🚀 GitHub Action for Committing Changes to Repository

🏗️ Multi-Architecture Support: amd64 and aarch64/arm64

⚠️ Recent Changes in v0.11.0

• Force behavior updated: force: true now uses git push --force (breaking change)
• New parameter: force_with_lease for safer force pushing with --force-with-lease
• Amend improvements: Can now combine amend: true with commit_message to change commit messages
• Release process: Fully automated releases - zero manual work required!

A powerful GitHub Action for automatically committing and pushing changes back to your repository. Perfect for automation workflows and integrates seamlessly with devops-infra/action-pull-request.

📦 Available on

• Docker Hub: devopsinfra/action-commit-push:latest
• GitHub Packages: ghcr.io/devops-infra/action-commit-push/action-commit-push:latest

✨ Features

• 📝 Custom commit messages: Add custom prefixes and messages to commits
• 🌿 Branch management: Create new branches automatically with optional timestamps
• ⏰ Timestamp support: Add timestamps to branch names for cron-based updates
• 🔄 Integration-ready: Works seamlessly with other DevOps workflows
• 💪 Force push options: Support for --force and --force-with-lease when needed
• 🔀 Pull request integration: Perfect companion for automated PR workflows

📊 Badge Swag

📖 API Reference

    - name: Run the Action
      uses: devops-infra/action-commit-push@master
      with:
        github_token: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
        add_timestamp: true
        commit_prefix: "[AUTO]"
        commit_message: "Automatic commit"
        force: false
        force_with_lease: false
        target_branch: update/version

🔧 Input Parameters

Input Variable	Required	Default	Description
github_token	Yes	""	Personal Access Token for GitHub for pushing the code.
add_timestamp	No	false	Whether to add the timestamp to a new branch name. Uses format %Y-%m-%dT%H-%M-%SZ.
amend	No	false	Whether to make an amendment to the previous commit (--amend). Can be combined with commit_message to change the commit message.
commit_prefix	No	""	Prefix added to commit message. Combines with commit_message.
commit_message	No	""	Commit message to set. Combines with commit_prefix. Can be used with amend to change the commit message.
force	No	false	Whether to use force push (--force). Use only when you need to overwrite remote changes. Potentially dangerous.
force_with_lease	No	false	Whether to use force push with lease (--force-with-lease). Safer than force as it checks for remote changes. Set fetch-depth: 0 for actions/checkout.
no_edit	No	false	Whether to not edit commit message when using amend (--no-edit).
organization_domain	No	github.com	GitHub Enterprise domain name.
target_branch	No	current branch	Name of a new branch to push the code into. Creates branch if not existing.

📤 Output Parameters

Output	Description
files_changed	List of changed files, as returned by git diff --staged --name-status.
branch_name	Name of the branch code was pushed into.

💻 Usage Examples

📝 Basic Example: Commit and Push to Current Branch

Commit and push changes to the currently checked out branch.

name: Push changes
on:
  push
jobs:
  change-and-push:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Change something
        run: |
          find . -type f -name "*.md" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i "s/foo/bar/g"
      - name: Commit and push changes
        uses: devops-infra/action-commit-push@master
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          commit_message: "Replace foo with bar"

🔀 Advanced Example: Commit, Push, and Create Pull Request

Commit and push changes to a new branch and create a pull request using devops-infra/action-pull-request.

name: Push changes and create PR
on:
  push
jobs:
  change-and-push:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Change something
        run: |
          find . -type f -name "*.md" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i "s/foo/bar/g"
      - name: Commit and push changes
        uses: devops-infra/action-commit-push@master
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          commit_prefix: "[AUTO-COMMIT] "
          commit_message: "Replace foo with bar"
      - name: Create pull request
        uses: devops-infra/action-pull-request@master
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          body: "**Automated pull request**<br><br>Replaced foo with bar"
          title: ${{ github.event.commits[0].message }}

💪 Force Push Example: Amending Previous Commit

When you need to amend the previous commit and force push (useful for fixing commit messages or adding forgotten changes).

name: Amend and force push
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      new_commit_message:
        description: 'New commit message'
        required: true
        default: 'Updated commit message'

jobs:
  amend-commit:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository with full history
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0  # Required for force_with_lease
      - name: Make some changes
        run: |
          echo "Additional content" >> README.md
      - name: Amend and force push with lease
        uses: devops-infra/action-commit-push@master
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          commit_message: ${{ github.event.inputs.new_commit_message }}
          amend: true
          force_with_lease: true  # Safer force push option

📝 Amend Options

When using amend: true, you have several options for handling the commit message:

1. Change the commit message: Set commit_message to provide a new message

   - uses: devops-infra/action-commit-push@master
     with:
       github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
       commit_message: "Fixed typo in documentation"
       amend: true
       force_with_lease: true

2. Keep existing message: Set no_edit: true to keep the original commit message

   - uses: devops-infra/action-commit-push@master
     with:
       github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
       amend: true
       no_edit: true
       force_with_lease: true

3. Default behavior: If neither is set, uses "Files changed:" with file list (when files are modified)

💡 Note: Amending works even without file changes - useful for just changing commit messages!

