Azure Boards

Learn how to connect your Azure DevOps (Azure Boards) organization to Swarmia using a Personal Access Token (PAT).

The Azure Boards integration is currently in beta.

Swarmia connects to Azure DevOps (Azure Boards) using a Personal Access Token (PAT). Once connected, Swarmia syncs your projects and work items so you can see them alongside your commits and pull requests.

The Azure Boards integration currently syncs once every 24 hours and does not include sprints, work item hierarchy, or story points.

Prerequisites

Before you start, check the following:

• Account access — a PAT only ever has the same access as the person who created it, so use an account that can see the organization and projects you want to sync.

• PAT creation policy — if your organization has Restrict personal access token creation enabled (Organization settings → Policies), your account must be on the allowlist, or you can't create the token.

• Lifespan — Azure DevOps caps a PAT at one year. A tenant admin may enforce a shorter maximum via Enforce maximum personal access token lifespan.

Recommended: use a service account

Removing the user who created the PAT also invalidates the token (within ~1 hour in Azure DevOps Services). Use a shared service or bot account rather than a personal one so syncing survives staff changes.

Step 1: Create the PAT in Azure DevOps

1. Go to aex.dev.azure.com and select the Azure DevOps organization you'd like to connect with Swarmia.

2. In the top-right corner, click the User settings icon and choose Personal Access Tokens. This opens the PAT list page.

   
3. Click + New token. A popup appears for you to create the PAT.

4. Fill in the token name, choose the Azure DevOps organization you want to grant Swarmia access to, and set an expiration date.

5. Click Show all scopes to reveal the full list, then grant exactly these three read scopes:

   • Work Items (Read)

   • Project and Team (Read)

   • Identity (Read)

   
6. Once created, copy the PAT and close the modal. Wait until the token name shows up in the list, then continue to the Swarmia settings page.

   

Step 2: Connect Swarmia with the PAT

1. Go to Azure DevOps settings in Swarmia, click Connect, then choose Connect Azure DevOps.

   
2. Fill in two things:

   

   • Azure DevOps organization — for example, if your URL is dev.azure.com/swarmia-development, enter swarmia-development.

   • PAT — paste your Azure DevOps PAT into the second field.

3. Click Connect.

Azure DevOps now appears in your issue tracker settings and begins syncing the projects and all work items.

Token expiry and rotation

When the PAT expires or is revoked, syncing stops immediately. Reconnect with a new token to resume.

Set a reminder to rotate the token before its expiry date to avoid a gap in syncing.