Connect Azure DevOps for auto-updates

Last updated: September 4, 2026

The Azure DevOps connector lets a Key Result or Initiative update itself from work items — completion of a backlog, epic or sprint, story points, bug counts by severity. The setup flow (Update mode › Set up auto update, then a short chat) is the same for every connector and is described in Set up automatic updates from a connector. This article covers only what is specific to Azure DevOps.

Before you connect Azure DevOps

  • A Rhythms Admin has enabled Azure DevOps under Settings › Workspace › Connectors. There is no Azure DevOps-side admin step, unless your organization's policy blocks personal access tokens.
  • You have access to the organization and project whose work items you want to track.

How Azure DevOps authentication works

Rhythms signs in with a Personal Access Token (PAT) that you create.

  1. In Azure DevOps, click User settings (top right) › Personal access tokens › + New Token.
  2. Name it (for example "Rhythms"), choose an expiry that fits your security policy, and under Scopes grant read access to Identity, Work items, Project and Team and Wiki. Click Create and copy the token — it is shown once.
  3. In Rhythms, open My connectors › Azure DevOps › Connect (or the card in the setup chat), paste the token, and enter your Organization name if the token is scoped to one organization (for https://dev.azure.com/contoso, enter contoso). Leave it blank if the token covers all your organizations.

Each person connects with their own token, so Rhythms sees only the work items your account can see.

What you can track from Azure DevOps

  • Work item completion — closed versus total for a project, backlog, epic or saved query
  • Story points or effort completed
  • Bug counts by severity or state
  • Sprint progress — items in an iteration, by state
  • Items by area path or assignee

Give Rhythms the organization and project, and describe the scope — an iteration, an area path, a work item type, a saved query. Rhythms writes the work item query (WIQL), shows the current value, and re-runs the query on every sync.

Limits

  • When the token expires, the connection shows an error; create a new token and click Reconnect in My connectors.
  • Rhythms reads work items and wiki pages; it never changes them.

Example prompts

  • "Track the percentage of user stories closed in the Customer Portal project."
  • "Sum story points completed in the current iteration of the Mobile team."

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