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Overview

External integration context refers to resources from your connected tools and platforms that you manually add to your Factory sessions. These provide crucial background information, requirements, and discussions that help Factory understand the full scope of your work.
External context is manually added by you when needed, giving you full control over what information Factory considers for each task.

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Types of External Context

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Project Management Tools

Jira Tickets

What’s Included:
  • Issue description and acceptance criteria
  • Priority, status, and sprint information
  • Comments and discussions
  • Linked issues and blockers
  • Attachments and custom fields
When to Add:
  • Starting work on a new feature
  • Investigating reported bugs
  • Planning implementation approach
  • Reviewing requirements

Linear Issues

What’s Included:
  • Issue title and description
  • Project and cycle information
  • Priority and estimates
  • Comments and updates
  • Related issues and sub-issues
  • Team assignments
When to Add:
  • Beginning sprint work
  • Checking task requirements
  • Understanding project scope
  • Coordinating with team

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Code Review Context

GitHub Pull Requests

What’s Included:
  • PR description and checklist
  • File changes and diffs
  • Review comments and suggestions
  • CI/CD status and checks
  • Branch information
  • Linked issues
When to Add:
  • Reviewing code changes
  • Understanding implementation decisions
  • Addressing review feedback
  • Investigating related changes

GitLab Merge Requests

What’s Included:
  • MR description and details
  • Changed files and diffs
  • Discussion threads
  • Pipeline status
  • Approval status
  • Related issues and epics
When to Add:
  • Code review sessions
  • Understanding feature implementations
  • Resolving merge conflicts
  • Checking CI/CD results

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Incident Management

PagerDuty Incidents

What’s Included:
  • Incident summary and severity
  • Timeline of events
  • Escalation history
  • Service and integration details
  • Resolution notes
  • Related incidents
When to Add:
  • Investigating production issues
  • Post-mortem analysis
  • Understanding incident patterns
  • Planning fixes

Sentry Issues

What’s Included:
  • Error message and stack trace
  • Event frequency and impact
  • User and environment data
  • Breadcrumbs and context
  • Related errors
  • Resolution status
When to Add:
  • Debugging production errors
  • Understanding error patterns
  • Prioritizing fixes
  • Tracking error resolution

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Documentation Resources

Google Docs

What’s Included:
  • Document content
  • Comments and suggestions
  • Revision history
  • Embedded images and tables
When to Add:
  • Reviewing specifications
  • Understanding requirements
  • Checking design documents

Notion Pages

What’s Included:
  • Page content and structure
  • Database entries
  • Embedded content
  • Comments and mentions
  • Linked pages
When to Add:
  • Accessing team wikis
  • Reviewing documentation
  • Understanding processes

Confluence

What’s Included:
  • Page content
  • Attachments
  • Comments
  • Page hierarchy
  • Related pages
When to Add:
  • Technical specifications
  • Architecture documents
  • Team knowledge base

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Communication Context

Slack Threads

What’s Included:
  • Message history
  • Thread replies
  • Shared files and links
  • Reactions and mentions
  • Channel context
When to Add:
  • Understanding team discussions
  • Getting clarification on requirements
  • Following up on decisions
  • Reviewing technical discussions

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How to Add External Context

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Method 1: Using @ Commands

The fastest way to add external context is through @ commands in the chat: 
@ticket PROJ-123
@pull request #456
@google docs [paste link]
@notion [paste link]
Start typing @ to see available commands and auto-complete suggestions based on your connected integrations.
Simply paste URLs directly into the chat, and Factory will automatically recognize and fetch the content: 
https://linear.app/company/issue/PROJ-123
https://github.com/org/repo/pull/456
https://docs.google.com/document/d/...
https://notion.so/workspace/page-id

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Method 3: Context Panel

Use the Context Panel to browse and add resources:
  1. Click the Context button in the chat interface
  2. Select Add Context
  3. Choose your integration type
  4. Search or browse for the resource
  5. Click to add to your session

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Best Practices

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When to Add External Context

1

At Task Start

Add relevant tickets, PRs, and documentation when beginning work to establish full context upfront.
2

During Investigation

Add related issues, past PRs, or incident reports when debugging or researching solutions.
3

For Review

Include PR descriptions, review comments, and related changes when conducting code reviews.
4

For Planning

Add requirements documents, design specs, and technical documentation when planning implementations.

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Managing External Context

External context persists throughout your session. Remove outdated or irrelevant context to maintain optimal performance.
Do’s:
  • ✅ Add context relevant to your current task
  • ✅ Include related tickets and PRs for full picture
  • ✅ Update context when requirements change
  • ✅ Remove context when switching tasks
Don’ts:
  • ❌ Add every available resource “just in case”
  • ❌ Keep outdated tickets from previous tasks
  • ❌ Include entire documentation sites
  • ❌ Add private or sensitive information unnecessarily

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Integration Requirements

To use external context, you need to connect your accounts:
  1. Go to Settings → Integrations
  2. Connect the services you use:
    • GitHub/GitLab for PRs and issues
    • Jira/Linear for project management
    • Google/Notion for documentation
    • PagerDuty/Sentry for incidents
    • Slack for team communications
  3. Authorize Factory to access your data
Factory only accesses data when you explicitly add it to a session. We don’t automatically scan or index your external tools.

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Security & Privacy

  • On-Demand Access: Content is only fetched when you explicitly add it
  • Session Scoped: External context is isolated to individual sessions
  • Access Controls: Respects your permissions in connected tools
  • Audit Trail: All context additions are logged for security

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Next Steps

Dynamic Context Retrieval

Learn how Factory automatically pulls in code and files during your session

Memory as Context

Understand how Factory’s memory system provides persistent context