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I have to tell you about Dependabot πŸ€–

Mike Bifulco on May 31, 2019

Dependabot is an automation service that will automatically create PRs to keep your projects' dependencies up to date, and it is fucking wonderful....
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Amber Wilkie

Installed the shit out of this just now. LOVE it. Thank you so much!

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Mike Bifulco

You're welcome! I'm on an install-spree myself. I'm going to need someone to make a @dependabot-bot, to manage bot-related chores for me πŸ€–πŸ“‹

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Tim Downey

I discovered since the aquisition you can also configure the automatic PRs for security updates directly in Github:

help.github.com/en/articles/config...

I believe it uses Dependabot still and can be a lower friction avenue for getting some of these benefits.

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Ben Halpern

We use it in our repo, here's an example:

Bump aws-sdk-lambda from 1.25.0 to 1.26.0 #2970

Bumps aws-sdk-lambda from 1.25.0 to 1.26.0.

Changelog

Sourced from aws-sdk-lambda's changelog.

1.26.0 (2019-05-21)

  • Feature - API update.
Commits

Dependabot compatibility score

Dependabot will resolve any conflicts with this PR as long as you don't alter it yourself. You can also trigger a rebase manually by commenting @dependabot rebase.


Dependabot commands and options

You can trigger Dependabot actions by commenting on this PR:

  • @dependabot rebase will rebase this PR
  • @dependabot recreate will recreate this PR, overwriting any edits that have been made to it
  • @dependabot merge will merge this PR after your CI passes on it
  • @dependabot squash and merge will squash and merge this PR after your CI passes on it
  • @dependabot cancel merge will cancel a previously requested merge and block automerging
  • @dependabot reopen will reopen this PR if it is closed
  • @dependabot ignore this [patch|minor|major] version will close this PR and stop Dependabot creating any more for this minor/major version (unless you reopen the PR or upgrade to it yourself)
  • @dependabot ignore this dependency will close this PR and stop Dependabot creating any more for this dependency (unless you reopen the PR or upgrade to it yourself)
  • @dependabot use these labels will set the current labels as the default for future PRs for this repo and language
  • @dependabot use these reviewers will set the current reviewers as the default for future PRs for this repo and language
  • @dependabot use these assignees will set the current assignees as the default for future PRs for this repo and language
  • @dependabot use this milestone will set the current milestone as the default for future PRs for this repo and language
  • @dependabot badge me will comment on this PR with code to add a "Dependabot enabled" badge to your readme

Additionally, you can set the following in your Dependabot dashboard:

  • Update frequency (including time of day and day of week)
  • Automerge options (never/patch/minor, and dev/runtime dependencies)
  • Pull request limits (per update run and/or open at any time)
  • Out-of-range updates (receive only lockfile updates, if desired)
  • Security updates (receive only security updates, if desired)

Finally, you can contact us by mentioning @dependabot.


Dependabot has been acquired by GitHub  πŸŽ‰

We have been on it for a while and really love it!

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irreverentmike profile image
Mike Bifulco

Do you have a strategy for keeping up with Dependabot's PRs? Something like a team member or a daily shared task to manage the work?

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Ben Halpern

We restrict it to weekly PRs, which helps batch things better. We don't have to have much of a strategy otherwise because we have a pretty well-looked-after CI process and it's not too much of a burden on the rest of our setup.

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irreverentmike profile image
Mike Bifulco

Right on. I think I'll be switching to a weekly cadence for all of my projects as well. A well-looked-after CI process is something I need more of in my life πŸ‘€

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Love Huria

I have just started to use this, it also provides updates lower-level dependencies which are usually not in the "package.json". How safe it is to rely on the compatibility mentioned by the bot?