Connecting to a remote repository manually

After the IT user sets up a remote Git repository (remote repository) and configures its credentials to access it, you can connect a decision automation to this remote repository in Decision Designer.

Before you begin

Tip: See Connecting to a remote repository automatically:

To learn which Git providers are supported.
You are an IT user or administrator, and want to automatically create a remote repository and connect your decision automations to it.

Connecting to a remote repository can be useful when you plan to set up a custom CI/CD stack, or if you want to access to the remote repository by using other tools that are external to Automation Decision Services. The remote repository can also be used for keeping backups of decision source files.

There are two ways to connect to the remote repository:

To establish a connection with a remote repository, make sure to obtain the URI of the repository from the IT or administrator to complete the procedure.
If you set up your own private remote repository and connect a decision automation to it, the credentials that are related to the repository must have write access. In this case, you know the credentials and can configure them without asking the IT or administrator.

Verify the following conditions before you connect a decision automation to a remote repository:

If the decision automation already contains decision artifacts, the remote repository must be empty.
If the remote repository is not empty or already initialized, the decision automation must be empty.

When both the decision automation and the remote repository already contain data before connecting to each other, an error occurs and the decision automation can't be connected to the repository.

Procedure

Click the Settings or Connect icon on your decision automation page. The Remote Git repositories tab opens on the Settings page.

When the Connect button is shown as connected, the decision automation is already connected to a remote repository.

Enter the URI for the remote repository in the Repository URI field.

Examples:

https://myGitServer.com/<user>/<repository_name>.git

git@myGitServer.com:<user>/<repository_name>.git

ssh://git@myGitServer.com:<port>/<user>/<repository_name>.git

Including the SSH protocol is useful if you need to change the default SSH port.

Important: In the SSH URI for AWS CodeCommit, it must contain

SSH key
ID

that is linked to Upload SSH public key in the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user interface. See the example URI:

ssh://<ssh_key_id>@myGitServer.com:<port>/<user>/<repository_name>.git

Tip: Example URIs for Azure Repos:

https://<organization_name>@dev.azure.com/<organization_name>/<project_name>/_git/<repository_name>

git@ssh.dev.azure.com:v3/<organization_name>/<project_name>/<repository_name>

Select either Use existing credentials or Create or update credentials for the decision automation.

Note: When you update the URI in Step 2, you must select Create or update credentials for the decision automation.

If you selected Use existing credentials, click Connect.

If you selected Create or update credentials for the decision automation, enter credential information in the Username & password or SSH key tab, and then click Connect.

Table 1. Different ways to enter Git credentials
Tab	Description
Username & password	Enter the username and the password for the Git URI. Restriction: The password that you provide to connect to a GitHub repository must be a personal access token. It cannot be the password that you use to log in to GitHub.
SSH key	Enter the SSH key for the Git URI in the SSH key field. Restriction: You can use only RSA or OpenSSH format.

Results

The decision automation is now connected to the remote Git repository. Changes in the decision artifacts are pushed to this repository every time they are shared with collaborators.