docs: Added a Quick Start Guide to README #828

AdamVacha · 2024-02-13T22:38:04Z

While going through the documentation for setting up GitHub-action for Renovate I noticed there wasn't a very newbie friendly quick-start guide. I through one together in the README.md with some easy setup and navigation.

Quick Start

`Step 1: Renovate Explained`

Renovate is a nifty tool for automatically updating your projects dependencies so you don't have to manually! Lets go through how to setup a GitHub Action for Renovate.

`Step 2: Generate Personal Access Token (PAT)`

We must generate a PAT for Renovate in order for it to be able to interact with your GitHub.

Go to your GitHub settings.
Navigate to Developer settings (the very bottom) and then select Personal access tokens (Tokens (classic)).
Click Generate new token.
Choose the 'repo' category at the top.
Click Generate token at the bottom (and save it for later).

`Step 3: Add Your PAT as a Secret in Your Repo`

Now we add the PAT you created as a secret in your GitHub repo.

Go to your repository.
Navigate to Settings (top right) -> Secrets -> Actions.
Click New repository secret.
Name your secret RENOVATE_TOKEN and paste your PAT in the value field.
Click Add Secret.

`Step 4: Create renovate.json`

Renovate requires this .json file so lets setup a basic one.

Create renovate.json in the base of your repo.
Specify a base configuration:

{
  "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
  "extends": ["config:base"]
}

`Step 5: Set Up GitHub Action Workflow`

Here we need to setup the yaml for your Github Action Workflow.

Make a new directory in your repo titled .github/workflows.
Inside your new directory create a file renovate.yml.
Define the workflow

name: Renovate

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 3 * * *' 

jobs:
  renovate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Renovate
        uses: renovatebot/github-action@v40.0.3
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.RENOVATE_TOKEN }}

this sets up your workflow to run at 3am daily (editable) which is when Renovate will check your dependencies for updates.

Steps 4 and 5 involve some simple .json and .yaml config that I could have made mistakes on.
I apologize ahead of time if either the .json or .yaml for workflow is incorrect, I'm quite new myself :)

This is supposed to be a simple setup requiring a PAT set to "RENOVATE_TOKEN" that allows user to setup a 3am daily Renovate check.

Thanks!

viceice · 2024-02-14T08:55:28Z

README.md

+4. Name your secret `RENOVATE_TOKEN` and paste your PAT in the value field.
+5. Click `Add secret`.
+
+### `Step 4: Create renovate.json`


nope, not required step. renovate will onboard all accessable repos by default.

viceice · 2024-02-14T08:56:48Z

README.md

+
+1. Make a new directory in your repo titled `.github/workflows`.
+2. Inside your new directory create a file `renovate.yml`.
+3. Define the workflow 


Disable autodiscover and set repo explicit or set autodiscover filter for security reasons!

jsoref

Note that I really wished this was in the repository -- it would have saved me a lot of time and aggravation as I worked on preparing to write renovatebot/renovate#27346

I tried to get renovate-bot to work myself and failed miserably.

I ended up borrowing from a working instance -- and then I had to figure out how to change things:

update the version using vars
experiment with the meaning of null -- see the confusing definition of dryRun and null
fix the configuration to actually run in my fork -- I didn't get any output that hinted to me that this was a problem, which made me 😢.

jsoref · 2024-02-16T02:00:29Z

README.md

+## Quick Start
+
+### `Step 1: Renovate Explained`
+Renovate is a nifty tool for automatically updating your projects dependencies so you don't have to manually! Lets go through how to setup a GitHub Action for Renovate.


Suggested change

Renovate is a nifty tool for automatically updating your projects dependencies so you don't have to manually! Lets go through how to setup a GitHub Action for Renovate.

Renovate is a nifty tool for automatically updating your projects dependencies so you don't have to manually! Let's go through how to set up a GitHub Action for Renovate.

jsoref · 2024-02-16T02:02:50Z

README.md

+We must generate a PAT for Renovate in order for it to be able to interact with your GitHub.
+
+1. Go to your GitHub settings.
+2. Navigate to Developer settings (the very bottom) and then select Personal access tokens (Tokens (classic)).


