GitKraken Insights Documentation

Metric Settings in GitKraken Insights

Last updated: March 2026

GitKraken Insights Metric Settings control how the platform detects releases, maps commits to issues, identifies critical defects, and categorizes code by domain. Access these settings from Insights > Settings > Measurement Configuration in gitkraken.dev. Changes to these settings affect metric calculations for all users in the organization.

Plan: GitKraken Insights
Platform: Browser only via gitkraken.dev
Role: Lead, Admin, or Owner
Prerequisite: Connected repositories and issue tracker (see Getting Started)

Setting	Purpose	Affects
Release Tracking	Define rules to detect new releases	DORA metrics
Detect Issues	Map commits to issues via patterns	All issue-linked metrics
Issue Tracker Projects	Configure story points and defect fields	DORA, Code Quality metrics
Critical Defect Terms	Flag branches/PRs/issues as critical defects	Defect Rate, MTTR
Measurement Configuration	Define Code Domains with regex patterns	Code Change by Operation

Insights settings page showing the Measurement Configuration section with Release setup highlighted — Navigate to Measurement Configuration in Insights settings to access release tracking, issue detection, and other metric settings.

Configure release tracking

Configure how GitKraken Insights detects new releases for your repositories.

View active release rules

The Rules to detect releases list shows all active release rules for your organization. Each rule displays:

The rule type
A summary of the matching condition
The number of releases and repositories matched
Who created the rule

The following rule types appear in your list:

Contains Branch Prefix: Matches commits pushed to a branch that starts with a specified string.
Merged Pull Request To Branch Prefix: Matches commits that merge a pull request to a branch with a specified prefix.
Any Git Tag: Matches commits with any git tag pushed.
Matches Branch: Matches commits made to a specific branch.
Api Call: Matches releases reported via API call.

To remove a rule, click the ✕ icon on the right side of the rule.

Release tracking settings page showing a list of active release rules — The Rules to detect releases list shows all active release rules for your organization.

Create a new release rule

To add a new rule, click Create a new release rule. GitKraken Insights attempts to apply the rule to all connected repositories.

In the rule creation form, select how GitKraken Insights should identify releases. As you configure each option, the Matching commits panel on the right previews commits that match your current input.

Release tracking rules list with the Create a new release rule button highlighted — Click Create a new release rule at the bottom of the rules list to add a new rule.

Create release rule modal showing all available rule type options and a Matching commits preview panel — Select a rule type to define how GitKraken Insights identifies releases. The Matching commits panel previews commits that match your configured rule in real time.

When a pull request is merged to a branch that starts with

Identifies a release when a pull request is merged to a branch matching a specified prefix.

Input: Enter a branch name prefix. Leave blank to match the default main or master branch.

When a git tag contains a specific substring

Identifies a release when a git tag contains a matching string or pattern.

Input: Enter a string or regular expression pattern that appears in tags.

When a GitHub Action successfully completes

Identifies a release when a specified GitHub Action workflow completes successfully.

When a commit message contains a specific string

Identifies a release when a commit message contains a specified partial string.

Input: Enter a partial commit message that indicates a release. Must be at least 3 characters.

When a commit message matches a specific string

Identifies a release when a commit message exactly matches a specified string.

Input: Enter the exact commit message that indicates a release.

When a commit is pushed to a particular branch

Identifies a release when any commit is pushed to a selected branch.

Input: Select a branch from the dropdown.
Note: GitKraken Insights counts any commit pushed to this branch after today as a release. It does not apply historic commits retroactively.

When a commit is pushed to a branch that starts with this string

Identifies a release when a commit is pushed to a branch whose name starts with a specified prefix.

Input: Enter a case-sensitive prefix for a deploy branch.
Option: Check A number must occur in the branch name to be deemed a release to further restrict matches.
Note: GitKraken Insights counts any commit pushed to a matching branch after today as a release. It does not detect historic releases.

When any git tag is pushed

Identifies a release whenever any git tag is pushed, regardless of tag name or format. No additional input is required.

Configure issue detection

GitKraken Insights uses issue mappings to connect commits to issues in your issue tracking software (e.g., Jira, GitHub Issues). Each mapping defines a pattern that GitKraken Insights matches against commit messages, branch names, and pull request titles to identify the issues they address.

If GitKraken Insights does not display a pattern you expect, click Find new issue tracker patterns at the top of the page.

Detect Issue References page header showing the Find new issue tracker patterns link highlighted — Click Find new issue tracker patterns at the top of the Detect Issue References page to search for additional patterns.

View and manage issue mappings

The Detect Issue References page lists all active issue mappings for your organization. Each mapping displays:

Available to: the repositories the mapping applies to
Issue Reference: the string GitKraken Insights matches against commit messages, branch names, and PR titles
Project Key: the corresponding project key in your issue tracker
Usage: the number of repo issues and commits matched by this mapping

To delete a mapping, click Delete issue mapping within the mapping card.

Detect Issue References page showing three active issue mappings, each displaying Available to, Issue Reference, Project Key, Usage, and a Delete issue mapping link — The Detect Issue References page lists all active issue mappings for your organization.

