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Calendar sync — subscribe to the SquadBear absence feed

Subscribe Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar to a read-only feed of approved absences and public holidays from SquadBear. One-way, not a two-way sync.

SquadBear publishes your team's time off as a standard iCal feed, so who's off shows up right inside the calendar your team already lives in. It's a read-only subscription, not a two-way sync — the calendar reads SquadBear, never the other way around.

What the calendar feed does

It gives you one subscribable calendar of who's away. The feed contains approved absences — each an all-day event named for the person and their leave type — plus public holidays, over a rolling window. Pending and rejected requests never appear, so the calendar only ever shows time off that's actually booked. Once subscribed, your calendar app refreshes the feed on its own schedule; new approvals and upcoming holidays turn up without anyone re-sharing anything.

The feed itself is deliberately read-only. It never writes to your personal calendar, and nothing you do in Google Calendar or Outlook flows back into SquadBear. If you want to change leave, you do it in SquadBear (or by asking a connected assistant) — the feed is purely a window onto it.

If you're on Google Workspace and would rather have one shared team calendar that SquadBear keeps updated for you, that's the Google Calendar app — an admin installs it once and approved leave lands on a calendar SquadBear creates, with no one subscribing to anything.

How to subscribe

The feed URL is generated in SquadBear and then added to your calendar as a subscription:

  1. In SquadBear, open the Absence Calendar (or Admin → Settings) and generate the iCal feed URL. It's an opaque, revocable token — treat the link as a secret.
  2. Copy the feed URL and add it to your calendar app as a subscribed calendar (an ICS/iCal subscription), not a one-time import:
    • Google Calendar — Other calendars → From URL → paste the feed URL.
    • Outlook — Add calendar → Subscribe from web → paste the feed URL.
    • Apple Calendar — File → New Calendar Subscription → paste the feed URL.
  3. Your calendar polls the feed periodically and keeps the absence events up to date.

If a feed URL ever leaks, revoke it in SquadBear and generate a new one — the old link stops resolving immediately, so a shared link dies with its feed.

Prompts to try

The feed is one-way, but a connected assistant can answer the same "who's off?" questions live, and act on them:

Frequently asked questions

Is this a two-way calendar sync?

No. It's a read-only, one-way subscription. Your calendar reads the SquadBear absence feed; nothing you do in your calendar is written back to SquadBear.

What's the difference between the feed and the Google Calendar app?

The feed is a subscription each person adds to their own calendar app, and it works anywhere iCal does — Google, Outlook and Apple Calendar. The Google Calendar app is installed once by an admin and writes approved leave onto one shared calendar for the whole workspace. If you're on Google Workspace and want a single team calendar, use the app; use the feed for everything else, or if you'd rather each person subscribed themselves.

What shows up in the feed?

Approved absences — each as an all-day event named for the person and leave type — and public holidays, over a rolling window. Pending or rejected requests never appear.

Which calendar apps can subscribe?

Any app that supports iCal (ICS) subscription URLs — Google Calendar, Outlook and Apple Calendar all do. You add the feed URL as a subscribed calendar, not an import.

Is the feed URL sensitive?

Yes. The feed URL is a bearer credential — anyone with the link can read the calendar. It's a revocable token, so if a link leaks you generate a new feed URL and the old one stops working.

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