Actions: start accepting a `config` as input #1991

dscho · 2025-09-01T16:58:51Z

GitGitGadget's GitHub Actions all implicitly use the defaultConfig that hard-codes the configuration of the OG GitGitGadget that supports the Git project (and the Git project only).

However, for a long time there have been feature requests and musings towards using GitGitGadget also for other projects.

GitGitGadget already does have some beginnings of a support for other projects, e.g. the IConfig interface. With these changes, that interface gets extended a little, a validator is added that can verify whether or not an arbitrary object conforms to that interface, and then new inputs are introduced, accepting this (JSON-encoded) configuration as a user-provided string. The idea is that a project-specific fork of https://github.com/gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget-workflows/ contains this configuration in the gitgitgadget-config.json file in a dedicated config branch, from where it is synchronized via a GitHub workflow to the repository variable called CONFIG.

This somewhat non-trivial setup allows the config to be conveniently tracked via Git, updated via Pull Requests, validated via GitHub workflows, and still to be used in a trivial manner in the main workflows via ${{ vars.CONFIG }} (as opposed to having to play games with multi-branch checkouts or curl'ing a file from a different branch).

This PR is step number 2 in that direction. Step number 1 was to register the cygwingitgadget GitHub org for experimenting with GitGitGadget support for a different mailing-list-based project than Git: Cygwin.

That org is where I experimented with this change as well as with all the others leading up to gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget-github-app#7.

This PR is stacked on top of #1993 and #1994

dscho · 2025-09-01T17:01:13Z

lib/project-config.ts

+export interface IRepoConfig {
+    name: string; // name of the repo
+    owner: string; // owner of repo holding the notes (tracking data)
+    baseOwner: string; // owner of upstream ("base") repo


@webstech since I started referring to the corresponding repository as upstream-repo, what would you think about the idea to rename this from baseOwner to upstreamOwner?

I have no issue with renaming. My choice in names may not always be as git oriented as they could be.

For the record, I am going forward with this: dscho@2de5309

dscho · 2025-09-01T17:02:25Z

lib/project-config.ts

+    owner: string; // owner of repo holding the notes (tracking data)
+    baseOwner: string; // owner of upstream ("base") repo
+    testOwner?: string; // owner of the test repo (if any)
+    owners: string[]; // owners of clones being monitored (PR checking)


@webstech what do you think about the idea to move this attribute to IAppConfig and to rename it to installedOn? That way, the repo still can have an upstreamOwner on whose repository, however, GitGitGadget is not installed...

This is used several times in CIHelper so the location could be justified. On the other hand, move it if you like.

Here is the in-development patch to do so: dscho@9c2e794.

dscho · 2025-09-02T11:57:44Z

Note to self: check whether default: ${{ vars.CONFIG }} works, and would avoid the need for the explicit config: ${{ vars.CONFIG }} lines added in gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget-workflows@2952485.

webstech · 2025-09-04T06:05:36Z

An aside while I was looking at this, I noticed CIHelper.parsePRURLInput() could be using getPullRequestKeyFromURL.

In gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget#1991, I adjusted and augmented the `IConfig` interface a bit. Concretely, I renamed `repo.baseOwner` to `repo.upstreamOwner` in 2de5309e (IConfig: rename the attribute defining the `upstream-repo`'s org, 2025-09-08) and moved `repo.owners` to `app.installedOn` in 9c2e7944 (IConfig: move `repo.owners` to a better place, 2025-09-08). Let's adjust to that new schema. Note: the `baseOwner` and `owners` attributes are left as-are, for the transitional period until that PR and its friends are merged. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

There was prior art that I should have used, as pointed out in gitgitgadget#1991 (comment) Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

dscho · 2025-09-10T07:54:56Z

An aside while I was looking at this, I noticed CIHelper.parsePRURLInput() could be using getPullRequestKeyFromURL.

True! I have implemented that (still need to clean up the branch thicket, it needed fixes): dscho@8b3badb

Note to self: check whether default: ${{ vars.CONFIG }} works, and would avoid the need for the explicit config: ${{ vars.CONFIG }} lines added in gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget-workflows@2952485.

