Speed up Pull Requests with Sprkl Observability for GitHub Actions

We recently launched Sprkl for GitHub Actions, shortening code review processes and debugging time for teams and team leads. 

We do it by providing a focused, personalized observability report for every Pull Request, enabling you to:

• See deeper into the effects of code changes, including hidden errors, the ripple effect on the app, performance, security insights, diff coverage, and more. 
• Understand the context of the Pull Request before diving into the code.
• Get a visual representation of the app’s components and dependencies. 
• Identify the code changes’ effects on the entire app or system. 
• Pull the data to your local IDE to drill down and debug further.

The Sprkl Observability report

How does Sprkl for GitHub Actions work

You push a code change, or your team member submits a Pull Request (PR) with her changes.

• Get the Sprkl Observability report on the PR submitted, including errors, insights, security vulnerabilities, how much of the PR was covered by testing, and more.
• Review the summary even before reading a single line of code. 
• See a visualization of the app’s connections and dependencies between components. 
• Pull the observability data to your local IDE and see the relevant traces connected to specific lines of code. 

Team leads? Here’s what you can do with the Sprkl Observability report  

• Speed up your code review by identifying issues quickly. 
• Understand the context of the pull request before reading a line of code.
• Improve team productivity by encouraging collaboration among team members. 
• Onboard new team members and see clear views of system architecture and flow traces. 

Teams? Here’s what you can do with the Sprkl Personal Observability report

• Link issues to specific lines of code.
• Iterate faster pull backtraces from CI to your IDE, debug, fix, and commit again. 
• Collaborate with your teammates, so they quickly understand the context of your diff.

Pulling Sprkl data to your IDE for further debugging with Sprkl for GitHub Actions

For each report, you’ll get a unique command using Sprkl CLI that you can run locally to view the results in your IDE for further debugging (currently supporting VSCode).

sprkl ci pull --run=$ID --repository=$REPOSITORY --token=$TOKEN

Behind the scenes – Sprkl for GitHub Actions

Sprkl for GitHub Actions is composed of two components:
Sprkl Reviewer

Sprkl Action

These components work together to provide pull-request telemetry feedback.

Sprkl Reviewer relies on the Sprkl Action (GitHub Actions), which auto-instruments your Node.js code changes (OpenTelemetry & Sprkl) and collects telemetry data, and traces the workflow execution.

Install the Sprkl Reviewer app from the GitHub marketplace and follow the instructions, and receive an access token. Or get started: Here.