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Azure DevOps

CatalogInitiativesScorecards

Overview

Azure DevOps is a Microsoft-owned version control system used for managing the software development lifecycle.

Integrate one or more Azure DevOps accounts with Cortex to drive insights into values such as:

  • Repository details & work items in the Catalog
  • Scorecard rules
  • Tracking Initiative progress

How to configure Azure DevOps with Cortex

Prerequisites

Before you get started:

  • Add a Azure DevOps personal access token with at least the following scopes enabled:
    • Code: read
      • If using the Scaffolder with Azure DevOps, you must also enable:
        • Code: write
        • Code: manage
    • Work Items: read and write
    • Graph & Identity: read
    • Analytics: read

Configure the integration in Cortex

  1. In Cortex, navigate to the Azure DevOps settings page:
    1. In Cortex, click your avatar in the lower left corner, then click Settings.
    2. Under "Integrations", click Azure DevOps.
  2. Configure the Azure DevOps integration form:
    • Organization: Enter the slug for your Azure DevOps organization.
    • Username: Enter the username for your personal access token.
    • Personal access token: Enter your Azure DevOps personal access token.
    • Host: Optionally, if you are using a self-managed setup, enter your hostname.
  3. Click Save.

Once you save your configuration, you'll see it listed on the integration's settings page in Cortex. If you’ve set everything up correctly, you’ll see the option to Remove Integration in Settings.

You can also use the Test all configurations button to confirm that the configuration was successful. If your configuration is valid, you’ll see a banner that says “Configuration is valid. If you see issues, please see documentation or reach out to Cortex support.”

Configure the integration for multiple Azure DevOps accounts

The Azure DevOps integration has multi-account support. You can add a configuration for each additional by repeating the process above.

Each configuration requires an alias, which Cortex uses to correlate the designated with registrations for various entities. Registrations can also use a default configuration without a listed alias. You can edit aliases and default configurations from the Azure DevOps page in your Cortex settings. Select the edit icon next to a given configuration and toggle Set as default on. If you only have one configuration, it will automatically be set as the default.

Cortex supports mapping multiple identities for a single user if you have multiple configurations of Azure DevOps. See the Identity mapping documentation for more information.

Disable Azure DevOps work items

Optionally, on the Azure DevOps settings page in Cortex, you can disable Azure DevOps work items from being pulled in from Azure DevOps. This is helpful if your organization does not use work items or if you are worried about running into rate limit issues.

caution

If you do not see the settings page you're looking for, you may not have permission to access that page. Please contact your admin for assistance.

caution

If you're using a self-hosted instance of Azure DevOps, you'll need to verify that your Cortex instance is able to reach the Azure DevOps instance.

We route our requests through a static IP address. Reach out to support at help@cortex.io to receive details about our static IP. If you're unable to directly allowlist our static IP, you can route requests through a secondary proxy in your network that has this IP allowlisted and have that proxy route traffic to your Azure DevOps instance.

How to connect Cortex entities to Azure DevOps

Define a repository

To define an Azure DevOps repository for a given entity, add the x-cortex-git block to the entity's descriptor.

x-cortex-git:
azure:
project: cortex
repository: docs
basepath: myService
alias: accountAlias
FieldDescriptionRequired
projectThe name of the project as listed under the "Projects" tab when you are logged into Azure DevOps (on the https://dev.azure.com/{your-organization}/ screen)
repositoryThe repo name you see when you navigate to the "Repos" section of Azure DevOps
basepathIf the entity is in a monorepo (e.g. in a subdirectory), use this field to define the subdir
aliasAlias for the configuration in Cortex (only needed if you have opted into multi-account support)

Only one repository can be defined for in a given entity's YAML in the x-cortex-git block.

Define work items

To define Azure DevOps work items for a given entity, add the x-cortex-azure-devops block to the entity's descriptor. If there is no work item registrations, but the entity matches a repository, we will pull in all work items from the repository's project with a tag that matches the Cortex entity name, Cortex entity tag, or the repository name.

x-cortex-azure-devops:
workItems:
projects:
- name: projectName1
wiqls:
- wiql1.1
- wiql1.2
- name: projectName2
alias: alias1
- name: projectName3
alias: alias2
wiqls:
- wiql3.1
FieldDescriptionRequired
projectsList of the projects
nameThe project name as listed under the "Projects" tab when you are logged into Azure DevOps (on the https://dev.azure.com/{your-organization}/ screen)
wiqlsList of WIQL conditions to filter work items fetched
aliasAlias for the configuration in Cortex (only needed if you have opted into multi-account support)

Define ownership

Ownership of each entity through Azure DevOps is defined through an owner of type group.

x-cortex-owners:
- type: group
name: My Azure DevOps Team
provider: AZURE_DEVOPS
description: This is a description for this owner # optional

name is a case-sensitive field that corresponds to the upstream identifier of your owner from Azure DevOps.

