Getting Started

Set up Scitor in three simple steps: install the GitHub App, configure your email, and start receiving support tickets.

Repository Setup

We strongly recommend creating a dedicated, private repository for customer support (e.g. your-org/support). Here’s why:

• Privacy — Support issues contain sensitive customer data such as email addresses, names, and message content. A private repository ensures this information is only visible to your team.
• Attachments — Scitor needs Contents read permission to access attachments uploaded to issues, since GitHub does not have a dedicated attachments API. Using a dedicated repository limits this access to your support repo only.
• Clean separation — Keeping support issues separate from your code repositories avoids mixing customer conversations with development work.

Step 1: Install the GitHub App

1. Go to github.com/apps/scitor and click Install
2. Select the organization or account where you want to use Scitor
3. Choose which repositories to enable (or select all)
4. Click Install

After installation, Scitor creates a welcome issue (or discussion, if enabled) in each repository with:

• Your unique inbound email address
• A list of all available commands
• Configuration instructions

Step 2: Set up email forwarding

Scitor assigns a unique email address to each repository (shown in the welcome issue). To receive customer emails:

1. Copy the Scitor email address from the welcome issue (e.g. abc123@scitor.io)
2. Set up email forwarding from your support address (e.g. support@yourcompany.com) to this address
3. Or share the Scitor email address directly with customers

Step 3: Receive your first email

Send a test email to your Scitor address. Within seconds, you’ll see a new Issue or Discussion appear in your repository with:

• The sender’s information
• The email body (with formatting preserved)
• AI-generated labels for sentiment and category (on the Pro plan)
• A spam score label

Replying to customers

To reply to a customer, add a comment to the issue with the /send command:

/send

Hi there! Thanks for reaching out.

We've looked into your issue and here's what we found...

Best regards,
Your Support Team

The customer receives your reply as an email. When they reply back, their response appears as a new comment on the same issue — keeping the full conversation threaded.

Step 4: Configure (optional)

Customize Scitor by creating a .github/scitor.yaml file in your repository. This lets you:

• Choose between Issues and Discussions
• Enable AI analysis (Pro plan) for automatic sentiment, category, and priority labeling
• Set up a documentation site from markdown files
• Configure SLA tracking, follow-up automation, and more

# .github/scitor.yaml
integration: issue
ai: true

See the scitor.yaml reference for all options, or browse configuration examples for common setups.

What’s next?

• Set up email forwarding with provider-specific instructions
• Configure your repository with a scitor.yaml file
• Learn about all available commands
• Set up a knowledge base for self-service documentation
• Enable AI analysis for automatic categorization