Comment Filters

Full version only.

By default, when someone posts a comment on a linked issue or work item, Git-Zen sends the comment to every Zendesk ticket linked to it. Most teams want this. Support agents see the engineering discussion as it happens.

Sometimes you want more control. Your engineers may want internal notes that stay on the platform. Or you may want to keep noisy automated comments out of your tickets. Git-Zen has these ways to filter comments:

1. The gz#skip keyword: keeps one comment out.
2. Include pattern: a regular expression that a comment must match to be sent.
3. Exclude pattern: a regular expression that stops matching comments from being sent.

Where filters apply

The filters apply in both directions:

• Incoming: comments from your platform to Zendesk, on GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, Jira, and Linear. Git-Zen also checks commit comments against the filters.
• Outgoing: Zendesk comments that Git-Zen sends automatically to linked issues. Direct comments that an agent sends from the sidebar are not filtered.

Git-Zen checks the comment text only. It does not check the author’s name.

The gz#skip keyword

Add gz#skip anywhere in a comment. Git-Zen does not send it, in either direction. gz#skip always wins over the patterns.

To hide the keyword in the rendered comment on your platform, see Ticket comments.

Note

gz#force does not get around the filters. It only sends a comment when the setting that sends comments is off. See Ticket comments.

Set the patterns

1. Click Settings on the Git-Zen menu bar.
2. Find Comment sync filters.
3. Enter a regular expression in Include pattern, Exclude pattern, or both.
4. Click Save Changes.

Git-Zen checks the patterns in this order:

1. If the comment contains gz#skip, Git-Zen does not send it.
2. If the comment matches the exclude pattern, Git-Zen does not send it.
3. If you set an include pattern, Git-Zen sends the comment only if it matches.

An empty pattern has no effect.

Matching always ignores case. You do not need (?i). The . character also matches line breaks.

Example patterns

Field	Pattern	Effect
Include	^\[support\]	Send only comments that start with [support]
Include	bug|regression	Send only comments that contain “bug” or “regression”
Exclude	\[bot\]	Do not send comments that contain [bot]
Exclude	^internal:	Do not send comments that start with internal:

Caution

When you leave a pattern field, Git-Zen checks the pattern and shows an error if it is not valid. If an invalid pattern is saved anyway, Git-Zen ignores both patterns and sends every comment. A pattern that is too complex to check in time is also ignored.

Status change comments

Git-Zen can also post a message to the linked Zendesk ticket when an issue changes, for example from open to closed. The Upon change to issue property setting in Ticket comments controls this. The filters do not apply to these messages.

Recommendations

• Start with no filter. See which comments are noisy before you add one.
• Prefer gz#skip for single cases. A pattern is a blunt tool. gz#skip lets developers decide for each comment.
• Test your pattern in a tool such as regex101.com before you save. Use the .NET flavor. A pattern that matches too much can block every comment.