Identity mappings for Azure DevOps

Cortex maps users' email addresses to discovered Azure DevOps accounts.

You can confirm users' Azure DevOps accounts are connected from Azure DevOps identity mappings in settings.

Expected results

Entity pages

The Azure DevOps integration will populate the Repo detail block on an entity's details page.

In the Recent activity preview, you'll find the recent commits and releases. These will also appear in the event timeline.

These data will appear for entities imported from a Git source or those that have a Git repo defined in their YAMLs.

Events

On an entity's Events page, you can find all of the commits and releases associated with that entity. Each is hyperlinked to the commit or release page in Azure DevOps and includes a timestamp.

Integrations - Git

You can access more detailed information pulled from Azure DevOps in the Git tab under Integrations in the sidebar. At the top of the Git page, you'll find the repo associated with that entity and the most-used language in files for that entity. In the Top contributors block, you'll find the three users who have contributed the most code and the number of their contributions.

In the Commits section, you'll find the 10 most recent commits and metadata about each. Below Commits is the Recent releases section, which includes the 5 most recent releases.

Integrations - Azure DevOps work items

From the Azure DevOps work items tab, you can find a list of open Azure DevOps work items. Each work item will show the title, summary, assignees, priority, and date created.

Dev homepage

The Azure DevOps integration enables Cortex to pull information about pull requests and work items into the Dev homepage. You can find your open pull requests under the My open PRs tab, any pull requests assigned to you for review under the Assigned reviews tab, and any work items assigned to you under the Issues tab.

Pull requests and work items from Azure DevOps are refreshed every 5 minutes.

Eng Intelligence

The Eng Intelligence tool also uses pull request data from Azure DevOps to generate metrics:

  • Average PR open to close time
  • Avg time to first review
  • Avg time to approval
  • PRs opened
  • Weekly PRs merged
  • Avg PRs reviewed/week
  • Avg commits per PR

You can read more about how Eng Intelligence tracks metrics for teams and users in the Eng Intelligence walkthrough.

Scorecards and CQL

With the Azure DevOps integration, you can create Scorecard rules and write CQL queries based on Azure DevOps work items.

See more examples in the CQL Explorer in Cortex.

Approvals required to merge

Total number of approval required to merge a pull request into a repository.

Defaults to 0 if no approvals are defined.

Definition: git.numOfRequiredApprovals()

Examples

For a security or development maturity Scorecard, you can write a rule to make sure at least one approval is required for a pull request:

git.numOfRequiredApprovals() >= 1

By having a rigorous PR process in place for a repo, you can make sure changes aren't made that create vulnerabilities. This kind of rule could also be used in a best practices or project standards Scorecard.

You can also use a similar expression in the Query Builder to find entities lacking approval:

git.numOfRequiredApprovals() < 1
Branches

List all live branches with some basic metadata:

  • Head

  • Is protected

  • Name

    Definition: git.branches(): List<GitBranch>

Example

For a development best practices Scorecard, you can make sure that branches associated with an entity match a standard naming convention:

git.branches().all((branch) => branch.name.matches("(main|master|feat-.*|bug-.*|task-.*)"))
Branch protection details

Find details for a specified branch or default branch if none is specified.

Definition: git.branchProtection(branchName: Text?): GitBranchProtection

Examples

For a security Scorecard, you can write a rule to make sure the default branch is protected:

git.branchProtection() != null

Or to make sure the main branch is protected:

git.branchProtection("main") != null

Because vulnerabilities in the default branch are critical, this rule should be in one of the first couple levels. A higher-level rule might make sure that branch protection checks are set:

git.branchProtection("main").requiredStatusChecks.length > 0

You can also use the Query Builder to find entities with unprotected default branches:

git.branchProtection() = null
Commits

Get the latest commits (to a maximum of 100) for a defined lookback period (defaulting to 7 days).

These results can be filtered based on branch name, using the default branch if no other branch is provided.

