Skip to main content
The GitHub integration captures issues and pull requests from your repositories. It serves two purposes:
  • Issues as user feedback. GitHub issues are treated as public submissions: bug reports, feature requests, questions, and other user-facing signals. Modem categorizes and groups them alongside feedback from your other sources.
  • Pull requests for shipping context. Modem syncs PR metadata so it understands what your team is building and shipping. This helps the agent connect user feedback to actual product changes.
Modem does not read your source code. It only syncs metadata: issue and PR titles, descriptions, comments, labels, and review discussions. No file contents, no diffs, no repository browsing.

​
Prerequisites

  • Permission to install GitHub Apps on the repositories or organization you want to connect
  • An admin or owner role in the Modem organization. If you start the install from the GitHub Marketplace, only an organization owner can link it to Modem.

​
Setup

1

Start the connection

Go to Settings → Integrations → GitHub in your Modem dashboard and click Connect GitHub.
2

Install the GitHub App

You’ll be redirected to GitHub to install the Modem GitHub App. Choose which repositories Modem can access: - All repositories gives Modem access to all current and future repositories. - Selected repositories lets you pick specific ones.
3

Authorize access

Review the permissions and click Install & Authorize.
After installation you return to Modem and turn on monitoring for each repository you want captured. Enabling a repository starts its backfill. Modem only ingests new activity from enabled repositories.

​
What Gets Captured

​
Issues

New issues are captured as they’re created, along with all comments. Modem also tracks state changes (opened, closed, reopened) and labels. When you first connect a repository, Modem backfills open issues from the last 30 days and their comments. Closed issues are not backfilled.

​
Pull Requests

Modem captures PR titles, descriptions, review comments, and review status (approved, changes requested). It tracks PR lifecycle events: opened, merged, closed. For review comments made on specific lines of code, Modem captures the comment and the small code snippet shown in the review UI. It does not access full file contents or complete diffs.

​
Automations

GitHub pull request events can also trigger automations in Modem. After GitHub is connected, you can create trigger automations for:
  • GitHub PR Created
  • GitHub PR Merged
  • GitHub PR Dismissed (a PR closed without merging)
These are useful for posting shipping updates to Slack, summarizing new PRs, or linking PRs to relevant feedback topics automatically.
GitHub Discussions are not yet supported. Follow the Modem blog or X account for updates.

​
Choosing Repositories

  • Your main product repositories with active issue tracking
  • Repositories where users submit bug reports or feature requests
  • Open-source projects with community contributions

​
Consider Carefully

  • Private repositories with sensitive information
  • Archived or inactive repositories
  • Internal tooling repositories (unless you want to track internal feedback)
You can change which repositories Modem accesses anytime, either from the Modem dashboard or from your GitHub App installation settings.

​
Troubleshooting

  • Verify the Modem GitHub App is installed for that repository - Check your GitHub App installation settings (GitHub → Settings → Applications → Modem) - Ensure you have permission to install apps on the repository
  • Backfill syncs open issues from the last 30 days. Closed issues will be captured when they receive new activity. - Check that the repository is included in your GitHub App installation
  • Verify the GitHub App is properly installed and the repository is enabled in Modem - Modem receives events through the GitHub App’s own webhook, so nothing appears under your repository’s Webhooks settings - If events are still missing, contact support@modem.dev with the repository name

​
Managing Repositories

To add or remove repositories after initial setup:
  1. Go to Settings → Integrations → GitHub in Modem
  2. Toggle repositories on or off in the repository table
To change which repositories the GitHub App itself can access, click the external-link icon at the right of your account row, above the repository table, or go to GitHub under Settings → Applications → Modem → Configure.

​
Coding Agents

If you’ve configured coding agents, they use your connected GitHub repositories as targets for implementation tasks. The GitHub integration must be connected for coding agents to work on repositories.

​
Disconnecting

To disconnect GitHub:
  1. Go to Settings → Integrations → GitHub
  2. Click Disconnect
Disconnecting in Modem also uninstalls the Modem GitHub App from your GitHub account or organization. If it still appears under GitHub Settings → Applications, click Configure → Uninstall there. Historical data remains in Modem after disconnecting.