🚀 Release Process

This action follows a fully automated release workflow with zero manual intervention:

• Development branches: Only build and test Docker images (no push to Docker Hub)
• Test branches (test/*): Build and push Docker images with test- prefix for integration testing
• Master branch: Only build and test Docker images (no push to Docker Hub)
• Automatic releases: Triggered by pushes to master - no manual steps required!
• Weekly builds: Automated test builds run weekly and push test images

🤖 Fully Automated Releases

No manual work required! The system automatically:

1. Detects when a release is needed (new commits to master, excluding docs/dependencies)
2. Determines version type from merged branch names and commit messages:
   • minor: Merges from feat* branches or "feat:" in commits (v0.10.2 → v0.11.0)
   • patch: All other changes (v0.10.2 → v0.10.3)
3. Calculates next version using semantic versioning
4. Creates release branch with version updates using own action
5. PUSH-OTHER.yml creates the PR automatically
6. Publishes when PR is merged - Docker images, GitHub release, etc.

🚫 Smart Release Filtering

The system skips releases for:

• Documentation updates (docs* branches, docs: commits)
• Dependency updates (dep*, dependabot/* branches, dep: commits)
• README and other markdown file changes
• License updates

🎯 Manual Release Trigger (Optional)

You can also trigger releases manually via GitHub Actions UI:

1. Go to Actions → Auto-Version Release → Run workflow
2. Choose release type: "minor" or "major" (or leave as "auto" for detection)
3. Click Run workflow
4. System handles the rest automatically!

📝 Commit Message Conventions

To help with automatic version detection, use these patterns:

# Patch version (v0.10.2 → v0.10.3) - Most common
git commit -m "fix: resolve issue with force push"
git commit -m "docs: update README"
git commit -m "refactor: improve code structure"

# Minor version (v0.10.2 → v0.11.0) - Feature branches or feat commits
# Create feature branch:
git checkout -b feat/new-functionality
git commit -m "add new amend functionality"
# OR use feat prefix in commits:
git commit -m "feat: add new amend functionality"

🌿 Branch-Based Version Detection

The system prioritizes branch names for version detection:

• feat/* branches → Minor version bump (v0.10.2 → v0.11.0)

  git checkout -b feat/new-feature
  # When merged to master → minor version bump

• Other branches → Patch version bump (v0.10.2 → v0.10.3)

  git checkout -b fix/bug-fix
  git checkout -b docs/update-readme
  git checkout -b refactor/cleanup
  # When merged to master → patch version bump

🔢 Major Version Handling

• Major versions (X in vX.Y.Z) are only incremented manually
• Use Actions → Auto-Release → Run workflow and select "major"
• This is reserved for breaking changes or significant API changes

🧪 Testing with Test Branches

For testing changes before they reach master:

1. Create a branch starting with test/ (e.g., test/new-feature)
2. Push your changes to this branch
3. The workflow automatically builds and pushes Docker images with test- prefix
4. Use the test image in other workflows: devopsinfra/action-commit-push:test-latest

This ensures that:

• ✅ Zero manual release work - everything is automated
• ✅ Semantic versioning based on branch names and commit messages
• ✅ Test branches provide safe testing environments
• ✅ Only reviewed master commits trigger releases
• ✅ Docker images published only after PR review
• ✅ No human errors in version management

📌 Note: The action references specific versions in action.yml for stability, and the release process keeps these up-to-date automatically.

🎯 Version Usage Options

You can use this action in different ways depending on your needs:

🔄 Latest Version (Recommended)

- uses: devops-infra/action-commit-push@master

Always uses the latest release. Automatically gets new features and fixes.

📌 Pinned Version (Stable)

- uses: devops-infra/action-commit-push@v0.11.0

Uses a specific version. More predictable but requires manual updates.

⚠️ Force Push Options

This action provides two force push options for different scenarios:

🛡️ force_with_lease (Recommended)

• Uses git push --force-with-lease
• Safer option that checks if someone else has pushed changes to the remote branch
• Prevents accidentally overwriting other people's work
• Required: Set fetch-depth: 0 in your actions/checkout step
• Use case: Amending commits, rebasing, or other history modifications

⚡ force (Use with Caution)

• Uses git push --force
• Potentially dangerous as it will overwrite remote changes unconditionally
• No safety checks - will overwrite any remote changes
• Use case: Only when you're absolutely certain you want to overwrite remote changes

⚠️ Important: Never use both options simultaneously. force_with_lease takes precedence if both are set to true.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

📄 License

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

🔗 Related Actions

• devops-infra/action-pull-request - Create pull requests automatically
• devops-infra/.github - Shared GitHub configuration and templates

💬 Support

If you have any questions or need help, please:

• 📝 Create an issue
• 💬 Start a discussion
• 🌟 Star this repository if you find it useful!