otter skill

Overview

This skill integrates Canva internal tools into a single workflow for developers and support engineers. It provides programmatic access to GitHub pull requests, Jira issues, Confluence pages, Buildkite logs, Release Engine status, and an internal knowledge base including the engineering handbook. Use it to speed up diagnostics, cross-reference docs, and perform routine repo and issue operations without switching tools.

How this skill works

The skill exposes APIs to query and manipulate resources across services: create/list/update GitHub PRs and inspect files, comments, and reviews; create/search/update Jira issues and perform transitions; fetch Confluence page content; retrieve Buildkite logs by commit or pipeline; and query the internal knowledge base or engineering handbook. It also calls Release Engine endpoints to report deployment status filtered by target environment. Responses return structured metadata and content so you can include results in automation or conversational outputs.

When to use it

• Managing or reviewing GitHub pull requests, listing changed files, or searching repository code.
• Creating, updating, commenting on, or transitioning Jira tickets and querying issue metadata.
• Retrieving Confluence page content to embed documentation or confirm design decisions.
• Pulling Buildkite logs for a specific commit or pipeline to diagnose CI/CD failures.
• Searching or fetching internal knowledge base articles, including the engineering handbook.
• Checking Release Engine component deployment status for staging or production targets.

Best practices

• Limit searches with repository, project, or field filters to avoid large result sets.
• Fetch PR files and build logs before making deployment or merge decisions to verify changes and CI health.
• Use issue transitions and changelogs to maintain clear audit trails when updating Jira items programmatically.
• Cache frequently read Confluence pages or handbook sections to reduce repeated calls to the knowledge base.
• Filter Release Engine queries by target environment to avoid conflating staging and production states.

Example use cases

• Automatically collect a PR diff, related Jira issue, and recent Buildkite logs to summarize a release candidate for a team review.
• Search the engineering handbook for a deployment checklist, then verify Release Engine shows all components in the expected state.
• Create a Jira bug from a failing pipeline: attach Buildkite logs and link the originating PR for faster triage.
• Fetch a Confluence design spec and related code files to generate context for a code review comment.
• Run a KB search for an internal troubleshooting article and return the exact page content to a support chat session.

FAQ