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Connect your project tool
Connect Jira, Linear or Azure DevOps to bring your projects and your team's work into Flowstate. That work becomes effort (the share of each day each person spent on each project), which cost, capitalisation and R&D claims are built on. Your engineering or delivery lead does this with a Flowstate admin and an admin of your project tool.
Before you start
- You can connect one of Jira, Linear or Azure DevOps at a time.
- Load your people and teams first, with work email addresses. Flowstate matches your tool's users to people by email.
- You need access to integrations. Ask your Flowstate admin.
- You need an account in your tool that can read every project you want in Flowstate. A service account is best, so the connection doesn't depend on one person.
1. Create a credential in your tool
What: Create the token Flowstate reads your tool with. Who: Admin of your project tool. Where: Your project tool. Done when: You have the details in the table below.
| Tool | What you need |
|---|---|
| Jira | Your site address, the account's email, and an API token for that account |
| Linear | An API key with read access to your workspace |
| Azure DevOps | Your organisation address, and a personal access token with Work Items (read) and Project & Team (read) |
2. Connect the tool
What: Add the credential to Flowstate and choose when it syncs. Who: Flowstate admin, with your tool admin. Where: Settings → Integrations, then Browse catalog. Done when: Settings → Integrations → Sync Health has a tab for your tool showing Healthy, with project and task counts above zero.
Follow the guide for your tool: Jira · Linear · Azure DevOps.
3. Choose what becomes a project, and map statuses
What: Tell Flowstate which items in your tool are projects, and what each status means. Who: Engineering or delivery lead. Where: Your tool's settings → Data Mapping. Done when: The projects on Delivery → Roadmap are the ones you expect, and every status your teams use is mapped.
- Under Project Source, choose your tool's projects or an item type such as Epic. Do this before the first sync.
- Under Delivery Status Mapping, match each status your teams use to a Flowstate delivery status.
4. Link synced projects to Flowstate projects
What: Connect each project in your tool to the Flowstate project its effort and cost should land on. Who: Engineering or delivery lead. Where: Delivery → Roadmap, on the tab named after your tool. See Your project tool's tab. Done when: Filtering Link Status by Unlinked shows no project you care about.
Choose one:
| Option | How it works | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-create Flowstate projects switched on | Each sync creates and links a Flowstate project for each project in your tool. | No manual work, but every project in your tool becomes a Flowstate project. |
| Link by hand (switch it off) | In the Linked Project column, pick a Flowstate project, or select Create & link project. | You decide exactly what's in Flowstate, but have to link each one. |
To have Flowstate suggest matches for projects you haven't linked, select AI Recommendations, then Run scan. Suggestions appear in the Linked Project column. Group by AI Recommended to see them together, then accept or dismiss each one.
5. Set up webhooks
What: Have your tool tell Flowstate about changes as they happen, instead of waiting for the next scheduled sync. Who: Admin of your project tool. Where: The Webhooks tab in your tool's settings in Flowstate, then your tool. Done when: A change to an issue in your tool shows up in Flowstate without running a sync.
Follow the steps for your tool: Jira · Linear · Azure DevOps.
6. Match people
What: Make sure every person in your tool is matched to a Flowstate employee or contractor. Who: Flowstate admin. Where: Settings → Integrations → User attribution. Done when: The Unattributed group is empty, or only holds accounts you don't want counted.
Flowstate matches most people by email address. Anyone it can't match is listed first, under Unattributed. Pick the right person on their row. Work by someone who isn't matched doesn't count as effort. See Match people and teams from your tools.
7. Map teams
What: Map each team in your tool to a Flowstate team. Who: Engineering or delivery lead. Where: Settings → Integrations → Team attribution. Done when: The Unmapped group is empty.
If the page says "No teams to map", your tool hasn't sent any teams. There's nothing to do.
8. Check sync health
What: Confirm syncs are running, and fix anything that's failing. Who: Flowstate admin. Where: Settings → Integrations → Sync Health. Done when: Your tool's tab shows Healthy, with a recent last sync.
If a banner says "authentication failed", replace the token. Anything else: see Check and fix syncing.
Which system owns what
- Once a project is linked, its status comes from your tool, through Delivery Status Mapping. Change the status in your tool, not in Flowstate.
- Flowstate never changes anything in your tool.
What makes work count as effort
Effort comes from the activity on tickets in your tool, and team leads review each person's week. What you control:
- Who's matched. Work only counts for people matched to a Flowstate person.
- Which ticket types count. Your tool's settings → Data Mapping → Effort Tracking Configuration → Task Types to Include.
- Parent tickets. Only Count Leaf Items, in the same place, stops a ticket and its sub-tasks both counting.
- Which project it lands on. Work on a project you haven't linked isn't counted against a Flowstate project until you link it.
Effort is a share of each person's day, never hours. See How the effort estimate is built.
Not available yet: time-tracking software
You can't connect Tempo, Harvest, Toggl or Clockify, and Flowstate doesn't read Jira worklogs or Azure DevOps time tracking. Team leads can adjust each person's week in the weekly review. See Set up weekly effort reporting.
You're set up when
- Sync Health shows your tool as Healthy, and webhooks are sending changes.
- User attribution has nobody left under Unattributed that you want counted.
- None of the projects you care about shows Unlinked.
- Someone you know is working on a ticket this week shows effort on the right project.
For your technical team
Token scopes and webhook set-up for each tool are in its guide: Jira · Linear · Azure DevOps.
Day to day
- Effort reporting: reviewing and submitting each team's week.
- Engineering insights: what your project tool and GitHub show together.