To ensure that the 3rd-party JavaScript packages we depend on get updated routinely (for security patches, bug fixes, etc.), we use Renovate to regularly create pull requests that update them. To add Renovate to a repository with a package.json file:

  1. File an ARCHBOM ticket asking for Renovate to be enabled for the repository by adding it to the list of repositories at the bottom of the Renovate GitHub App settings .

  2. Review the auto-generated configuration PR and make any appropriate changes.  Here are a few examples: edx-platform, pa11ycrawler, paragon (updated here). Note that if the repository already has a Renovate configuration in renovate.json or package.json, that will be used and no PR will be created.

  3. Merge the configuration PR.  Renovate will soon start generating PRs according to the specified preferences and schedule.

For more context and historical notes on choosing this service, see the “Rationale” section below.

For details on configuring the bot, see the renovate doc.

Automerging and Required Reviews

If your repository requires PRs to have an approving review before merge, and you wish to use Renovate’s automerge features, you can use Renovate Approve to accomplish this: https://github.com/apps/renovate-approve

Renovate can’t approve its own PRs, and so will otherwise be unable to merge them. Renovate Approve automatically approves any PRs that Renovate generates, allowing automerges to be processed normally.

Rationale

To ensure that the 3rd-party JavaScript packages we depend on get updated routinely (for security patches, bug fixes, etc.), we use a service to regularly create pull requests that update them.  These pull requests notify us that the dependency has been updated and trigger test runs to check if the dependency can be safely upgraded without breaking functionality.  We now use Renovate for this (after an earlier experiment with Greenkeeper).

Why we use a service like this:

Renovate also supports other types of dependencies (such as Python packages, Docker base containers, etc.), but we can evaluate that independently of which tool to use for JS dependency upgrades.  It also has far more configuration options than we probably need, and supports using shared base configuration from an npm package or another git repository to avoid needing to update the configuration in every repository when making changes.

Notes on Alternatives

Things we didn't like about Greenkeeper after using it for a while, which Renovate at least partially addresses:

Greenkeeper was discontinued in June 2020, and they recommended switching to Snyk . We can evaluate Snyk as an alternative at some point, but haven’t felt a need to do so yet.