repo-manager

repo-manager is a GitHub Action that manages your repository for you based on a configuration file in your repository.

Configuration

Usage

Inputs

repo-manager offers three inputs that you can use to configure its behavior. The only required input is github-token.

NOTE: The token you provide MUST have full admin permissions on your repo. The built-in GitHub Actions token will not work.

1. github-token (required) : The OAuth token that repo-manager should use.
   • This token MUST have full admin permissions on your repo. Because of this, the built-in GitHub Actions token will not work.
   • NOTE: Make sure that you never put tokens in your workflow files directly. Always use GitHub Secrets to store these values.
2. config-file (optional) : The location of the config file that repo-manager should use. By default, repo-manager assumes that your config file is where Probot Settings needs it to be (.github/settings.yml). If you want to put your config file somewhere else in your repo, you can control that using this value.
3. debug (optional) : If you set this value to true, repo-manager will output more granular logs.

Examples

To use repo-manager, simply define a step in your workflow, providing your GitHub Token.

- uses: mattsb42/repo-manager@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.ADMIN_GITHUB_TOKEN }}

If you want to enable debug logging or use a special config file location, you indicate that with the other input values.

- uses: mattsb42/repo-manager@v1
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.ADMIN_GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    config-file: .github/config/repository.yaml
    debug: true

Design Goals

repo-manager was inspired by Probot Settings but is designed to solve two issues with that app:

1. Permissions : Out of necessity, Probot Settings requires you to either hand over administrator control of your repository to the Probot app or to run an instance of the app yourself. Granting these permissions is not always possible, and running your own app is extra overhead that I would rather not have to deal with.

   • repo-manager solves this problem by running as a GitHub Action using the credentials that you provide.

2. Debugging : Probot Settings lacks a feedback mechanism to let you know when it ran and what happened. This is especially frustrating if you are attempting to debug a bad config, when the only feedback you can get is that nothing happened.

   • Because repo-manager runs as a GitHub Action, you can see exactly when it ran and what happened.

Because it runs as a GitHub Action, you can also exert more fine control over when repo-manager runs, rather than simply running on any pushes to your default branch.

repo-manager is fully backwards compatible with Probot Settings config files, but will expand in the future to support more repository administration features.