Okay, this does not work:

as text

Error: /home/runner/work/gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget/./check-run/action.yml (Line: 7, Col: 14): Unrecognized named-value: 'vars'. Located at position 1 within expression: vars.CONFIG
Error: Failed to load /home/runner/work/gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget/./check-run/action.yml

Sadness!

Even more sad is the excuse of a documentation of inputs.<input_id>.default which does not even mention that some contexts can be used, as some smarter people found out. But of course nothing official, because why would anyone want to know what they can use, and what not?</s>

There was prior art that I should have used, as pointed out in gitgitgadget#1991 (comment) Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

In gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget#1991, I adjusted and augmented the `IConfig` interface a bit. Concretely, I renamed `repo.baseOwner` to `repo.upstreamOwner` in c374c542 (IConfig: rename the attribute defining the `upstream-repo`'s org, 2025-09-08) and moved `repo.owners` to `app.installedOn` in 907807fb (IConfig: move `repo.owners` to a better place, 2025-09-08). Let's adjust to that new schema. Note: the `baseOwner` and `owners` attributes are left as-are, for the transitional period until that PR and its friends are merged. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

There was prior art that I should have used, as pointed out in gitgitgadget#1991 (comment) Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

dscho · 2025-10-07T06:35:47Z

@webstech would you kindly have a look?

In my endeavor to support projects other than Git, I am currently adapting GitGitGadget to allow sending Cygwin PRs to the Cygwin-patches mailing list. I identified a couple of gaps in the project configuration when setting up stuff in https://github.com/cygwingitgadget. Let's close those gaps. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

We've settled on the nomenclature `upstream-repo` to refer to the original repository of the project, as opposed to the `pr-repo` which is a fork that exists exclusively to let GitGitGadget handle PRs in (and to store its global state in the Git notes). So let's call the owner of the `upstream-repo` the `upstreamOwner`, not the `baseOwner`. Besides, with GitHub's naming conventions referring to the branch a PR targets as the "base", it is a bit confusing to have `baseOwner` to refer to anything except the owner of the repository in which the PR lives. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

The `owners` array refers to a list of orgs/owners where the GitHub App is installed, i.e. where GitGitGadget can operate. Therefore, a much better place is `app.installedOn`. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

The idea is to configure GitGitGadget via a `gitgitgadget-config.json` file that contains the project-specific instance of the `IConfig` interface, tracked in the `config` branch of a fork of the `gitgitgadget-workflows` repository, from where it is automatically synchronized via a GitHub workflow to the repository variable `CONFIG`, and then passed to all of GitGitGadget's Actions via: ```yml config: '${{ vars.CONFIG }}' ``` For now, this input is optional, to ease the transition of GitGitGadget; Eventually, this config will be required, so that several projects can be served using identical source code in forks of the `gitgitgadget-github-app` and `gitgitgadget-workflows` repositories. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

GitGitGadget now accepts the project configuration as a `config` Action input, in the form of a string that contains the JSON-encoded `IConfig` object. That is a bit fragile, though, as it is all-too-easy to have a typo in that object. Let's install `typia` to use the `IConfig` interface as a source of truth when validating the user input. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

This uses the freshly-installed `typia` module to create a validator for the `IConfig` interface at compile-time, and uses it to validate user-provided JSON against that interface. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

For the `typia`-based validator, it is good to label each and every attribute's type so that the error messages are helpful. This commit is best viewed with `--ignore-space-change`. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

This way, the maximal number of columns can be configured freely per project, via the project-specific config. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

Currently this URL is constructed from the `host` and the `name` attributes of the project config setting's `mailrepo` attribute. However, the `name` is supposed to refer to the mailing list _mirror repository_, while we are interested in the URL where the web UI of the public-inbox instance lives. Luckily, we already have that in the project configuration: It's the `url` attribute. I noticed the need for this patch in cygwingitgadget/cygwin#1, where the URL displayed after submitting v1 pointed to an incorrect location. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

