theJenix / pr-branch-action

open a pull request when a branch is pushed or updated

Automated Branch Pull Requests

This action will open a pull request to master branch (or otherwise specified) whenever a branch with some prefix is pushed to. The idea is that you can set up some workflow that pushes content to branches of the repostory, and you would then want this push reviewed for merge to master.

Here is an example of what to put in your .github/workflows/pull-request.yml file to trigger the action.

name: Pull Request on Branch Push
on:
  push:
    branches-ignore:
      - staging
      - launchpad
      - production
jobs:
  auto-pull-request:
    name: PullRequestAction
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: pull-request-action
        uses: vsoch/pull-request-action@master
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          BRANCH_PREFIX: "update/"
          PULL_REQUEST_BRANCH: "master"

Environment variables include:

• BRANCH_PREFIX: the prefix to filter to. If the branch doesn't start with the prefix, it will be ignored
• PULL_REQUEST_BRANCH: the branch to issue the pull request to. Defaults to master.
• PULL_REQUEST_BODY: the body for the pull request (optional)
• PULL_REQUEST_TITLE: the title for the pull request (optional)
• PULL_REQUEST_DRAFT: should the pull request be a draft PR? (optional; unset defaults to false)

The GITHUB_TOKEN secret is required to interact and authenticate with the GitHub API to open the pull request. The example is deployed here with an example opened (and merged) pull request here if needed.

Example use Case: Update Registry

As an example, I created this action to be intended for an organizational static registry for container builds. Specifically, you have modular repositories building container recipes, and then opening pull requests to the registry to update it.

• the container collection content should be generated from a separate GitHub repository, including the folder structure (manifests, tags, collection README) that are expected.
• the container collection metadata is pushed to a new branch on the registry repository, with namespace matching the GitHub repository, meaning that each GitHub repository always has a unique branch for its content.
• pushing this branch that starts with the prefix (update/) triggers the GitHub actions to open the pull request.

If the branch is already open for PR, it updates it. Take a look at this example for the pull request opened when we updated the previous GitHub syntax to the new yaml syntax. Although this doesn't describe the workflow above, it works equivalently in terms of the triggers.