# forge
Keeps a GitHub account's repositories in line with one manifest. It sets what
the API can set: repo settings, Actions permissions, rulesets, variables,
secrets and deployment environments. It checks and reports what needs a
commit or a person to fix: shared CI workflows, Cargo lints, Dockerfiles,
releases that didn't reach crates.io, Homebrew or winget, and open Dependabot
alerts.
## Install
```sh
cargo install forgectl # installs the `forge` command
brew install lkurcak/tap/forge
```
Binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows are on the
[releases page](https://github.com/lkurcak/forge/releases). forge calls the
API through the [GitHub CLI](https://cli.github.com/), so `gh` must be
installed and signed in.
## Getting started
```sh
forge init # write forge.toml, listing every repo you own
forge check # report where repos differ from it; exits 1 if any do
forge apply # fix what forge can, and list the rest
```
`forge init` tags each repo by language and visibility, under a starter set
of settings and tags. Remove repos forge shouldn't manage and adjust the rest
before the first `forge apply`. Only keys in the manifest are checked, so
anything it leaves out stays as it is.
The manifest is the first of:
1. `--manifest PATH`, or `$FORGE_MANIFEST`;
2. `forge.toml` in the current directory;
3. `forge/forge.toml` in the config directory: `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME`, else
`~/.config` (`%APPDATA%` on Windows).
A repo of its own gives the manifest history and review. Symlink it into the
config directory to run forge from anywhere.
## Commands
```sh
forge check [REPO…] # report drift; exits 1 if anything differs
forge apply [REPO…] # fix drift
forge list # managed repos, and owned ones the manifest doesn't cover
forge stale [--days 90] # open issues and PRs nobody has touched in that long
forge bump [--dry-run] [REPO…] # open PRs moving [pins] to the latest release
forge deps [--dry-run] [REPO…] # a PR per Rust repo updating Cargo.lock, tested here first
forge init [--owner NAME] # write a starter manifest
```
`forge stale` covers every repo the owner has, managed or not, leaving out
issues with a label in `[stale] ignore_labels` (a backlog of feature ideas,
say). It only lists them.
## Manifest
```toml
owner = "you"
release_tag_prefix = "v"
[settings]
allow_merge_commit = false
[tags.rust]
calls = ["rust-ci"]
[repos.tool]
tags = ["rust", "security"]
rulesets = ["protect-default-branch"]
```
- Top-level `settings`, `actions` and `rulesets` apply to every repo. A
repo's own table overrides them: `settings` and `actions` key by key,
`rulesets` wholesale.
- `[settings]` goes to `PATCH /repos/{owner}/{repo}`, so any key that
endpoint takes works.
- `[actions]` goes to `/actions/permissions` (whether Actions run and which
actions may), `[actions.workflow]` to `/actions/permissions/workflow` (the
`GITHUB_TOKEN`'s defaults), and `[actions.selected-actions]` to the
allowlist, checked while `allowed_actions` is `selected`.
- `rulesets = [...]` names rulesets, applied as repository rulesets. Private
repos only get theirs with `private_rulesets = true` at the top level,
since rulesets there need GitHub Pro (or Team, for an organization): the
plan can lapse without the manifest changing. Built in:
- `protect-default-branch`: no deleting or force-pushing the default branch
- `require-pr`: changes to the default branch go through a PR
- `require-pr-title`: the shared PR title check must pass
- `protect-release-tags`: no deleting or moving `vX.Y.Z` tags
A `rulesets/NAME.json` next to the manifest adds a ruleset, or replaces a
built-in one, with a body in the
[REST API shape](https://docs.github.com/en/rest/repos/rules).
- `private_ci = "INPUT"` names an input of the shared workflows that
private repos' calls must turn on and public ones' leave off, like
`rust-ci.yml`'s `light`: only private repos' Actions minutes are billed.
Off by default, so every repo runs full CI. Calls of a workflow without
that input aren't affected.
- `release_tag_prefix`: the latest GitHub release of each repo must be
tagged this plus `X.Y.Z`. A repo can set its own, or `releases = false` for
releases that aren't versions of it (a Homebrew tap's bottles, say).
### Tags
A repo's `tags = [...]` bring the requirements under `[tags.NAME]`. A tag
without a table is just a label. A tag can carry:
- `settings`, applied over the top-level ones and under the repo's own;
- `rulesets`, added to the repo's own;
- `variables = { NAME = "value" }`, Actions variables;
- `secrets = { NAME = "~/path" }`, Actions secrets, read from local files.
They're only set when missing, since GitHub never reveals their values;
`forge apply --update-secrets` overwrites them, after renewing a token, say.
`forbidden_secrets = [...]` must not exist;
- `[tags.NAME.environments.ENV]`, a deployment environment that must exist.
`deploy_tags = [...]` lets only those tag patterns deploy to it, and no
branch;
- `calls = [...]`, shared workflows the repo must call (see below). A repo
declines one with the `no-WORKFLOW` tag;
- `needs_public = true`, for features GitHub only offers public repos. Every
public repo then has to carry the tag or decline it with `no-NAME`, and a
private one carrying it is reported, so a visibility change shows up;
- `[tags.NAME.lints]`, lints every Cargo package must set (or inherit from
`[workspace.lints]`), at least this strictly, in Cargo's `[lints]` shape;
- `dockerfile_runs = [...]`, commands some `RUN` of the root Dockerfile must
run.
Lints, Dockerfiles and workflow calls are only reported, since fixing them
means committing to the repo.
