Connect Azure DevOps
Mirror Azure DevOps boards into Laya with two-way sync — Microsoft sign-in or PAT setup, what syncs, timing and management.
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Connecting Azure DevOps mirrors your project and team boards into Laya as live, editable Connected boards. Work items stay in Azure DevOps — Laya syncs changes both ways.
Why connect Azure DevOps
- Mirror every work item type in a project — states map to Laya columns using each process's own state categories, so custom processes work.
- Edit from Laya: state changes, fields, tags, iteration and area paths all write back as real work item updates.
- A Backlog tab shows queued items — the closest analogue to a backlog, since Azure DevOps has no first-class one.
- List team iterations (sprints) with dates, and create new iterations from Laya.
Before you start
There are two ways to authenticate:
- Microsoft sign-in (OAuth) — the Authorize with Azure DevOps button uses Microsoft Entra ID and requests a single delegated Azure DevOps permission (user impersonation), so Laya acts within your existing Azure DevOps permissions.
- Personal access token (PAT) — the "Advanced — connect with a personal access token instead" option. Create one in Azure DevOps under User settings → Personal access tokens → New Token, with the Work Items (Read & write) scope. The connect flow also recommends Project & Team (Read, write & manage), Graph (Read) and Identity (Read) — Project & Team write is what allows creating iterations from Laya.
Connect step by step
- Start the connect flowFrom your workspace, create a new board and choose the connect option — or open the Connected tab and choose Connect Azure DevOps.
- Pick Azure DevOps as the sourceOn the "Which tool is it in?" screen, choose Azure DevOps.
- AuthoriseOn "Authorize & choose boards", select Authorize with Azure DevOps and complete the Microsoft consent — or open the PAT disclosure and enter your Organization URL and Personal access token (PAT).
- Choose an organizationAfter OAuth, pick which of your Azure DevOps organisations to connect on the "Choose an organization" screen.
- Choose where it lives in LayaPick your personal workspace, an existing shared workspace, or Set up a shared workspace for my team — the same choice the Jira flow offers.
- Choose boards to mirrorThe "Choose boards to mirror" list shows project × team boards. Tick the ones you want; each row has a 2-way sync toggle.
- MirrorSelect Mirror N boards → and wait for "You're live in Laya", then Open board.
A workspace can hold connections to several Azure DevOps organisations at once — use "Connect a different Azure DevOps connection" to add more.
What syncs
| Data | Azure DevOps → Laya | Laya → Azure DevOps |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Yes | Yes |
| Description | Yes | Yes |
| State (status) | Yes — via each process's state categories | Yes |
| Work item type | Yes — all types in the project | Yes — chosen when creating a work item |
| Priority | Yes | Yes (mapped to Priority 1–4) |
| Assignee | Yes | Yes — assign or unassign |
| Tags | Yes | Yes |
| Story points / effort | Yes | Yes |
| Iteration path (sprint) | Yes | Yes — including creating team iterations |
| Area path | — | Yes |
| Due (target) date | — | Yes |
| Parent / child links | Yes — parents and children shown | Yes — set a parent on create; add or remove relations |
| Custom fields | — | Yes — by field reference name |
| Comments | Yes — read in the side panel | Add only — comments cannot be edited or deleted from Laya |
| Attachments | No | No |
Work items imported as native Laya rows (via a master board) keep syncing title, state, priority, story points and description in both directions, plus due date outbound. Assignee and work item type do not sync on imported rows — that is a current limitation.
Sync triggers and timing
- Laya → Azure DevOps: immediate. Edits push as work item updates with revision checks, so a stale edit fails safely instead of overwriting someone else's newer change.
- Azure DevOps → Laya: polling. A background poll refreshes every mirrored board on an active connection every 60 seconds (on by default; the Polling toggle in Settings controls it per connection). Open boards update live as the poll lands.
- On demand. Each board has Sync now ("Synced from Azure DevOps"), and opening a work item's detail panel refreshes that item immediately.
Managing the connection
The Manage page (workspace Settings → integrations → Azure DevOps) has Boards, Sync log and Settings tabs — per-board Sync now, Board Studio and Remove, a health card, the read-only sync log, the Polling toggle, Refresh credentials and Disconnect. See Managing connections.
Limitations
- Mirrors are capped at 400 work items per board, and items in the Removed state are excluded.
- Comments are add-only from Laya — no editing or deleting Azure DevOps comments.
- No attachment sync in either direction.
- No working inbound webhook yet — freshness is bounded by the 60-second poll and manual sync.
- Assignee and work item type do not sync on imported (native) rows.
- Microsoft sign-in cannot serve personal Microsoft accounts — use a PAT for those organisations.
Email support@laya.net — include what you expected, what happened, and a link to the affected board or item so we can help quickly.