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The Netlify extension verifies your deploys. When a deploy preview or branch deploy of a site with verification turned on goes live, a cloud agent does three things:
  • opens the deploy
  • reads what the pull request changed
  • exercises the affected flows
It reports the result on the Netlify deploy page. The full evidence is in the IronBee Console. There is no workflow file to add and no test suite to maintain. Nothing waits on IronBee: the deploy completes as before, and the verification reports on it.

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Prerequisites

  • A Netlify team with sites that build deploy previews or branch deploys from a GitHub repository.
  • The owner or admin role on your IronBee account.
  • The IronBee GitHub App. It’s recommended for every repository and required for private ones:
    • It lets the run check out a private repository.
    • It finds the pull request behind a branch deploy.
    • It posts the result on the pull request as a check and a comment.

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Step 1: Install the extension

In the console, open Integrations in the sidebar, select Netlify, and click Install the Netlify extension. It opens the IronBee extension on Netlify in a new tab. Install it on your team. The Integrations page with Netlify selected under Available: Not connected, with the Install the Netlify extension button The Integrations page with Netlify selected under Available: Not connected, with the Install the Netlify extension button During onboarding, the same step is Connect Netlify. The console detects the installation and moves you forward automatically.

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Step 2: Connect the team to your IronBee account

  1. On Netlify, open your team’s Extensions > IronBee and click Connect to IronBee, then Open IronBee.
  2. On Connect Netlify to IronBee, check the Netlify team, pick the IronBee account its results go to, and click Connect.
  3. You are connected confirms it. Click Back to Netlify, then I have connected, refresh on the extension. To pick the sites to verify in the console right away, click Enable sites instead.
Connect Netlify to IronBee, showing the Netlify team, the IronBee account picker and the Connect button Connect Netlify to IronBee, showing the Netlify team, the IronBee account picker and the Connect button
Only accounts where you hold the owner or admin role appear in the picker. A Netlify team can be connected to one IronBee account. If the link is no longer valid, click Connect to IronBee on Netlify again to get a fresh one.
Once connected, the extension shows Connected to IronBee and the account the team reports to, with Open IronBee settings to jump to the console. Netlify: the IronBee extension's Configuration card, Connected to IronBee, with the IronBee account the team reports to, Open IronBee settings and Disconnect

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Step 3: Turn on verification for a site

On Netlify, open the IronBee panel from a site’s menu and click Turn on verification. This does two things:
  • It creates the site’s deploy notification, which tells IronBee when a deploy goes live.
  • It enables the site in IronBee as a project with the Web verification type.
Under Which deploys, choose the deploy contexts to verify. Deploy previews and Branch deploys are on by default. Production deploys is off unless you turn it on.
IronBee has to be able to open your previews. If a site’s deploy previews are private and production is public, Turn on verification makes the deploy previews public. If the whole site is private, the panel asks first: Make the project public makes production and previews reachable by anyone with the link. To keep previews private, protect them with a password instead. See Preview access.
To verify a site’s API instead of its web UI, change its type in the console: Integrations > Netlify, expand the team, open the actions menu (the three dots) next to the site and choose Edit type. You can also enable sites from the console: Integrations > Netlify or Projects > New project. A site enabled in the console starts runs once its deploy notification exists, so turn on verification for it in the extension too.

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Step 4: Install the GitHub App

The Netlify extension knows the deploy; the GitHub App knows the code behind it. With both, the run verifies the pull request’s changes, and the result also lands on the pull request. In Integrations, select GitHub and click Install the GitHub App. Then follow GitHub App.

