Request access to tools

Last Updated: May 8, 2025

This page outlines how to get access to the tools you’ll need to work on and collaborate with others on the Platform.

Everyone should get access to Slack and GitHub.
Developers should also get access to Jenkins and Sentry.

Note: There are prerequisites for requesting access. Those additional details can be found here.

General Tools

Slack

Granting Slack Access to New People

OCTO Slack request management is under AES and is handled in JIRA via the DevOps Tool Suite (DOTS) Team. To request access for a new employee, go to the DOTS Service Desk (you will be asked to authenticate your VA.gov account to access this link) and complete the steps below.

On the DOTS Service Desk landing page, click Tools Support.
Click Request Tool Access.
In the Summary field, enter “Request for Slack access.”
Select Slack from the DOTS Tools List dropdown menu.
Click Create to submit the request.

(Note: None of the optional fields in the request form need to be altered or completed.)

If nobody in your company has access to OCTO Slack, coordinate with your Product Owner.

Getting Slack Access

Use this process if you are a new employee:

Ask your Program Manager to request an invitation to the Office of CTO@VA Slack.
Check your email for the Slack invitation and join!
Add information to your Slack profile.

GitHub

Getting access to the VA GitHub organization

Ask your Program Manager to submit an Add User to the VA Organization ticket.
- The ticket submitter will need to have VA GitHub Org access already.
- Ask your Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) to post their approval on this ticket to expedite the approval process.
- This process is managed by the VA GitHub admins, not the Platform, and may take a few days to process.

If you have any issues with the above step, please consult the VA GitHub Handbook for assistance.

Once your ticket is processed, check your email for an invitation to the VA GitHub Organization, and join!
- Note: Make sure you’re signed into the correct GitHub account before you accept the invitation.
Once you've been added, add information to your GitHub profile:
- Organization: Your company name
- Working on: The project your team is working on, e.g., "526 ancillary forms"

For more information and additional resources, please visit VA GitHub Handbook.

Getting repo access

GitHub repo access is managed through the Platform Orientation process.

Visit the Platform Orientation page and follow the instructions for new team members.
- Note: You will not be able to assign the ticket to yourself however, the ticket can still be completed and ready for Platform action.
Visit Adding File to the GitHub Repository for more information on using the correct format when adding files and folders to the repository.

PagerDuty

To request access to PagerDuty, ensure you have completed a New VFS Team Member ticket. Once completed submit a ticket in the #vfs-platform-support Slack channel. Assign the ticket to “platform-tech-support-team” by using the Request Topic, “Access Request.” In the ticket, explain that you want access to PagerDuty and provide the team you should be added to. All invites will be sent to your VA.gov email address.

See Getting help from the Platform in Slack for more information on creating a Slack ticket in the #vfs-platform-support channel. The ticket will be routed to the Platform Support Tier 1 team to triage. They will provide next steps on your access approval.

Research and Design Tools

The following tools are available for researchers and designers to use:

Figma

A Figma Professional account is available for VFS teams to use. Follow these steps to get access:

Submit a Figma access request ticket
You’ll be sent an invitation to the email address provided
Once you accept the invitation, you’ll have viewer-restricted access which allows you to do things like view, comment and inspect designs. This is set by default and is recommended for most team members.
If you’re a designer, once you’ve accepted the invitation, comment in that ticket noting that you’ve created your account. You’ll then be granted editor access.

Learn more about Figma accounts at VA.

Figma editor accounts are limited. Please limit requests for editor access to those that need to create and edit design files.

VA Research Repository

VA.gov research repository access is managed through the Platform Orientation process.
Opening a new Platform Orientation GitHub template, accessible via the Guidance for new teams and team members page, will kick off the process of granting you access.

OCTO Research Sessions Calendar

The OCTO Research Sessions Google Calendar contains all research sessions scheduled by Perigean. Contact Naomi Marcussen or Kevin Hoffman in the #design Slack channel to be added.

Optimal Workshop

A VA.gov team account is available for you to use any of the tools offered in Optimal Workshop (surveys, card sorting, or tree testing). You can access the VA.gov team account by following the steps below:

Access login credentials

Get login credentials from the login credential list on GitHub. If you don’t have access to that repo, you can either:

Submit a request to access the GitHub sensitive repo in the #vfs-platform-support Slack channel.

Or

Contact the group owner from the list below in the #research-ops Slack channel with your request to get the Optimal Workshop login credentials. They will then send you the login credentials via Keybase.

Go to optimalworkshop.com and login.

Group Owners

Research Operations - Shane Strassberg

Digital Experience IA - Mikki Northuis

Health Experience Research - Robyn Singleton

Benefits Research - Shannon Ford

Platform Research - Matt Dingee

Lighthouse Research - Scott Mericle

Mural

VA OCTO offers access to a workspace to store work that will be used in an ongoing way for VA.

Mural recently changed their user types and this process has changed.

Follow these steps to get access to the VA OCTO Enterprise account:

Ask your OCTO PO to submit a DOTS request on your behalf
- You’ll need access to your va.gov email to become a member
- The expected turnaround time on the DOTS request is a few business days.
Once added, you’ll get an email (in your va.gov email) from Mural with an invitation to setup an account.
Once you create an account, you’ll be a Limited Member by default.
- If you need to create Murals or be able to add certain types of content, you can request to be upgraded to a Full Member by submitting a request in the #dots-dsva Slack channel.
You’ll need to login to the VA Enterprise account every 15 days to avoid being deactivated.

