GitHub App
The Overnite GitHub App (github.com/apps/overnitedev) is how Overnite reaches your code. It does two things, both only on the repositories you install it on:
- Workspaces clone, push and open pull requests with it.
- A comment that mentions @overnitedev starts an agent on that repository and answers on the thread.
Signing in to Overnite is separate: it says who you are, and installing the App says what agents may touch.
Install it
From the new workspace form choose Install Overnite on your repos, or go to github.com/apps/overnitedev/installations/new.
- Choose Only select repositories and pick the ones agents should work on. You can add more later from the same form (Install Overnite on more repositories) or from GitHub's settings.
- For an organisation, an owner installs it; members then see the organisation's installed repositories they have access to.
- GitHub sends you back to the cockpit, where the repository picker now lists what you chose.
The picker shows a repository only when both are true: the App is installed on it, and your own GitHub account can see it.
Mention @overnitedev
On an issue or a pull request in an installed repository, write a comment:
@overnitedev add a Contributing badge to README
or open a new issue whose description mentions it. Everything after the mention is the task. What happens next, on the thread:
- 👀 on your comment, within seconds: seen.
- The agent starts in your workspace on that repository - a running one if
you have one, otherwise your most recent, otherwise a new one - and the App
comments
@you started, follow here: <link>. Waking a sleeping workspace takes up to a minute first. - When the agent is done, the App comments again:
- on an issue:
done:and the pull request it opened, which ends withCloses #<issue>; - on a pull request: that it pushed to that pull request's branch;
- or why it stopped, with a link to the session.
- on an issue:
The agent is Claude Code on Auto, with your credentials from Settings → Agents: it works without asking for permissions, and stops only for a real question - which reaches your phone like any other, while the run waits.
What to write
| Comment | The agent is asked to |
|---|---|
@overnitedev fix the failing test in auth.test.ts | do that, then open a pull request |
@overnitedev (nothing else, on an issue) | resolve the issue |
@overnitedev address the review comments (on a PR) | check out the PR's branch, change it, push |
@overnitedev (nothing else, on a PR) | review the pull request and address what it needs |
The agent also gets the issue or pull request's title and description, so the
comment can be short. Mentions inside quoted replies (> …) and code blocks are
ignored, so quoting an earlier request does not start a second run.
Write
@overnitedev.@overniteworks too, butoverniteis an unrelated GitHub account, and GitHub notifies it.
Who can start an agent
All three, or nothing happens:
- Write access to the repository: owner, organisation member or collaborator. Anyone else gets no reply at all - on a public repository anyone can comment, and the agent would run on someone else's account.
- An Overnite account linked to that GitHub account. Without one, the App replies with where to sign in.
- A place in the beta. On the waitlist, the App says so.
The agent always runs on the account of the person who asked: their workspace, their credentials, their usage.
Permissions
| Permission | Access | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Contents | Read and write | clone, and push the agent's branch |
| Pull requests | Read and write | open the pull request, push to one it was asked on |
| Issues | Read and write | read the thread, react, reply |
| Metadata | Read | required for every GitHub App |
| Checks | Read | see failed check suites |
A workspace gets less than the App: a token for its one repository, with contents, pull requests, issues and metadata only, which expires within an hour and is replaced while the workspace runs. Your own GitHub token never reaches a workspace. See Security.
Pushes and pull requests appear as overnitedev[bot]; the commits keep your name and address.
Events it listens to
| Event | What happens |
|---|---|
| A comment is created on an issue or pull request | a mention starts an agent |
| An issue is opened | a mention in its description starts an agent |
| A check suite fails | recorded in the activity of every workspace on the repository |
| A pull request is merged | recorded in the same activity |
| The App is installed or removed | remembered |
Fixing a failed check automatically is planned; today a failure is only recorded.
Uninstall
GitHub → Settings → Applications → Installed GitHub Apps → Overnite → Configure: remove repositories, suspend, or uninstall. Workspaces on a repository the App no longer covers wake without a token - a public repository still clones, nothing pushes - and mentions there do nothing.
Troubleshooting
- No 👀 on my comment. Check that the App is installed on that repository, that you have write access, and that you mentioned it outside a quote or code block.
- 👀 but no "started". The workspace is waking - give it a minute. If ten minutes pass, the App replies that the workspace did not wake.
- "stopped: the agent's provider refused it". The agent has no working credentials: add a key or sign in, in Settings → Agents.
- The repository is missing from the picker. Install the App on it, or ask an owner of the organisation to.