Configuration

Gong uses a YAML configuration file to define its behavior, including notification rules and which integrations to use.

Configuration File Location

Gong will look for a configuration file in the following locations, in order:

1. The path specified with the --config flag
2. ./.gong.yml in the current directory
3. ~/.gong.yml in the user’s home directory

Configuration Structure

A Gong configuration file consists of the following main sections:

• delay: The default delay (in seconds) before pinging reviewers
• enabled: Whether pinging is enabled by default
• integrations: A list of global integrations to use for notifications
• rules: A set of rules to customize behavior for specific reviewers or PRs

Rules Configuration

Rules allow you to customize Gong’s behavior based on different conditions. Each rule can match one or more of the following criteria:

• matchname: Match reviewers by their GitHub username (supports glob patterns)
• matchtitle: Match PRs by their title (supports glob patterns)
• matchauthor: Match PRs by their author’s GitHub username (supports glob patterns)

When multiple match criteria are provided in a rule, all must match for the rule to apply.

For each rule, you can specify:

• delay: Custom delay before pinging (in seconds)
• enabled: Whether pinging is enabled for matches
• integrations: Custom integrations to use for notifications

Example Configuration

# Global settings
delay: 3600  # Default delay of 1 hour
enabled: true

# Global integrations (applied by default)
integrations:
  - type: stdout  # Print to terminal
  - type: slack
    params:
      channel: "#code-reviews"
      
# Custom rules
rules:
  # Rule for PRs authored by specific users
  - matchauthor: "critical-team-*"
    delay: 1800  # 30 minutes
    enabled: true
    integrations:
      - type: slack
        params:
          channel: "#urgent-reviews"
      
  # Rule for specific reviewers and authors
  - matchname: "lead-*"
    matchauthor: "junior-*"
    delay: 1200  # 20 minutes
    enabled: true
    
  # Rule based on PR titles
  - matchtitle: "fix: critical-*"
    delay: 900  # 15 minutes
    enabled: true

  # Disable pinging for specific reviewer-author combinations
  - matchname: "busy-user"
    matchauthor: "frequent-contributor"
    enabled: false

In this example configuration:

1. The default behavior is to ping after 1 hour (3600 seconds)
2. PRs from authors matching “critical-team-*” will be pinged after 30 minutes via Slack
3. When team leads review PRs from junior developers, they’ll be pinged after 20 minutes
4. PRs with titles matching “fix: critical-*” will trigger pings after 15 minutes
5. The user “busy-user” won’t be pinged when reviewing PRs from “frequent-contributor”