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1. Create your team

Give your team a name.
You’ll need to contact us if you want to change this later!
Engine works with GitHub and GitLab. You can only link one git provider at a time. If you signed in with Github or Gitlab you’ve already completed this step! You can allow access to all repos or only specific repos during the auth flow. If you want to update these permissions later, navigate to the Engine Labs application in your git provider’s settings.
The user must have sufficient permissions to create webhooks on the repos you want Engine to work on.
It is strongly recommended that you add branch protection rules when allowing AI access to your codebase.

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3. Add a repo

Select a repo you want Engine to work on from the ‘link repository’ menu. Engine will automatically examine the codebase and start running the VM set-up agent. The set-up agent identifies project dependencies and code check steps (linting, formatting, testing etc) and automatically configures Engine’s cloud development VM.
VM set-up is optional but stronly recommended!
This can take 2-20 minutes depending on the size and complexity of your repo. You may have to manually adjust some steps and re-run the VM test in order to complete this step. You may also have to add secrets if required for your repo.
You will only see repos that you have sufficient access for in the repo linking menu.

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4. Run your first task

Screenshot2025 05 22at09 21 59 Pn You can assign your first task directly from the Engine app. Just tell Engine what you want it work on, make sure the right repo is selected, choose your LLM, and hit start!

Engine Best Practices

Check out our prompting guidelines and best practices to get the most out of Engine.
 Link Engine to Linear, Trello, Jira, or Clickup (more coming soon) in one click. If you signed up with Linear, you’ve already done this!
The user must have permissions to create webhooks on issues boards.
Depending on your integration, you may need to connect a team or board to a repo. You can do this from the repositories page in the Engine app. This tells Engine what to monitor for assigned issues. You can assign multiple repos to the same board or team.

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6. Run a task directly from an issue

Assign a task to Engine by adding Engine’s label to an issue. You can find this label in the blue pill on the relevant repo on the ‘repositories’ page. Click on the label to copy it and add it to the issue you would like Engine to start work on.