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Aliases

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Flow uses aliases and apex aliases to identify and manage user accounts. This helps Flow merge users and present accurate data across reports.

Learn more about User management.

Aliases

An alias is a unique identifier for a user. A user can have multiple aliases in Flow. These aliases are drawn directly from the integrations that you set up in Flow.

To view a user’s aliases:

  1. Click Settings in Flow’s top navigation.
  2. Under User management, click Users.
  3. Locate the user whose aliases you want to view.
  4. Click the number in the Alias column to view all merged aliases.
    or
  5. Click the user to see the users details page. The Aliases tab lists all merged aliases for the user.

Where do aliases come from?

A user has unique aliases imported from each integration set up in Flow.

In the example below, Chandler connects the following Integrations into their Flow account:

  • GitHub
  • GitLab

The User details page has every alias imported from these integrations.

Flow pulled two aliases from GitLab. Flow pulled the third alias from GitHub. Outside of Flow, Chandler used each alias to either comment on a PR, create a commit, or create a ticket.

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Additional Aliases

In addition to aliases found when first ingesting your data, Flow creates a new alias for each ingested user or contributor. An example of a Flow-created alias is user-1775732@1840.id.gitprime.com.

Additional aliases are automatically merged under their respective user. Flow generates these aliases to track whose data came from what integration. This is necessary if there are multiple integrations connected to the same Git host.

Let's say Chandler commits on the following three repos imported from two different integrations. These repos include:

  • Repo A, imported via integration 1
  • Repo B, imported via integration 2
  • Fork Repo B, imported via integration 2

Flow ingests this user’s three existing aliases from GitHub. In addition to these aliases, Flow generates a unique alias from each integration it imports data from. In this case, Flow creates two additional aliases.

Chandler’s total alias count is five. This number includes:

  • One alias from GitHub
  • Two aliases from GitLab
  • One alias from Integration 1
  • One alias from integration 2

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Apex aliases

Flow assigns an apex alias to each user imported from connected integrations. An apex alias is the primary alias used to identify a user in your reports.

To change the apex alias for a user:

  1. In the top navigation, click Settings.
  2. In the left navigation under User Management, click Users.
  3. Click Merge users.
  4. Click the All users tab.
  5. Search for the user and drag the desired apex user into the Select a target user box.
  6. Confirm their other related aliases are in the Users queued to merge section.
  7. Click Merge.

Note: If the user has a login to Flow, be cautious about changing their apex alias so their ability to log in won't be interrupted.

Learn more about merging users.

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Undisclosed users

When Flow can’t identify a user, that user is Undisclosed. 

When Flow integrates a githost or ticket system, it pulls information from an API. Sometimes Flow cannot can’t access the account name or email in the API. Undisclosed users appear in the user list and in reports when a githost doesn’t provide a user’s email address during integration.

This can happen when a githost or ticket system doesn’t provide the account name or email. Other times, the user’s account and email are set as private.

In both instances, Flow creates an alias and labels the users Undisclosed.

The undisclosed email follows these structures:

  • undisclosed@[external id].id.gitprime.com
  • [user id]@[integration id].id.gitprime.com

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