Definition: git.commits()

Example

You can use the git.commits() expression in a security Scorecard to make sure entities have fewer than three commits to a "security-fixes" branch in the last week:

git.commits(branch="security-fixes").length < 3

Entities passing this rule will include those that haven't needed three or more security fixes. This can indicate that there aren't vulnerabilities in a given entity's code, but could also suggest that fixes aren't being implemented.

Using this rule in conjunction with one focused on vulnerabilities could provide the extra context needed to gain a better understanding of what's happening.

Default branch

Default branch for the entity's repository or main when null.

Definition: git.defaultBranch()

Example

If default branches should always be named "main," you can write a rule in a best practices Scorecard to make sure entities are compliant:

git.defaultBranch().matches("main")
File contents

Load the contents of a file from the entity's associated repository.

The contents can be validated by using string comparison operations or parsed by the built-in jq function. The jq function will automatically coerce file contents of JSON or YAML formats.

Definition: git.fileContents(<filename: Text>)

Examples

For a Scorecard focused on development maturity, you could use the git.fileContents() rule to enforce that a CI pipeline exists, and that there is a testing step defined in the pipeline:

git.fileContents(“circleci/config.yml”).matches(“.*npm test.*”) - Enforce that a CI pipeline exists, and there is a testing step defined in the pipeline

A best practices Scorecard, meanwhile, could use this expression for a number of rules:

  • To make sure node engine version in specified in the package.json file:
    jq(git.fileContents("package.json"), ".engines.node") != null
  • To make sure TypeScript projects have a tsconfig.json file checked in:
    jq(git.fileContents("package.json"), ".devDependencies | with_entries(select(.key == \"typescript\")) | length") == 0 or git.fileExists("tsconfig.json")
  • To make sure projects using yarn do not allow NPM:
    jq(git.fileContents("package.json"), ".engines.yarn") == null or jq(git.fileContents("package.json"), ".engine.npm") = "please-use-yarn"
  • And to ensure the yarn version being used is not deprecated:
    jq(git.fileContents("package.json"), ".engines.yarn") == null or !(semver("1.2.0") ~= semverRange(jq(git.fileContents("package.json"), ".engines.yarn")))
File exists

Check if file exists from within the entity's associated repository.

Definition: git.fileExists(<filename: Text>)

Examples

For a development best practices Scorecard, this expression can be used for a rule that makes sure developers are checking in lockfiles to ensure repeatable builds:

git.fileExists(“package-lock.json”)

In the Query builder, you can use this expression with a wildcard to find entities with unit tests enabled:

git.fileExists(*Test.java”)

Or to find entities with an outdated Terraform version:

git.fileExists("terraform/versions.tf") and !git.fileContents("terraform/versions.tf").matchesIn("required_version =! \"[~>= ]{0,3}0\\.(12|13)")
Has Cortex YAML (GitOps)

When enabling GitOps to manage entity descriptors, Cortex checks for a checked in file ./cortex.yaml at the root directory. This rule can help track migrations from UI editing to GitOps for entity descriptor management.

Definition: git.hasCortexYaml()

Example

If you're using a Scorecard to track a migration from Cortex UI to GitOps, you can use this rule to make sure entities are set up for GitOps management of entity descriptors:

git.hasCortexYaml() == true
Git repository set

Check if entity has a registered Git repository.

Definition: git (==/!=) null

Example

A Scorecard focused on best practices or standards will likely include a rule in its first level making sure a Git repository is set up:

git != null

If an entity is failing this rule, it can indicate broader issues with the integration or explain why an entity isn't functioning as expected.

Last commit details

Provides last commit details.

Definition: git.lastCommit()

Examples

Depending on best practices at your organization, you may want to confirm the last commit for a given entity is no older than 3 days:

datetime(git.lastCommit().date).fromNow() > duration("P-3D")

Confirming whether a service was updated recently can help team members catch outdated code sooner. Plus, if there is a security issue, you can quickly determine which services have or have not been updated to patch the vulnerability.

For a best practices Scorecard, you can also use this expression to make sure the entity's last commit message follows conventional commit guidelines:

git.lastCommit().message.matches("^(feat|fix|docs|style|refactor|test|chore)(\\(.+\\))?:*")
Pipeline build success rate

Percentage of build pipelines that complete successfully.

This is calculated against builds on the default branch for commits in the last 30 days: # successful builds / (# successful + # failed).

