Flutter Diff Action

Run Flutter/Dart commands on changed files with intelligence

This project optimizes Flutter/Dart development workflows by running commands only on changed files, significantly speeding up CI/CD pipelines and local development.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Project Components
• GitHub Action
• How It Works
• Contributing

Overview

Flutter Diff Action provides tools to make your development and CI workflows more efficient by focusing on what's changed:

• ⚡ Faster workflows: Run commands only on files that have changed
• 🧪 Smarter testing: Automatically find and run corresponding test files
• 📦 Mono-repo friendly: Full support for Melos-based workspaces
• 🛠️ Flexible: Works with testing, analysis, and formatting commands

Project Components

This repository contains two complementary tools:

1. GitHub Action: For CI/CD pipelines to efficiently run commands on changed files
2. Dart CLI Tool: For local development to speed up testing and analysis workflows

Both tools intelligently identify changes, run commands only on affected files, and support mono-repo setups.

GitHub Action

The GitHub Action component lets you run Flutter commands only on changed files in your CI/CD workflows.

Setup

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: subosito/flutter-action@v2
  
  - name: Run on changed files
    uses: ProjectAJ14/flutter_diff_action@v1
    with:
      command: 'flutter test'
      branch: ${{ github.base_ref }}

Configuration Options

Parameter	Description	Required	Default
command	Command to execute on changed files	Yes	-
use-melos	Enable Melos support for mono-repos	No	false
working-dir	Working directory for the command	No	.
branch	Base branch for comparison	No	main
remote	Remote repository name	No	origin
debug	Show verbose debug output	No	false

Examples

Basic Test Workflow

- name: Test changed files
  uses: ProjectAJ14/flutter_diff_action@v1
  with:
    command: 'flutter test'

With Analysis

- name: Analyze & test changed files
  uses: ProjectAJ14/flutter_diff_action@v1
  with:
    command: 'flutter analyze'
    debug: true

For Mono-Repos

- name: Setup Melos
  run: dart pub global activate melos

- name: Test changed packages
  uses: ProjectAJ14/flutter_diff_action@v1
  with:
    command: 'flutter test'
    use-melos: true

With Custom Base Branch

- name: Test changed files
  uses: ProjectAJ14/flutter_diff_action@v1
  with:
    command: 'flutter test'
    branch: 'develop'

With Custom Remote

- name: Test changed files
  uses: ProjectAJ14/flutter_diff_action@v1
  with:
    command: 'flutter test'
    remote: 'upstream'

Common Workflows

CI/CD Pipeline

name: Flutter CI

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: subosito/flutter-action@v2
        with:
          flutter-version: '3.19.6'
      
      - name: Run Tests
        uses: ProjectAJ14/flutter_diff_action@v1
        with:
          command: 'flutter test --no-pub --coverage'
          branch: ${{ github.base_ref }}
          use-melos: true
          debug: true

How It Works

1. Determines changed files by comparing against the base branch
2. Filters the list to relevant Dart/Flutter files
3. For test commands, finds corresponding test files
4. Executes the requested command only on the affected files
5. Provides detailed output of results

Contributing

Contributions are welcome and appreciated! Here's how you can contribute:

• Report bugs: Open an issue describing the bug and how to reproduce it
• Suggest features: Open an issue describing your idea and its benefits
• Submit PRs: Implement bug fixes or features (please open an issue first)
• Improve docs: Fix typos, clarify explanations, add examples

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgements

Originally created by Ajay Kumar & Dipangshu Roy.

Special thanks to all contributors who have helped improve this project.