Developer Connect provides a secure platform for integrating with source-code
management tools and getting insights into those connections. For example you
can link your private GitHub repository to your Cloud Run service, and
automatically trigger builds and deployments upon commits in that repository.

You can configure Developer Connect insights on the same service to get
fine-grained deployment insights, such as commit SHAs, to help you troubleshoot
incidents.

Developer Connect is designed for application developers, platform
administrators, and security managers who want to use source-code management
tools with Google Cloud.

## Introduction

Developer Connect provides two different types of connections, plus
insights on those connections:

- System connections

  A system connection is a type of Developer Connect connection that
  connects service accounts to source-code management systems and that doesn't
  require the user who authorized it to be present when it's invoked. There are
  two types of system connection:
  - [Git repository connections](https://docs.cloud.google.com/developer-connect/docs/git-repo-connections)

    Connect your service account to a source-code management system such as
    GitHub.
  - [HTTP connections](https://docs.cloud.google.com/developer-connect/docs/http-connections)

    Give your service account access to an arbitrary HTTP service endpoint.
- Account connectors

  An [account connector](https://docs.cloud.google.com/developer-connect/docs/account-connectors) is a
  Developer Connect connection that links your Google Account with your
  individual account with a non-Google provider of source-code management tools.

  You can specify the type of data to be accessed by selecting the appropriate
  scopes for the connector. After an account connector is created for an
  organization, users within that organization can use that account connector to
  authorize Developer Connect to access their individual SCM account on
  their behalf.
- Insights

  [Developer Connect insights](https://docs.cloud.google.com/developer-connect/docs/insights) provide
  additional intelligence about your deployed application. Insights help you
  diagnose and remediate problems with your applications that might cause
  outages.

These are described in the following sections.

## Git repository connections

A Git repository connection is type of Developer Connect system connection
that lets you create and maintain narrowly scoped connections to Git-based
repositories on source code management systems outside of Google Cloud.

Use Git repository connections in situations where the user who created the
connection doesn't need to be present when that connection is invoked. For
example, when a Git repository is connected to your
[Cloud Build](https://docs.cloud.google.com/build/docs/triggers#devcon-triggers) configuration,
triggering a build upon a commit to the repository doesn't require you do
anything at build time. You just grant your service account permission to use
the connection, and the trigger runs upon commit.

With Git repository connections, you can configure bot services in accounts on
those SCMs to handle routine tasks like cloning and indexing repositories.

You can use Git repository connections for:

- [Application Design Center](https://docs.cloud.google.com/application-design-center/docs/overview)
- [Cloud Build](https://docs.cloud.google.com/build/docs/overview)
- [Cloud Run](https://docs.cloud.google.com/run/docs/overview/what-is-cloud-run)
- [Dataform](https://docs.cloud.google.com/dataform/docs/connect-repository)
- [Firebase App Hosting web apps](https://firebase.google.com/docs/app-hosting)
- [Gemini Code Assist code customization](https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini/docs/codeassist/code-customization-overview)
- [Gemini code review agent](https://developers.google.com/gemini-code-assist/docs/review-repo-code)
- [App Lifecycle Manager](https://docs.cloud.google.com/saas-runtime/docs/overview)
- [Agent Runtime on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform](https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/scale/runtime/deploy-an-agent)

For more information, including use cases and supported product integrations,
see [Git repository connections](https://docs.cloud.google.com/developer-connect/docs/git-repo-connections).

## HTTP connections

HTTP connections are reusable connections to services that are accessible as
HTTP endpoints. You grant a service account permission to use this connection,
and, Developer Connect handles authentication with the endpoint each time a
Google Cloud service accesses it.

## Account connectors

An account connector is a Developer Connect feature that helps you connect
your Google Cloud account with your individual account on an
non-Google Developer Tools provider. Users can specify the type of data to be
accessed by the account connector by selecting the appropriate scopes for that
connector. Once an account connector connection is created for an organization,
users within that organization can use that connection to authorize their
individual accounts to be used with that connection.

You can configure an account connector using either
[a Developer Connect pre-configured OAuth client](https://docs.cloud.google.com/developer-connect/docs/overview#create_an_account_connector)
(for example, GitHub or GitLab), or you can
[use your own custom OAuth client](https://docs.cloud.google.com/developer-connect/docs/overview#configure-custom-oauth) (for example, an
on-premises GitHub Enterprise instance).

You can use account connectors to:

- [Connect BigQuery Studio Git repositories](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/git-repositories)

For more information, including use cases and supported product integrations,
see [Account connectors](https://docs.cloud.google.com/developer-connect/docs/account-connectors).

## The difference between Git repositories connections and account connectors

A Git repository connection is type of Developer Connect system connection
that lets you create and maintain narrowly scoped connections to Git-based
repositories on source code management systems outside of Google Cloud.

Use Git repository connections in situations where the user who created the
connection doesn't need to be present when that connection is invoked. For
example, when a Git repository is connected to your
[Cloud Build](https://docs.cloud.google.com/build/docs/triggers#devcon-triggers) configuration,
triggering a build upon a commit to the repository doesn't require you do
anything at build time. You just grant your service account permission to use
the connection, and the trigger runs upon commit.

With Git repository connections, you can configure bot services in accounts on
those SCMs to handle routine tasks like cloning and indexing repositories.

Account connectors are connections to source-code management tools, for
scenarios in which individual users can be granted permissions to use the
connection. These connections are applicable in scenarios in which the user who
authorized the connection must be present to invoke it.

## Developer Connect insights

[Developer Connect insights](https://docs.cloud.google.com/developer-connect/docs/insights) help you
diagnose and remediate problems with your deployed applications.

Developer Connect insights use log entries for deployment events, in
Cloud Logging, which give Gemini Cloud Assist information about your
runtimes, deployed artifacts, source files, and dependencies.

## What's Next

- [Try creating a basic Git repository connection](https://docs.cloud.google.com/developer-connect/docs/connect-repo).
- [Learn about Gemini Code Assist code customization](https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini/docs/codeassist/code-customization-overview).
- [Build web apps in Firebase App Hosting using your GitHub repositories](https://firebase.google.com/docs/app-hosting).