### Shared workflows
`[workflows]` maps the file a repo calls a shared workflow from to the
workflow's `uses:` reference:
```toml
[workflows]
"ci.yml" = "lkurcak/forge/.github/workflows/rust-ci.yml@v1"
```
forge reads each shared workflow at that ref, and checks that callers use the
same ref and only inputs it has. Calling one tags the repo with the
workflow's name (`rust-ci`) and with each input it turns on
(`container: true` tags it `container`), so those tags' requirements apply.
This repo's workflows are public, and anyone can call them at `@v1`, which
moves along with compatible changes:
- [`rust-ci.yml`](.github/workflows/rust-ci.yml): fmt, clippy, tests on
Linux, macOS and Windows, docs, packaging and the MSRV. With
`container: true` it builds and publishes a multi-arch image to ghcr.io
instead of testing on macOS and Windows. With `light: true`, for repos
whose Actions minutes are billed (private ones), it's a sanity check: one
Linux job on pull requests (fmt, clippy and, unless `tests: false`, the
tests), and on pushes only the image, for linux/amd64 unless
`arm64: true`.
- [`rust-release.yml`](.github/workflows/rust-release.yml): on a `vX.Y.Z`
tag, publishes to crates.io through trusted publishing, attaches binaries
to the GitHub release, and bumps the formula in `{owner}/homebrew-tap` and
the package in winget-pkgs. forge then checks the latest release reached
each of them.
- [`pr-title.yml`](.github/workflows/pr-title.yml): PR titles follow
[Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/). Private
repos skip it, since their minutes are billed. A skipped check counts as
passed, so forge leaves the `require-pr-title` ruleset out on private
repos, even with `private_rulesets = true`.
- [`t-ci.yml`](.github/workflows/t-ci.yml): checks repos written in
[T](https://github.com/lkurcak/t-lang).
Each file's header shows how to call it, and its inputs say what they do.
### Pins
A shared workflow's inputs can pin a release of another repo, like a T
repo's `t-version` and the sha256 of its archive. `[pins]` says which, by
the file the call is in:
```toml
[pins."t.yml"]
release = "lkurcak/t-lang" # whose latest release the inputs should name
version = "t-version" # the input holding its tag
sha256 = "t-sha256" # the input holding an asset's sha256, if any,
asset = "t-lang-{tag}-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz" # of this asset
```
`forge check` reports a repo whose pin is behind that repo's latest release.
`forge bump` opens a PR in each such repo moving the inputs there (the
sha256 from the digest GitHub keeps of the asset), and turns on auto-merge,
so it merges itself once the repo's required checks pass: give those repos
the `require-ci` ruleset and `allow_auto_merge`.
### Updating dependencies
`forge deps` moves each Rust repo's Cargo.lock to the newest versions its
Cargo.toml allows (`cargo update`), runs clippy and the tests on this
machine the way `rust-ci.yml` does, and if they pass opens one PR,
`chore(deps): update dependencies`, listing each crate it moved. Where the
repo allows auto-merge, it's turned on. Newer versions Cargo.toml doesn't
allow are listed too, since taking them means editing it. `--dry-run` stops
before the PR. A repo whose PR from an earlier run is still open is left
alone.
It takes the place of Dependabot's version updates, which open a PR per
crate, each running CI on minutes a private repo pays for. Dependabot's
security updates still cover vulnerabilities between runs.
Repos are cloned into `forge/repos/OWNER/REPO` in the cache directory
(`$XDG_CACHE_HOME`, else `~/.cache`; `%LOCALAPPDATA%` on Windows) and kept
there, build cache and all, so later runs build incrementally. The checks'
output goes to `forge/logs/REPO.log`. A path dependency leading out of the
repo, like `../../libs/x`, is cloned from the owner's repo `x`, to where the
path expects it.
```toml
[deps]
alerts_only = ["maintenance"]
```
Repos with a tag in `alerts_only` are only updated while they have open
Dependabot alerts about Rust crates, unless named on the command line.
### Merging on green
The `require-ci` ruleset requires the check `ci / ok`. `rust-ci.yml` ends
with it: it passes only if every other job passed or was skipped, whichever
ones a repo's inputs turn on. `t-ci.yml` is that one job. So call them from
a job named `ci`. With it, and the `allow_auto_merge` setting, `gh pr merge
--auto` merges a PR once all of CI is green. On private repos it needs
`private_rulesets = true`, and so GitHub Pro.
### Releasing a version bump
`rust-release.yml` releases on a `vX.Y.Z` tag push. A repo that also calls
it on pushes to its default branch (see the file's header) has every
version bump released when it lands: if Cargo.toml's version has no tag
yet, the workflow tags the pushed commit and runs again on the tag. Only a
tag may deploy to the `release` environment, so crates.io and Homebrew are
still only published from tags.
### Also reported
- A `[pins]` input behind the release it pins (`forge bump` opens PRs).
- A latest release whose tag doesn't match `release_tag_prefix`, that lacks
one of the archives its release workflow builds, or that hasn't reached
crates.io, the Homebrew formula or winget-pkgs. An open PR delivering it
shows as pending.
- Open Dependabot alerts, as pending while a bot PR fixing one is under a
week old. Bot PRs open longer than a week are reported too.
## Credentials
forge uses the token gh holds for the manifest's `owner`
(`gh auth token --user OWNER`), so the active gh account doesn't matter.
When gh isn't signed in as the owner, as for an organization, it uses the
active account's token instead, which needs admin access to the owner's
repos. `GH_TOKEN` overrides both.
## Contributing
See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md).