You could link directly to

Generate new token (classic)
and
Generate new token, Fine-grained/repo-scoped

Note that both work.

this should link to https://docs.renovatebot.com/modules/platform/github/ there as some more about auth for github.

but you can also use the action to run agains other platforms 😉

jsoref · 2024-02-16T02:04:23Z

README.md

+  "extends": ["config:base"]
+}
+```
+### `Step 5: Set Up GitHub Action Workflow`


Suggested change

### `Step 5: Set Up GitHub Action Workflow`

### `Step 5: Set Up GitHub Action Workflow`

jsoref · 2024-02-16T02:04:41Z

README.md

@@ -36,6 +36,70 @@ GitHub Action to run Renovate self-hosted.
 | <a href="https://renovatebot.com"><img alt="Renovate enabled" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/renovate-enabled-brightgreen.svg?style=flat-square"></a>                                                                | Dependencies | Renovate             |
 | <a href="https://github.com/renovatebot/github-action/actions"><img alt="GitHub workflow status" src="https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/renovatebot/github-action/build.yml?style=flat-square"></a> | Build        | GitHub Actions       |

+## Quick Start
+
+### `Step 1: Renovate Explained`


I wouldn't call this a step.

jsoref · 2024-02-16T02:05:31Z

README.md

+### `Step 1: Renovate Explained`
+Renovate is a nifty tool for automatically updating your projects dependencies so you don't have to manually! Lets go through how to setup a GitHub Action for Renovate.
+
+### `Step 2: Generate Personal Access Token (PAT)`


I'm not sure I'd number the steps. I think it's better to just have an outline that links to named steps

Generate Personal Access Token (PAT)

-- I also wouldn't use backticks around these things.

jsoref · 2024-02-16T02:05:43Z

README.md

+
+```
+
+this sets up your workflow to run at 3am daily (editable) which is when Renovate will check your dependencies for updates.


Suggested change

this sets up your workflow to run at 3am daily (editable) which is when Renovate will check your dependencies for updates.

This sets up your workflow to run at 3am daily (editable) which is when Renovate will check your dependencies for updates.

Thank you so much for the suggestions guys! I will follow them all and update my PR when I'm back from vacation next week.

jsoref · 2024-02-16T15:18:29Z

README.md

@@ -36,6 +36,70 @@ GitHub Action to run Renovate self-hosted.
 | <a href="https://renovatebot.com"><img alt="Renovate enabled" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/renovate-enabled-brightgreen.svg?style=flat-square"></a>                                                                | Dependencies | Renovate             |
 | <a href="https://github.com/renovatebot/github-action/actions"><img alt="GitHub workflow status" src="https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/renovatebot/github-action/build.yml?style=flat-square"></a> | Build        | GitHub Actions       |

+## Quick Start


As noted, it might be worth adding the word GitHub here -- possibly with other words (Workflow, "using a"?)

Suggested change

## Quick Start

## Quick Start with a GitHub Workflow

AdamVacha and others added 3 commits February 13, 2024 17:30

Added a Quick Start Guide to README

0b51878

Update README.md

b76376d

Update README.md

822a2a8

viceice changed the title ~~Added a Quick Start Guide to README~~ docs: Added a Quick Start Guide to README Feb 14, 2024

viceice requested changes Feb 14, 2024

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docs: Added a Quick Start Guide to README #828

docs: Added a Quick Start Guide to README #828

AdamVacha commented Feb 13, 2024 •

edited

viceice Feb 14, 2024

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AdamVacha Feb 16, 2024

jsoref Feb 16, 2024

	### `Step 5: Set Up GitHub Action Workflow`

	### `Step 5: Set Up GitHub Action Workflow`

docs: Added a Quick Start Guide to README #828

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AdamVacha commented Feb 13, 2024 • edited

Quick Start

Step 1: Renovate Explained

Step 2: Generate Personal Access Token (PAT)

Step 3: Add Your PAT as a Secret in Your Repo

Step 4: Create renovate.json

Step 5: Set Up GitHub Action Workflow

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Generate Personal Access Token (PAT)

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AdamVacha commented Feb 13, 2024 •

edited

`Step 1: Renovate Explained`

`Step 2: Generate Personal Access Token (PAT)`

`Step 3: Add Your PAT as a Secret in Your Repo`

`Step 4: Create renovate.json`

`Step 5: Set Up GitHub Action Workflow`