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Preview access

Public previews need nothing. For protected previews:
  • Password protection (Netlify Pro plan):
    1. In Netlify, set the site’s visibility to a password under Project configuration > General > Visitor access.
    2. In the IronBee Console, open the project and go to Settings > Secrets.
    3. Click New secret, choose the Password tab and enter the same password as the Site password.
    IronBee signs in to the password page once and keeps only the cookie Netlify answers with. The password itself is never stored. After you change the password on Netlify, save the new one here.
  • Basic authentication: add an HTTP headers secret with an Authorization header in the project’s Settings > Secrets.
  • Team login (SSO) can’t be bypassed. Use a password, Basic authentication or public previews.

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What the extension uses its access for

The extension doesn’t change your builds. IronBee never stores a Netlify token.

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How it runs

1

The deploy goes live

Netlify builds exactly as before. When a deploy in a selected context goes live, the deploy notification tells IronBee.
2

The change is verified

IronBee starts a verification run with the deploy URL and its Git metadata.
  • The changeset: on a deploy preview, the run verifies the pull request’s full diff. On a branch deploy, the GitHub App finds the pull request behind the commit.
  • The environment: the run is against the environment named after the deploy context: deploy-preview, branch-deploy or production. IronBee creates these automatically; their variables and secrets apply.
3

Watch it live, if you want

While a Web run is going, the run in the console streams live: every action as it executes, the browser view and the network requests. When it ends and its recording has uploaded, the recording replays the same workspace, action by action.A running verification in the console: the actions so far, and the Live browser view with 2 watchingA running verification in the console: the actions so far, and the Live browser view with 2 watching
4

The result comes back to the deploy

The deploy page shows the IronBee verification card with the result. With the GitHub App installed, the same result lands on the pull request as a check and a comment.

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What you see on the deploy

The deploy page on Netlify gets an IronBee verification card. It shows one headline: Below it are the summary, the Issues and View details in IronBee, which opens the full report in the console. The report has the actions, the recording synced to them, the network requests, traces and logs, and each issue with the evidence behind it and suggested fixes. The report of a Netlify run with a Fail result: the summary strip marked Web and Netlify, a step's screenshot above the recording controls, and the Issues tab The report of a Netlify run with a Fail result: the summary strip marked Web and Netlify, a step's screenshot above the recording controls, and the Issues tab In the project’s Verifications list, these runs carry the Netlify trigger. See Verification detail.

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Scope

  • Deploy previews and branch deploys by default. Production deploys are verified only on sites where you turned them on.
  • Sites with verification on. Other sites are ignored.
  • Once per deploy. Each deploy is verified once. To verify again, deploy again. Netlify doesn’t resend a notification IronBee missed.
  • Non-blocking. The verification never holds up a deploy.

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Managing the installation

On Netlify, the extension has two panels:
  • Team (Extensions > IronBee): the connection and the IronBee account the team reports to. Disconnect stops verification for every site on the team. The sites’ IronBee projects become Not active and keep their history. The deploy notifications IronBee created are removed on their next delivery.
  • Site (from a site’s menu):
    • Turn off verification
    • Which deploys
    • the health of the deploy notification. If Netlify paused it after repeated failures, click Resume notification. If it’s missing, turn verification off and on again.
To remove the extension, Disconnect first, then uninstall it from the team’s extension page. Uninstalling alone doesn’t tell IronBee. In the console, Integrations > Netlify lists the connected team with its Enabled sites, Status and when it was Connected. Manage on Netlify and Configure the Netlify extension open the extension. Expand the team to manage its sites. Each site’s actions menu (the three dots) holds:
  • Enable turns on verification for a site.
  • Edit type changes its verification type.
  • Disable stops verification and keeps the project’s history.
The gear icon next to an enabled site, Project settings, opens the project’s settings. Integrations, Netlify: the Acme team expanded, with its two sites marked Not enabled and the note that a site starts runs once its deploy notification is set up Integrations, Netlify: the Acme team expanded, with its two sites marked Not enabled and the note that a site starts runs once its deploy notification is set up

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Troubleshooting

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What’s next?

GitHub App

Repository access, the check on the commit, and the pull request comment.

Vercel

The same verification on Vercel preview deployments.