Getting Started with Synlets: Setup Guide & Best Practices

Ready to add AI teammates to your workflow? This guide walks you through setting up your first project, getting your first AI-generated pull request, and configuring your CI/CD pipeline to safely validate agent work.

Step 1: Create Your Account

Head to synlets.com and sign up. You can use Google, GitHub, or email — whatever's fastest.

Step 2: Connect Your Integrations

Once you're in, head to Integrations in the sidebar:

• Source control — Connect GitHub or GitLab
• Task management — Connect Jira, Asana, or your preferred tool

Select which repositories and boards Synlets should have access to.

Tip: Start with a non-critical repo to test the workflow.

Step 3: Create a Project

This is where it all comes together. A Project links your task management with your repositories. Head to Projects and create one:

1. Name your project — e.g. "Backend API" or "Mobile App"
2. Connect repositories — Select which repos this project covers
3. Configure task management — Link your Jira board or Asana project
4. Set up statuses — Map your workflow statuses so the agent knows where tasks are in the pipeline:

Status	What it means
Todo	Task is ready to be picked up
In Progress	Agent is actively working on it
In Review	PR created, waiting for human review
Merged	PR approved and merged — task complete
Rejected	PR was rejected — agent can reattempt or you reassign

5. Set a label — Tasks are picked up based on labels. Add a label like synlets or ai-agent to any ticket you want the agent to work on

Step 4: Add Knowledge (Optional but Recommended)

Upload your team's knowledge base to help the agent understand your standards:

• Confluence pages — Architecture docs, coding guidelines, API specs
• Notion docs — Team conventions, style guides, decision records
• Any documentation — Anything you'd share with a new hire

The more context you provide, the better the agent's output. Think of it like onboarding a new team member — the agent reads everything before writing a single line of code.

Step 5: Assign Your First Task

Label a ticket in your task manager with your configured label. The agent will automatically pick it up and:

1. Read the ticket requirements
2. Explore your codebase for context
3. Reference your knowledge base docs
4. Implement the solution
5. Create a pull request with a clear description

You don't need to watch or prompt. Assign it and come back to a finished PR.

Step 6: Review and Merge

Check your GitHub or GitLab for the new PR. Review the changes like you would any teammate's code:

• Code follows your conventions
• Commit messages are clean
• PR description explains the changes

If it looks good, merge it. If you have feedback, comment on the PR — the agent will read your comments, make changes, and push updates.

Best Practice: Let Your CI Pipeline Verify the Work

Here's something important to understand: Synlets doesn't run your code. It writes code and creates pull requests — but it never executes, builds, or deploys anything.

This is by design. Your existing CI/CD pipeline is the safety net.

How to Set It Up

Configure your repository so that PRs automatically trigger your CI pipeline:

1. Branch pattern triggers — Most CI systems (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, etc.) let you trigger pipelines on specific branch patterns. Synlets creates branches using standard conventions like feat/*, bugfix/*, task/*, or improvement/* depending on the ticket type. Make sure your CI config runs on these patterns:

# Example: GitHub Actions
on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main, develop]
  push:
    branches:
      - 'feat/**'
      - 'bugfix/**'
      - 'task/**'

2. Run your test suite — Unit tests, integration tests, type checking, linting. If it's in your pipeline, it runs on agent PRs too. A failing test means the agent's code doesn't pass muster — just like with any developer.

3. Require checks to pass before merge — Enable branch protection rules so PRs can't be merged until CI passes. This ensures nothing from the agent (or anyone else) reaches your main branch without passing your quality gates.

Bonus: Ephemeral Preview Environments

For teams with QA processes, the ideal setup is ephemeral environments — temporary deployments that spin up automatically for each PR.

Tools like Kubernetes with ArgoCD, Flux, or custom preview environment controllers — or simpler options like Vercel, Netlify, and Railway — can deploy each PR to a unique URL. Your QA team can then:

• Click the preview link on the PR
• Test the changes in a real environment
• Approve or request changes before merge

This works especially well with Synlets because:

• Agent creates PR → CI runs → Preview deploys → QA tests → You merge
• No one needs to pull code locally or run anything manually
• The entire flow is automated except for the final human review

The Result

Synlets writes the code. Your CI verifies it works. Your team reviews and merges. At no point does unvalidated code reach production — the same safeguards that protect you from human errors protect you from agent errors.

Bonus: Set Up AI Code Reviews

Want an extra layer of quality? Enable the PR Review Agent on your repositories. When the Project Agent creates a PR, the Review Agent will automatically:

• Review the code changes against your standards
• Flag potential issues or improvements
• Create a child PR with fixes against the branch — not just comments, but actual code changes you can merge

So when you open the PR, the Review Agent has already caught issues and provided fixes in a child PR. Merge the fixes, and by the time you review, the basics are already handled.

What's Next?

• Scale up — Add more labels to more tickets as you build trust
• Add knowledge — The more docs you upload, the better the output
• Check analytics — Track ACU usage, tasks completed, and PR merge rates
• Enable PR reviews — Let AI review human PRs too, not just agent work

Welcome to the future of engineering teams.

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Keep reading:

• Your First AI Hire — What to expect in the first month with an AI developer
• AI Ticket Creation — Generate well-defined tickets from a chat interface
• How Synlets works with Jira — Native Jira integration for ticket-to-PR automation
• How Synlets works with Asana — Native Asana integration for task-to-PR automation