Lately I’ve lamented that all incoming emails to @grinnell.edu addresses pass through a URLDefense / Proofpoint agent that sanitizes all clickable links as a safety/security precaution. In the case of emails automatically dispatched by GitHub the “butchering” of such messages leaves me with an almost useles notification, one that’s so badly bloated that I typically choose to ignore it. Clearly, that’s not how notifications are suppsoed to be handled.

Example of a Butchered Email

To help make my point I’ll share a small portion of a relatively small email notification below. Yes, I used the term “small” more than once in that last sentence. Why? Because this is a tiny example compared to some that I’ve received lately.

From: Digital Grinnell <noreply@github.com>
Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 10:05 AM
To: Digital <Digital@grinnell.edu>, O'Connor, Michael (Mikey) <oconnorm@grinnell.edu>
Subject: [Digital-Grinnell/rootstalk] dada8b: Added cover.png for spring-2022 issue

  Branch: refs/heads/main
  Home:   https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__github.com_Digital-2DGrinnell_rootstalk&d=DwICaQ&c=HUrdOLg_tCr0UMeDjWLBOM9lLDRpsndbROGxEKQRFzk&r=D8E-oGNaPT9srWV6jE8UP5unsmKEmmHEH-tzgmjBvLk&m=PxA-gY8Zp47fU9OAwKk5FS-WDskxWx5Ds811Ur96m2fR1d-9W6-SolFNKVJ3ie7F&s=99LzMdHVnq9emX5VBUv5OtRzZ81iaCQmseS437hauKo&e=  
  Commit: dada8bd78f0e4ed646ea4ba4e07f9557ee666363
      https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__github.com_Digital-2DGrinnell_rootstalk_commit_dada8bd78f0e4ed646ea4ba4e07f9557ee666363&d=DwICaQ&c=HUrdOLg_tCr0UMeDjWLBOM9lLDRpsndbROGxEKQRFzk&r=D8E-oGNaPT9srWV6jE8UP5unsmKEmmHEH-tzgmjBvLk&m=PxA-gY8Zp47fU9OAwKk5FS-WDskxWx5Ds811Ur96m2fR1d-9W6-SolFNKVJ3ie7F&s=XOT9lo9k0F7SsJQ3SmQcxpTdJGOWvjzwrQmffHzZp4A&e=  
  Author: Digital-Grinnell <digital@grinnell.edu>
  Date:   2022-10-05 (Wed, 05 Oct 2022)

  Changed paths:
    A content/volume-viii-issue-1/cover.png

  Log Message:
  -----------
  Added cover.png for spring-2022 issue


  Commit: d4d12b4cc67f415b549fd38d294217c232778a5b
      https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__github.com_Digital-2DGrinnell_rootstalk_commit_d4d12b4cc67f415b549fd38d294217c232778a5b&d=DwICaQ&c=HUrdOLg_tCr0UMeDjWLBOM9lLDRpsndbROGxEKQRFzk&r=D8E-oGNaPT9srWV6jE8UP5unsmKEmmHEH-tzgmjBvLk&m=PxA-gY8Zp47fU9OAwKk5FS-WDskxWx5Ds811Ur96m2fR1d-9W6-SolFNKVJ3ie7F&s=Uf6BJsdOR914O0kqZcJQ_xz_qBJUpZBpqDFVIbaD6HM&e=  
  Author: Digital Grinnell <digital@grinnell.edu>
  Date:   2022-10-05 (Wed, 05 Oct 2022)

  Changed paths:
    A content/volume-viii-issue-1/cover.png

  Log Message:
  -----------
  Merge pull request #29 from Digital-Grinnell/2022-spring

Added cover.png for spring-2022 issue


Compare: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__github.com_Digital-2DGrinnell_rootstalk_compare_327c81e44589...d4d12b4cc67f&d=DwICaQ&c=HUrdOLg_tCr0UMeDjWLBOM9lLDRpsndbROGxEKQRFzk&r=D8E-oGNaPT9srWV6jE8UP5unsmKEmmHEH-tzgmjBvLk&m=PxA-gY8Zp47fU9OAwKk5FS-WDskxWx5Ds811Ur96m2fR1d-9W6-SolFNKVJ3ie7F&s=7lxwCBl_cGynsG6a2WnM54-jwgLTD7muzEi4hnR6e98&e=

The Slack Alternative

The same notification as it appears in the Rootstalk.dev channel in Slack looks like this:

Figure 1 · Example Notification in Slack

Now, that’s much better; don’t you agree?

In the image it’s important to note that such notifications always appear in the Apps section of the workspace, and inside the GitHub app specifically.

Installing the Integration

The agent that makes this kind of GitHub-to-Slack notification possible is itself a GitHub project called integrations/slack. In that repo’s README.md file there’s a link to Install the GitHub integration for Slack. I successfully followed that link, the process took about 10 minutes, to install the integration into my Slack’s Rootstalk.dev workspace. Some Duo authentication was necessary but overall the process was simple and straightforward.

No More Bloated Emails from GitHub

The project’s current Vivero fellow was able to repeat much the same install process on their workstation in about the same amount of time at our weekly Rootstalk check-in meeting this morning. Now both of us receive these notifications so I’ve removed our email addresses from the GitHub repo’s Settings and Email notifications configuration. Hence, no more bloated notification emails from GitHub!