Review suggested issue patterns

When GitKraken Insights detects potential issue tracking patterns in your repositories, it displays suggested mappings at the top of the Detect Issue References page. Each suggestion includes a pre-filled Create Issue Mapping form showing:

Available to: the repository where the pattern was detected
Issue Reference: the detected reference string
Project Key: the corresponding project key (if detected)
Advanced options: additional configuration options

The Matching Commits panel on the right previews commits that match the current Issue Reference input in real time.

To accept a suggestion:

Review the Issue Reference and Project Key fields.
Click Create a new issue mapping.

To decline a suggestion, click Dismiss suggestion.

Detect Issue References page showing suggested issue tracking patterns with pre-filled Create Issue Mapping forms and a Matching Commits preview panel — GitKraken Insights displays suggested issue tracking patterns when it detects matching commits in your repositories. The Matching Commits panel previews commits that match the Issue Reference input in real time.

Configure issue tracker projects

The Define issue tracker projects page lists all issue tracker projects connected to your organization. GitKraken Insights uses the configuration on this page to read story point values and identify critical defects for DORA and code quality metric calculations.

View project settings

Each connected project appears as a card with the following fields:

Project Key: the unique key that identifies the project in your issue tracker
Project Home: a link to the project in your issue tracker
Referenced by Repos: the repositories that reference this project
Story Point Field: the field GitKraken Insights reads for story point values
Critical Defect Field: the field values that identify a critical defect. Click Add another defect mapping to add additional values, or Copy existing defect mapping to duplicate an existing one.

Define issue tracker projects page showing a project card with Project Key, Project Home, Referenced by Repos, Story Point Field, Critical Defect Field, and action buttons — Each project card displays story point and critical defect configuration fields, along with actions to refresh fields or hide the project.

Each project card includes two actions:

Refresh list of fields: manually fetches the latest fields from your issue tracker. Use this only when you have added a new field to your project and need it available immediately. GitKraken Insights automatically refreshes project fields every few days and when new projects are added.
Hide project: removes the project from this list.

Tooltip for the Refresh list of fields button explaining when to use the option — The Refresh list of fields tooltip describes when a manual refresh is appropriate.

Rescan for missing projects

When you configure a new issue tracker connection, GitKraken Insights automatically scans for projects and populates the list above. If a newly added project does not appear, or if you are having problems seeing an expected project, click Rescan projects next to the relevant connection to manually fetch the latest project list.

To view all issue tracker connections, including those ineligible for project scanning, click Issue Tracker Connections.

Rescan for Projects section showing a Rescan projects link for a connected issue tracker and a note about ineligible integrations — Use Rescan projects to manually fetch the latest project list for a connected issue tracker.

Configure critical defect terms

The Critical defect terms page lets you define terms that GitKraken Insights uses to automatically detect critical defect bugs. When a term matches, GitKraken Insights flags the associated work as a critical defect in DORA metric calculations.

GitKraken Insights performs case-insensitive substring matching against:

The name of the branch (e.g., hotfix/login-crash)
The title of the linked issue (e.g., [BUG] Login page crashes on submit)
The title of the pull request (e.g., Fix critical auth bug in production)

View existing defect terms

Active defect detection terms appear in a list with the following columns:

Term: the string GitKraken Insights matches against branches, issues, and pull requests
Repos: the repositories where the term is applied
Actions: click Delete to remove the term

Add a defect detection term

To add a new term, enter a string in the Add New Defect Detection Term field (e.g., bug, fix, hotfix) and click Add Term.

Critical defect terms page showing the Detect Critical Defect Bugs heading, a description of matching behavior, and the Add New Defect Detection Term input field — Enter a term and click Add Term to flag matching branches, issues, and pull requests as critical defects.

Configure Code Domains

The Measurement configuration page lets you define Code Domains for your organization. Code Domains use regular expressions to group files by area of the codebase, letting you identify where each engineer contributes.

If you need help configuring Code Domains optimally for your organization, contact GitKraken support at [email protected].

View existing Code Domains

The Existing Code Domains list displays all configured domains for your organization. Each domain shows:

Domain name: the label for the domain, with an edit icon to modify it
Regex pattern: the regular expression GitKraken Insights uses to match files to this domain
Diff Delta multiplier: a scalar applied when calculating the Diff Delta of code written in files that match this domain
File matches: the number of files and repositories matched by the regex

Code Domains page showing the Existing Code Domains list with domain name, regex pattern, Diff Delta multiplier, and file match count for each domain — The Existing Code Domains list shows all configured domains, their regex patterns, and the number of files and repositories each pattern matches.

Add a Code Domain

The Add a Code Domain form contains the following fields:

Select or create a Code Domain: choose a preset domain type from the dropdown, or type a new name to create a custom domain. Available preset options include: Autogenerated, C#, CSS, Compiled build files, Configuration, Controller, Data source, Database, Database migration, Dependency config, Perl, Python, React Component, SQL, SQL (View), Test, Test (JS), Test (Python), Test fixture, and Third-party.
Define a regular expression: enter a regex pattern describing the file paths to include in this domain (e.g., models/.*.rb matches every .rb file in a models directory)

As you type a regular expression, the Files matching your regular expression panel previews which files match the pattern in real time.

To create the domain, click Create Code Domain. The domain applies to all repositories in your organization.

Add a Code Domain form showing a Code Domain dropdown, a regular expression input, and a Files matching your regular expression live preview panel — The Files matching your regular expression panel previews which files match the pattern as you type.

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