Developing features and iterating with Amazon Q Developer in GitHub - Amazon Q Developer

Developing features and iterating with Amazon Q Developer in GitHub

Note

Amazon Q Developer for GitHub is in preview release and is subject to change.

You can use Amazon Q Developer in GitHub to streamline development by automatically implementing new features and bug fixes, taking tasks from idea to a completed pull request. When you add the feature development label to an issue or use the /q dev slash command, Amazon Q Developer uses the issue, including its title and description, as well as repository code as context to generate new code fixes and create a pull request. On the pull request, you can provide feedback and Amazon Q Developer iterates on the suggested code.

You can have Amazon Q Developer perform feature development a limited number of times per month. You can increase your free usage at any time by registering your Amazon Q Developer app installation with your AWS account. For more information, see Increasing usage limits and configuring details in Amazon Q Developer console.

Important

The Amazon Q Developer app attempts to automatically create the Amazon Q development agent label in GitHub repositories you authorize access to. If the label is not automatically created, or if it's unintentionally deleted, you can manually create it in GitHub. The label must be named as Amazon Q development agent in order for it to be recognized and processed as a Amazon Q Developer label. For more information, see Creating a label in the GitHub documentation.

To use Amazon Q Developer for feature development

  1. If necessary, sign in to your GitHub account using your GitHub credentials.

  2. Navigate to your GitHub organization, and then navigate to the repository you want to implement new features with Amazon Q Developer.

  3. Choose Issues, and then create a new issue or choose an existing issue. For more information, see Create an issue in the GitHub documentation.

    1. For a new issue, in the Add a title text input field, enter a title that provides context to Amazon Q Developer for the feature development (example: "Create an image recognition app"). The issue description should also be included as it also provides context.

      For an existing issue, you can edit the issue title and description to provide context to Amazon Q Developer for the feature development. For more informaiton, see Editing an issue in the GitHub documentation.

  4. When creating an issue or configuring an existing issue, you can apply the feature development Amazon Q Developer label or use the /q dev slash command. Do one of the following:

    • To apply the label to the issue, do one of the following:

      • Choose the Assign to Amazon Q dropdown menu provided as a browser extension, and then choose the Amazon Q development agent label.

      • In the right side menu, choose Labels, and then choose the Amazon Q development agent label.

    • To use the /q dev slash command in a comment:

      1. Within the issue, navigate to Add a comment, and in the comment text input field, enter /q dev.

      2. Choose Comment.

  5. For a new issue, choose Create issue to finish creating the issue with the necessary details for Amazon Q Developer to develop features. If you configure an existing issue, ensure you save the changes. For more informaiton, see Editing an issue in the GitHub documentation.

    When Amazon Q Developer finishes generating code changes for the feature development, it comments on the issue and opens a pull request.

  6. Navigate to the comment left by Amazon Q Developer (example: "I finished the proposed code changes, and the pull request is ready for review: [PR link]"), and then choose the pull request link.

    You can also navigate to the Pull requests tab, and then choose the pull request created by Amazon Q Developer.

  7. Choose the Files changed tab to view the code changes.

  8. If you're satisfied with the suggested code changes, you can merge the pull request. For more information, see Merge a pull request.

You can also review the pull request for the feature development and iterate on the suggested code changes by providing feedback to Amazon Q Developer.

To iterate on Amazon Q Developer feature development code

  1. Choose the pull request created by Amazon Q Developer, and then choose the Files changed tab to view the code changes.

  2. Optionally, for specific lines of code you want to provide feedback on, choose + to add a comment with feedback.

    In the conversation, you can use the /q command followed by your instructions in natural language (for example, /q implement my suggestions or /q refactor this function for better performance). Amazon Q Developer will respond with a comment describing the changes it will make based on your feedback (for example, "I will implement the following changes based on the feedback: ..."). When the implementation is complete, Amazon Q Developer will post another comment confirming the changes (for example, "I have implemented the suggested changes.") along with a link to the generated commit where you can view the changes.

  3. Review the changes made by Amazon Q Developer by following the commit link provided in the conversation. You can continue to provide additional feedback using the /q command for further iterations as needed.

  4. If you're satisfied with the updated code changes, you can merge the pull request or iterate on the code again with new feedback. For more information, see Merge a pull request.