Getting Started
Requirements before you start
- A GitHub account that belongs to the organisation your course or team uses.
- Access to hephaestus.aet.cit.tum.de (course staff install the GitHub App for you).
- A modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari) with third-party cookies enabled for OAuth.
First-time sign-in
- Navigate to hephaestus.aet.cit.tum.de.
- Choose Continue with GitHub and complete the authorisation flow. Hephaestus only requests the minimal scopes required to read pull requests in repositories authorised by your organisation.
- When the redirect completes you land in the single workspace associated with your organisation. There is no invite flow—the GitHub App handles membership automatically.
- Your GitHub teams and repository permissions sync in the background. Hephaestus mirrors them, so you will only see activity for the repos you already touch on GitHub.
Teams are GitHub-driven
Need to change the team or repositories you appear under? Ask an organisation maintainer to update the GitHub team membership or App installation—Hephaestus refreshes automatically.
Tour the main navigation
| Area | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Home base with your weekly objectives, mentoring reminders, and quick access to the mentor or leaderboard. |
| Mentor | Launch Heph sessions for retrospectives, code review reflections, and standup prep. All conversations are stored as artifacts. |
| Leaderboard | Real-time ranking of review activity. Filters for team and repository reflect the GitHub setup your organisation already maintains. |
| Artifacts | Library of mentor-generated documents (summaries, action plans, standup tables). Share or export them as Markdown. |
| Settings | Review your synced GitHub identity and personal preferences. Repository access and team membership remain read-only because they come from GitHub. |
Gain traction in your first week
- Trigger your first mentor session. Navigate to Mentor → Start session and pick the Sprint retrospective template. Heph will walk you through goal setting, PR highlights, and next steps.
- Review leaderboard insights. Switch to the Leaderboard tab to see how your activity compares with your team. Apply the repository filter if your organisation monitors multiple projects.
- Pin follow-up actions. From the session summary, pin the generated checklist to your dashboard. You will see progress indicators as you check off items during the week.
Staying informed
- Dashboard insights surface outstanding mentor actions and highlight recent leaderboard changes.
- In-app notifications appear when new artifacts are shared with you or when course staff post announcements.
- Planned features such as Slack or email digests are on the roadmap but not yet available in production deployments.
Need help? Use the Help & Feedback button in the footer or join the GitHub Discussions board for peer support.