What’s the difference between a Limited Member and a Full Member?

If you encounter a message that you’ve been deactivated from the workspace when trying to open a Mural board, it could be because you are logged in with another account and are trying to access a Mural in the VA Enterprise space. If this is the case, try logging out and logging back in with your VA.gov email address and password.

Development Tools

Some internal tools for development are only accessible within the VA network. Access to developers outside the VA network is available via a SOCKS proxy.

SOCKS access

Follow the instructions for setting up SOCKS access on the Internal tools access via SOCKS proxy page. Once access is granted, you can move on to the next step.
Test accessing Jenkins and Sentry through the SOCKS proxy (see links below). When logging into these services for the first time, click the button Login with GitHub or similar. You might be prompted to link your GitHub account and be presented with a permissions dialog. Allow the service to access your account and view your Organization membership.

You need to configure SOCKS Proxy in order to access Jenkins, Sentry, ArgoCD, and other tools. For more information see Platform tools.

Jenkins

With the SOCKS proxy set up and running, go to http://jenkins.vfs.va.gov. You can see the builds without logging in but need to authenticate (with GitHub OAuth) to re-run failed builds.

Sentry

With the SOCKS proxy set up and running, go to http://sentry.vfs.va.gov. You can sign in using your GitHub account by clicking the "Login with GitHub" button on the login page.

We use Sentry teams to separate production, staging, and dev errors. To view the most recent production errors, the most common thing to do while on call, is go to http://sentry.vfs.va.gov/vets-gov/platform-api-production/ .

TestRail access

To get access to TestRail, request access to the Platform TestRail instance in #vfs-platform-support. See Getting help from the Platform in Slack for more information about Slack. Also, see Create a project in TestRail and the TestRail User Guide for more information about TestRail.

TestRail accounts are limited. Please limit account creation to dedicated QA personnel and a shared account for VFS team.

Datadog access

Datadog is a monitoring tool managed by DOTS. See Get Access to Datadog.

Vets API Rails console access

Access to the vets-api terminal in ArgoCD is managed via GitHub teams (linked below). To obtain access to the terminal, fill out a Vets-api ArgoCD terminal access request form. Production access needs OCTO-DE approval and expires after a period of time. The lower environments do not require extra approval and access does not expire. Once access requests are approved, terminal access to vets-api is accessible via ArgoCD.

Vets API GitHub Teams

Console access is granted through GitHub teams.

Dev: Vets API dev read/write access
Staging: Vets API staging read/write access
Sandbox: Vets API sandbox read/write access
Prod: Vets API prod read/write access

Vets API ArgoCD environments

Links to Vets API in ArgoCD (requires SOCKS)

How to access terminal

The following steps detail how to access the terminal via Argo:

Navigate to http://argocd.vfs.va.gov/applications (Requires Socks)
Search for "vets-api-{env-here}" in the search bar
Click on a vets-api-web-* pod (far right)
- Note: Look for the pod icon
A Terminal tab will appear on the far right
- Note: If you get an error or don't see the tab, log out/in of ArgoCD
You now have access to run commands via shell

Note: For additional details please see the Vets API on EKS documentation.

Please reach out to #vfs-platform-support for any questions regarding access.

AWS console access

Our infrastructure (not including Vets API) is hosted in AWS GovCloud. This account is shared amongst many teams; changes to resources in this account will affect many services. You may need access to AWS for troubleshooting, log file review, or to apply changes to the running instances and services.

In order to be granted AWS Console access, your PIV background (eQIP adjudication) check needs to be underway. Production AWS Console access requests will be reviewed by OCTO-DE. This process can take days or weeks.

If you're not certain you need access to AWS, don’t file this request. It can always be filed later if you do end up needing access.

Open an AWS Access Request Issue, explaining the type of access you'll need. Monitor the issue for updates and respond to any questions. Note: If you don’t have an E-QIP Transmittal Confirmation, do not put in an access request.
When your account has been set up, you'll receive a Slack private message with your temporary password and login URL.
Log in and change the temporary password immediately. AWS will prompt you to change your password during the first login.
Follow the instructions for MFA setup.
- A virtual MFA device is required to access services in the AWS cloud and programmatically via the CLI.

Testing Tools

Test User Dashboard

The Test User Dashboard (TUD) is a Platform-built tool. It allows you to search for test user accounts to log in to VA.gov applications and features for testing purposes. SOCKS access is no longer required to access this tool. See the instructions below for how to access it without SOCKS. If you do have SOCKS access, you can access it here.

Note that TUD is no longer maintained, so you may encounter test users whose passwords no longer work. If you're looking to utilize a specific user, you can request a password reset in the #identity-support channel.

Before you begin

To access TUD without SOCKS access, you’ll need:

Access to the VA network (using a GFE, CAG or Microsoft Remote Desktop)
GitHub account
vets.gov-write access (you can submit a request in #vfs-platform-support if you don’t have that)