# Set up the reviewer Open **Settings → Snoutbot**. There are three steps: connect a host, pick a repository, and tell it which database that repository's changes land on. ## 1. Connect GitHub or GitLab Both are supported, including **self-hosted GitLab** (the base URL is a setting). You can connect both at once; the pane opens on whichever already has a token. Two ways to identify yourself: - **You** - a personal access token. No setup, and the default. Reviews are posted under your own name. - **Snoutbot** - a GitHub App that **your organization owns**, so comments appear as `snoutbot[bot]`. We never hold the key; it goes in your keychain beside your database passwords. For GitHub, use a **fine-grained** token. The pane lists each permission next to the thing Snoutbot does with it. Classic tokens work but grant far more than this needs. :::tip Want a bot byline without a GitHub App? Connect a token belonging to a machine user. GitHub calls it a machine user; GitLab project access tokens already run as a bot user. Nothing else changes. ::: The token is checked the moment you paste it, so a bad one fails there rather than silently on every poll afterwards. ## 2. Pick a repository Repositories are **chosen from a list** of what your token can actually reach, several at a time, rather than typed. The list marks private, archived, already-watched, and **"cannot comment"**, which is the one that saves you a confusing afternoon: a repository you can only read is one Snoutbot could review and never speak in. ## 3. Bind a connection This is the step that makes the reviewer worth having, and the easiest one to get wrong. Each watched repository is bound to **one database connection: the one its changes land on**. If you bind the wrong one, Snoutbot will tell you rather than guess. A review that says *"no table `orders` in the introspected schema"* almost always means the binding points somewhere else. Then choose the **depth**: | Depth | What it does | | --- | --- | | Read the diff only | No database is touched at all. | | Read the schema | Introspects structure: tables, columns, indexes, foreign keys. | | Read the schema and measure the data | Also runs read-only counts and `EXPLAIN`. | The third is the one that produces "412 rows are NULL". See [How it reviews](https://docs.snoutdata.com/reviewer/how-it-reviews.md). ## 4. Open a pull request Snoutbot reviews pull requests that touch SQL, and stays quiet on ones that do not. You can also say `@snoutbot review` in a comment to ask for one. By default it posts as soon as the review is done. If you would rather read it first, turn on **approve before posting**. That happens automatically the moment you bind a **production** connection, since pointing the reviewer at production is a deliberate act.