Getting started

What Sightline needs from each tool before you connect it — including the setup that has to happen in the tool itself, not just in Sightline.

Nothing is set up for you in advance

A brand-new account starts empty: no Linear workspace, no GitHub sign-in, no calendar, no Slack channel. You connect what you actually use, and you can add as many of each as you need — three Linear workspaces, one GitHub account that sees several organisations, one Google account reading three calendars and booking into two of them, whatever your own setup looks like.

A connection is one signed-in account or, for Linear only, one pasted key. What it actually does for you — which workspace it reads, which calendars it reads or books time into, which channel it posts to — sits on top of that connection as its own settings, and you can add more of those to a connection you already made without reconnecting it.

Before you connect each tool

• Google Calendar

  Puts your meetings beside your work, and lets Sightline book time for a task.

  Set up first, in Google Calendar:

  • You sign in with Google once — there's no client id, secret or token to copy in. That sign-in asks for permission to list your calendars, but the connect screen doesn't use that yet: you still type in each calendar's exact id or address rather than picking it from a fetched list.
  • Every calendar has to already be shared with the Google account you connect — in Google Calendar's own sharing settings, before you add it here. If you want Sightline to read a teammate's calendar or a shared team calendar, share it with the connecting account first. "primary" is shorthand for that account's own calendar.

  What Sightline asks you for:

  • Sign in with Google once.
  • For each calendar to read: its exact id or address (for example primary or someone@example.com), and which of your organisations it belongs to.
  • If Sightline should book time for you: where a booked block lands for each organisation in play, and a fallback calendar for anything else.

• Linear

  Issues, projects, cycles and updates, one workspace at a time — add as many as you work in.

  Set up first, in Linear:

  • Linear is the one tool here that still connects by pasting in a key rather than signing in — Linear offers no read-only scope, so the personal API key you paste carries your full account access, the same as if you were signed in yourself. Nothing to pre-configure in Linear beyond having an account in the workspace.

  What Sightline asks you for:

  • A display name for the workspace — what to call it in your console and digest.
  • A personal API key: in Linear, click your avatar → Settings → Security & access → Personal API keys, and create one there. Linear shows it only once.

• GitHub

  Shows the reviews you owe and the issues you are part of, beside the rest of your work.

  Set up first, in GitHub:

  • You sign in with GitHub once — there's no personal access token to copy in. That one sign-in can see every owner (your personal account and any organisation) it has access to, but there's no live list of them to pick from yet, so you type each owner's login in yourself after connecting and say which of your organisations it maps to: one account · sees N GitHub owners, mapped to M of yours, the same wording the Integrations screen uses. Anything you leave unmapped still shows, just without a colour.

  What Sightline asks you for:

  • Sign in with GitHub once.
  • For each owner (your personal account or an organisation) whose repositories should count as work: its login, and which of your organisations it maps to.

• Slack

  Where your daily digest gets posted. Sightline does not read Slack messages.

  Set up first, in Slack:

  • You install the app into your workspace with one Slack sign-in — no bot token to copy in. A private channel still needs the bot invited to it before it can post there; a public one Sightline can join itself.

  What Sightline asks you for:

  • Sign in with Slack once (this installs the app into your workspace).
  • For each channel to post the daily digest to: its name — Sightline creates it on save if it doesn't already exist — and whether it's for one organisation or everything.

Request access

Every account is connected by hand, on a short call — so you never have to do this alone.