From GitHub to Datadog: How alt.qa Plugs Into Your Existing Stack in 15 Minutes

TL;DR

alt.qa integrates into your existing workflow without rip-and-replace. Connect to GitHub, GitLab, or Jenkins in minutes. Real-time results flow to Slack, Jira tickets auto-open on failures, and Datadog/PagerDuty get native event streams. This guide shows exactly how, with copy-paste code examples for each platform.

The Integration Problem

You've already built your DevOps stack. CI/CD pipeline? Check. Monitoring in Datadog? Check. Incident management in PagerDuty? Check. Jira for tracking work? Check. Slack for team comms? Check. The last thing you want is another tool that breaks your workflow or adds friction.

That's why alt.qa was designed to be a bridge, not a replacement. It plugs into the infrastructure you already have, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, and feeds results into the systems your team actually uses. No context switching. No new dashboards to learn. Quality and reliability data flows into Datadog alongside your other metrics. Incidents trigger PagerDuty alerts just like everything else. Failures auto-create Jira tickets. Slack gets notified in channels you already watch.

This guide walks you through 15 minutes of setup that ties everything together. Whether you're on GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, or some hybrid, you'll find the integration path that fits your stack.

What You'll Need

• An alt.qa account (free tier is fine to get started)
• An API token from alt.qa (generated in Settings)
• Access to your CI/CD platform (GitHub, GitLab, or Jenkins)
• Optional: Slack, Jira, Datadog, PagerDuty credentials for downstream integrations

Start with the CI/CD layer, that's the hardest part. Everything downstream becomes copy-paste.

Part 1: CI/CD Integration (Pick Your Platform)

Option A: GitHub Actions

GitHub Actions is the easiest entry point. If you're using GitHub, this is a 3-minute setup.

Step 1: Generate your alt.qa API token

1. Log in to alt.qa dashboard
2. Go to Settings → API Tokens
3. Click "New Token, " name it "GitHub Actions"
4. Copy the token value

Step 2: Add the token to GitHub Secrets

1. In your GitHub repo, go to Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions
2. Click "New repository secret"
3. Name: ALTQA_TOKEN
4. Value: paste your token
5. Save

Step 3: Add the workflow file

Create .github/workflows/altqa.yml:

name: alt.qa Quality & Reliability Scan
on:
 push:
 branches: [main, develop]
 pull_request:
 branches: [main]

jobs:
 altqa:
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 steps:
 - uses: actions/checkout@v3

 - name: Run alt.qa Scan
 uses: altqa/scan-action@v1
 with:
 token: ${{ secrets.ALTQA_TOKEN }}
 project-id: your-project-id

 - name: Upload Results
 if: always()
 uses: altqa/upload-results@v1
 with:
 token: ${{ secrets.ALTQA_TOKEN }}
 build-id: ${{ github.run_id }}
 results-file: altqa-results.json

Done. Push this file to your repo. On your next PR or push to main, alt.qa runs automatically. Results appear in the GitHub checks UI and in the action logs.

Option B: GitLab CI

GitLab CI uses a similar approach via .gitlab-ci.yml.

Step 1: Add your token to GitLab CI/CD variables

1. Go to Settings → CI/CD → Variables
2. Add ALTQA_TOKEN with your token value
3. Mark it as protected (so it only runs on protected branches)

Step 2: Update your .gitlab-ci.yml

stages:
 - test
 - quality

altqa_scan:
 stage: quality
 image: altqa/cli:latest
 script:
 - altqa scan --token $ALTQA_TOKEN --project myproject
 - altqa upload-results --build-id $CI_PIPELINE_ID
 artifacts:
 reports:
 junit: altqa-results.xml
 allow_failure: false
 only:
 - merge_requests
 - main

Push and merge. GitLab will run alt.qa on the next pipeline. Results show in the merge request UI under "Quality".

Option C: Jenkins

Jenkins is more flexible but requires a plugin.

Step 1: Install the alt.qa Jenkins plugin

1. Go to Manage Jenkins → Manage Plugins
2. Available tab → search for "alt.qa"
3. Check the box, click Install without restart
4. Restart Jenkins

Step 2: Add credentials

1. Manage Jenkins → Credentials → System
2. Add Credentials → Kind: "Secret text"
3. Secret: your alt.qa token, ID: altqa-token

Step 3: Update your Jenkinsfile

pipeline {
 agent any

 environment {
 ALTQA_TOKEN = credentials('altqa-token')
 }

 stages {
 stage('Checkout') {
 steps {
 checkout scm
 }
 }

 stage('alt.qa Scan') {
 steps {
 script {
 sh '''
 docker run --rm \
 -e ALTQA_TOKEN=$ALTQA_TOKEN \
 -v $(pwd):/workspace \
 altqa/cli:latest \
 altqa scan --project myproject
 '''
 }
 }
 }
 }

 post {
 always {
 publishHTML([
 reportDir: 'altqa-results',
 reportFiles: 'index.html',
 reportName: 'alt.qa Report'
 ])
 }
 }
}

Commit and Jenkins will pick it up on the next build.

Part 2: Slack Integration (5 minutes)

Once CI/CD is running, route results to Slack so the team sees them in real-time.

Step 1: Create a Slack app

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps/new
2. Choose "From scratch"
3. Name: "alt.qa", Workspace: your workspace
4. Click Create

Step 2: Configure incoming webhooks

1. In the app, go to "Incoming Webhooks"
2. Turn on "Activate Incoming Webhooks"
3. Click "Add New Webhook to Workspace"
4. Select the channel (e.g., #quality, #devops)
5. Copy the webhook URL

Step 3: Link to alt.qa

1. alt.qa dashboard → Settings → Integrations → Slack
2. Paste the webhook URL
3. Choose notification rules:
   • Notify on every scan (verbose but Practical)
   • Notify only on failures (less noise, good for small teams)
   • Notify on SLA breaches (ideal for production)
4. Save

Next time a scan runs, Slack gets a notification with results, pass/fail status, and a link to the detailed report. You can thread reactions to drill into failures.

# In your CI/CD environment, set:
export DD_API_KEY="your-datadog-api-key"
export DD_SITE="datadoghq.com" # or datadoghq.eu if in EU

# Then update your altqa scan command:
altqa scan \
 --token $ALTQA_TOKEN \
 --project myproject \
 --datadog-enabled \
 --dd-service "myservice" \
 --dd-version $CI_COMMIT_SHA

altqa scan \
 --token $ALTQA_TOKEN \
 --project myproject \
 --webhook-url "https://internal-metrics.company.com/altqa" \
 --webhook-method POST

{
 "scan_id": "scan_abc123",
 "project": "myproject",
 "status": "failed",
 "timestamp": "2026-02-15T14:22:00Z",
 "issues": {
 "critical": 2,
 "high": 5,
 "medium": 12,
 "low": 8
 },
 "coverage": 87.3,
 "duration_ms": 1250,
 "branch": "main",
 "commit": "f2a3b8c9"
}