Definition: git.percentBuildSuccess()

Example

This expression can be used in a development maturity Scorecard to write a rule making sure at least 95% of build runs are successful:

git.percentBuildSuccess() >= 0.95
Recency of last commit

Calculates the duration of time between Scorecard evaluation and the date of the last commit from the entity's Git repository.

Definition: git.lastCommit().freshness

Example

One of the first rules you might write for a Scorecard focused on development maturity or security is one validating that the last commit was within the last month:

git.lastCommit().freshness < duration("P1M")

As counterintuitive as it may seem, services that are committed too infrequently are actually at more risk. People who are familiar with the service may leave a team, institutional knowledge accumulates, and from a technical standpoint, the service may be running outdated versions of your platform tooling.

Reviews

List reviews left during a defined lookback period.

  • Organization

  • Repository

  • Review date

  • Reviewer

    Definition: git.reviews()

Example

A development maturity Scorecard might use the git.reviews() expression to make sure that there is a rigorous review process in place before changes are implemented:

git.reviews(lookback=duration("P7D")).length > 25

This rule makes sure that there are more than 25 reviews left in the last week.

Search repository files

Find all instances of code search query from within a repository.

Can filter by path, file name (extension required in file name), or extension. Filters can use * for glob matching. Supplying a query is required.

Definition: git.codeSearch((query = <query: Text>) (, path = <path: Text>) (, fileName = <fileName: Text>) (, fileExtension = <fileExtension: Text>)): List<GitSearchResult>

Example

You can use the git.codeSearch() expression to query for entities that have certain components, like icons:

git.codeSearch(query = "icon", fileExtension = "css").length > 0
Top repository language

Find top used language for a repository, if available.

Definition: git.topLanguage()

Example

Let's say the primary language developers should be using is Kotlin. You can write a rule to make sure that the top language associated with entities is Kotlin:

git.topLanguage() == "kotlin"

You can also use this expression to query for entities that don't have Kotlin as the top language to identify those that need to be updated:

git.topLanguage() != "kotlin"
Work items

Number of unresolved work items associated with the entity, where unresolved is defined as the WIQL [System.State] NOT IN ('Closed', 'Done', 'Completed', 'Inactive', 'Removed').

Definition: azureDevops.workItems()

Example

For a Scorecard measuring entity maturity, you can use this expression to make sure entities have fewer than 10 Azure DevOps work items:

azureDevops.workItems().length <= 10
Work items from WIQL query

Number of work items associated with the entity based on arbitrary WIQL query.

Definition: azureDevops.workItems(query: Text | Null)

Example

For a more specific rule in an entity maturity Scorecard, you can use this expression with a WIQL query to make sure entities have no more than 3 tickets with "Doing" status and highest priority.

jira.workItems("System.State = \"Doing\" AND Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Priority = 1").length <= 3

Create a work item from an Initiative issue

Initiatives allow you to set deadlines for specific rules or a set of rules in a given Scorecard and send notifications to users about upcoming due dates.

From the Issues tab of an Initiative, you can automatically create a Azure DevOps work item from a failing rule:

  1. Click Create issue.
  2. In the modal that appears, fill out the form:
    • Integration: If you have multiple task tracking tools, select Azure DevOps from the Integration dropdown.
    • Name: Enter a name for the configuration.
    • Project: Select from the dropdown.
      • Options available in the dropdown are pulled in from the specific Azure DevOps instances configured in Settings.
  3. Select the Work item type and the Sub-item Type from the respective dropdowns. Then, select how the sub-items's fields should be populated on issue creation and status change.
  4. Choose to include or exclude groups of entities, or define a more advanced filter.

The issue configuration will apply to all entities that meet the filter criteria. Once an entity is passing the rule, Cortex will automatically close the associated ticket.

Background sync

Cortex conducts a background sync of Azure DevOps identities every day at 10 a.m. UTC. Pull requests and work items are refreshed every 5 minutes.

Still need help?

The following are all the ways to get assistance from our customer engineering team. Please use the option that is best for your users:

  • Email: help@cortex.io, or open a support ticket in the in app Resource Center
  • Chat: Available in the Resource Center
  • Slack: Users with a connected Slack channel will have a workflow added to their account. From here, you can either @CortexTechnicalSupport or add a :ticket: reaction to a question in Slack, and the team will respond directly.

Don’t have a Slack channel? Talk with your customer success manager.