There was prior art that I should have used, as pointed out in gitgitgadget#1991 (comment) Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

webstech · 2025-10-09T05:18:06Z

lib/project-config.ts

        name: string; // name of the repo
        owner: string; // owner of repo holding the notes (tracking data)
-        baseOwner: string; // owner of upstream ("base") repo
+        upstreamOwner: string; // owner of upstream ("base") repo


The comment may be redundant now. It was probably originally trying to create the base to upstream relationship.

webstech · 2025-10-09T05:19:30Z

lib/project-config.ts

-    if (!newConfig.repo.baseOwner.match(/^[a-z\d](?:[a-z\d]|-(?=[a-z\d])){0,38}$/i)) {
-        throw new Error(`Invalid 'baseOwner' ${newConfig.repo.baseOwner} in ${filePath}`);
+    if (!newConfig.repo.upstreamOwner.match(/^[a-z\d](?:[a-z\d]|-(?=[a-z\d])){0,38}$/i)) {
+        throw new Error(`Invalid 'baseOwner' ${newConfig.repo.upstreamOwner} in ${filePath}`);


Change the error constant baseOwner to upstreamOwner?

webstech · 2025-10-09T05:36:28Z

lib/ci-helper.ts

            const openPRCommits = (
                await Promise.all(
-                    this.config.repo.owners.map(async (repositoryOwner) => {
+                    this.config.app.installedOn.map(async (repositoryOwner) => {


Not sure I agree with the naming but I won't disagree. Maybe it is authorized/allowed owners. Maybe I am still thinking about things still working without the app. Like many things in life, I can accept the name change.

As this gets implemented into other projects, changing the config will get more difficult.

webstech · 2025-10-09T05:50:32Z

fyi, review is in progress. Will remove this comment later.

dscho requested a review from webstech September 1, 2025 16:58

dscho self-assigned this Sep 1, 2025

dscho commented Sep 1, 2025

View reviewed changes

dscho force-pushed the vars-CONFIG branch from 779f9ee to b167ec7 Compare September 1, 2025 23:49

This was referenced Sep 1, 2025

Add functionality to initialize the Git notes #1995

Draft

Consume project-specific settings from the CONFIG repository variable gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget-workflows#13

Draft

dscho force-pushed the vars-CONFIG branch from c7b3c82 to a8ac2f7 Compare September 2, 2025 12:48

dscho mentioned this pull request Sep 2, 2025

Require a project-specific config as repository variable #2002

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dscho force-pushed the vars-CONFIG branch from a8ac2f7 to c773f90 Compare October 6, 2025 21:19

This was referenced Oct 6, 2025

Add an Action to create/update Check Runs conveniently #2029

Draft

Add the validate-config Action #2030

Draft

Allow deploying from forks, to support projects other than Git gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget-github-app#8

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dscho force-pushed the vars-CONFIG branch from a78105b to deec2e1 Compare October 7, 2025 06:14

dscho mentioned this pull request Oct 7, 2025

Consume project-specific settings from the CONFIG repository variable gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget-github-app#7

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dscho marked this pull request as ready for review October 7, 2025 06:35

dscho requested a review from mjcheetham October 7, 2025 06:35

dscho enabled auto-merge October 7, 2025 06:37

dscho added 10 commits October 7, 2025 09:19

IConfig: move repo.owners to a better place

9890596

The `owners` array refers to a list of orgs/owners where the GitHub App is installed, i.e. where GitGitGadget can operate. Therefore, a much better place is `app.installedOn`. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

npx typia setup

255ece3

Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

IConfig: avoid "anonymous types"

e68da6a

For the `typia`-based validator, it is good to label each and every attribute's type so that the error messages are helpful. This commit is best viewed with `--ignore-space-change`. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

Include the LintCommit configuration in IConfig

d25eafa

This way, the maximal number of columns can be configured freely per project, via the project-specific config. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

dscho force-pushed the vars-CONFIG branch from deec2e1 to 07b2da3 Compare October 7, 2025 07:21

webstech reviewed Oct 9, 2025

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Actions: start accepting a `config` as input #1991

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dscho commented Sep 1, 2025 •

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Actions: start accepting a `config` as input #1991

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