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

cargo install forgectl            # installs the `forge` command
brew install lkurcak/tap/forge

Binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows are on the releases page. forge calls the API through the GitHub CLI, so gh must be installed and signed in.

Getting started

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

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 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

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 are skipped, since rulesets there need GitHub Pro. 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.

• 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:

[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: 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.
• 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: PR titles follow Conventional Commits.
• t-ci.yml: checks repos written in T.

Each file's header shows how to call it, and its inputs say what they do.

Also reported

• 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.