release-please-manifest-action

Opinionated action for running release-please in manifest mode.

A composite action which wraps release-please-action and github-app-token actions, with opinionated default settings focused on running release-please in manifest mode.

Features

• Focuses on and only supports running release-please's manifest command.
• Optionally supports having release-please authenticate as a GitHub App.
• By default places release-please config and manifest files within the top-level .github directory instead of in the repository root:
  • .github/release-please-manifest.json
  • .github/release-please-config.json

Examples

Basic (Actions Token)

This example will have release-please authenticate using secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN that is automatically available to all actions.

This will prevent checks / GitHub Actions running against any Release Pull Requests raised by release-please. This is a feature of GitHub as a means of trying to avoid GitHub Actions jobs triggering themselves, causing an endless loop.

If you need checks to run against Release Pull Requests, you will need to have release-please authenticate with a Personal Access Token (PAT), or as a GitHub App.

on: push
jobs:
  release-please:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: jimeh/release-please-manifest-action@v0

The above is equivalent to:

on: push
jobs:
  release-please:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: google-github-actions/release-please-action@v3
        id: release-please
        with:
          command: manifest
          config-file: .github/release-please-config.json
          manifest-file: .github/release-please-manifest.json

Note: Outputs are not included in this equivalence example.

Personal Access Token (PAT) Authentication

This example will have release-please authenticate with a user's Personal Access Token (PAT), performing all operations on behalf of that user. Allowing checks / GitHub Actions to run against Release Pull Requests.

It is common to have a dedicated "bot" user created for these purposes. But within paid organizations, that means an extra user seat needs to be paid for. In that case you might prefer using a GitHub App instead.

on: push
jobs:
  release-please:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: jimeh/release-please-manifest-action@v0
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_PAT_TOKEN }}

The above is equivalent to:

on: push
jobs:
  release-please:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: google-github-actions/release-please-action@v3
        id: release-please
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_PAT_TOKEN }}
          command: manifest
          config-file: .github/release-please-config.json
          manifest-file: .github/release-please-manifest.json

Note: Outputs are not included in this equivalence example.

GitHub App Authentication

This example will have release-please authenticate as a GitHub App, performing all operations on behalf of the app.

This has a few benefits compared to using the token provided by GitHub Actions or a user's personal access token:

• It allows checks / GitHub Actions to run against the Release Pull Requests raised by release-please.
• An app can be given permissions to access all repos within an organization.
• Compared to creating a separate "bot" user, paid organizations do not need to pay for an extra user seat when using an app.

Below we assume you have already setup RELEASE_BOT_APP_ID and RELEASE_BOT_PRIVATE_KEY secrets in the repository or organization.

To set the private key secret, it is easiest to base64 encode the contents of the *.pem file you get from the GitHub App's configuration page. The base64 encoded string should not have any line-breaks.

on: push
jobs:
  release-please:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    steps:
      - uses: jimeh/release-please-manifest-action@v0
        with:
          app-id: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_BOT_APP_ID }}
          private-key: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_BOT_PRIVATE_KEY }}

The above is equivalent to:

on: push
jobs:
  release-please:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    steps:
      - uses: tibdex/github-app-token@v1
        id: github-app-token
        with:
          app_id: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_BOT_APP_ID }}
          private_key: ${{ secrets.RELEASE_BOT_PRIVATE_KEY }}
      - uses: google-github-actions/release-please-action@v3
        id: release-please
        with:
          token: ${{ steps.github-app-token.outputs.token }}
          command: manifest
          config-file: .github/release-please-config.json
          manifest-file: .github/release-please-manifest.json

Note: Outputs are not included in this equivalence example.

Reference

Inputs

parameter	description	required	default
token	GitHub token used to authenticate.	false	${{ github.token }}
app-id	ID of the GitHub App to use for authentication. If set, takes precedence over token input.	false
private-key	Private key of the GitHub App (can be Base64 encoded). Required when app-id is provided.	false
installation-id	ID of the installation for which the app token will be requested. Defaults to the ID of the repository's installation.	false
permissions	JSON-stringified permissions granted to the app token. Defaults to all the GitHub app permissions, see: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/apps/apps#create-an-installation-access-token-for-an-app	false
github-api-url	Configure github API URL.	false	${{ github.api_url }}
repository	The full name of the repository to operate on in owner/repo format. Defaults to the current repository.	false	${{ github.repository }}
default-branch	Branch to open pull release PR against. Defaults to the repository's default branch.	false
config-file	Pat to config file within the project.	false	.github/release-please-config.json
manifest-file	Path to manifest file within the project.	false	.github/release-please-manifest.json

Outputs

parameter	description
release_created	Whether or not a release was created.
releases_created	Whether or not a release was created.
id	Release ID.
name	Release name.
tag_name	Release tag name.
sha	Release sha
body	Release body.
html_url	Release URL.
draft	Whether or not the release is a draft.
upload_url	Release upload URL.
path	Path that was released.
version	Version that was released.
major	Major version that was released.
minor	Minor version that was released.
patch	Patch version that was released.
paths_released	Paths that were released.
pr	Pull request number.
prs	Pull request numbers.
release-please	All outputs from release-please action as a JSON string.

License

CC0 1.0 Universal