are unsure where your team authorizes apps, your GitHub org admin may need to approve the installation. See also Connecting sources.

Things to know

  • Only repositories included in the app installation can appear in Mention.
  • Private repos work as long as the installation has access; permissions follow GitHub’s rules for that installation.
  • File last-updated information comes from the repo history, which helps you spot stale docs in the product.

Sync behavior

Repository file listings and file contents are refreshed on a daily schedule. Run a manual refresh after merges or doc releases if you need Mention to see changes immediately.

Activation limit

You can activate up to 2,000 markdown files per GitHub integration (across all connected repositories).