Dependabot Failure Watcher #4
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| name: Dependabot Failure Watcher | |
| # Dependabot version updates run as GitHub Actions workflow runs named | |
| # "Dependabot Updates". This scheduled job looks back over the past week for any | |
| # version-update run that failed and fails itself if it finds one, so a | |
| # silently-broken ecosystem surfaces as a red scheduled run instead of only a red | |
| # triangle in the Dependabot tab that nobody checks. Security-update runs share | |
| # that workflow name and are deliberately excluded -- see below. | |
| # | |
| # GitHub reuses the "Dependabot Updates" name for three different kinds of run: | |
| # | |
| # 1. A version update's scheduled scan: one run per .github/dependabot.yml | |
| # entry, on the schedule set there. It works out what is out of date and | |
| # opens or updates pull requests. This is the kind this watcher primarily | |
| # exists to catch -- when a scan breaks, the whole ecosystem quietly stops | |
| # being updated and nothing else tells anyone. | |
| # 2. A version update's per-pull-request refresh: one run per already-open | |
| # Dependabot pull request, rebasing or re-checking it. These are not driven | |
| # by the schedule at all -- a push to the base branch, a rebase, or an | |
| # "@dependabot recreate" comment triggers them, so they arrive in bursts | |
| # after merges rather than at the scheduled time. A failure here means one | |
| # open pull request has gone stale, which is worth knowing but is much | |
| # narrower than a broken scan. | |
| # 3. A security update: one ad-hoc job per vulnerable package, triggered by a | |
| # Dependabot alert rather than by dependabot.yml at all. | |
| # | |
| # Kind 3 routinely fails for reasons no pull request can fix: the advisory is | |
| # against a dependency this project does not declare directly, or no patched | |
| # version is reachable. Counting those would keep this workflow permanently red | |
| # and train everyone to ignore it, so they are filtered out below. | |
| # | |
| # Of the fields "gh run list --json" exposes, only the title separates the three | |
| # -- event, headBranch and actor are identical. Titles come in these shapes: | |
| # | |
| # - "<eco> in /." -- kind 1 at the repo root, which | |
| # has no " for " suffix | |
| # - "<eco> in <configured-dir>" -- kind 1 elsewhere, path verbatim | |
| # - "<eco> in / for <deps>" -- kind 2 at the repo root | |
| # - "<eco> in <configured-dir> for <deps>" -- kind 2 elsewhere | |
| # - "<eco> in /. for <one-dep>" -- kind 3 at the repo root | |
| # - "<eco> in <manifest-dir> for <one-dep>" -- kind 3 elsewhere, where | |
| # <manifest-dir> is wherever the vulnerable manifest was discovered | |
| # | |
| # At the root, then, kind 3 is marked by "/." AND a " for " suffix together, and | |
| # BOTH HALVES of " in /. for " are load-bearing -- do not shorten it. Matching on | |
| # " in /." alone would also discard every kind 1 run, which is most of the runs | |
| # here and the shape both failures this watcher was written for actually took. | |
| # | |
| # Outside the root, kinds 2 and 3 cannot be told apart by title, so the filter | |
| # has to name directories instead. e2e/js and e2e/ts (in the Node repos this | |
| # workflow is shared with) are consumer smoke tests carrying committed | |
| # lockfiles, so their transitive dev dependencies attract advisories that no | |
| # pull request can fix, and nothing in them is shipped code. | |
| # | |
| # Be clear about the cost, because it is not zero: both Node repos configure npm | |
| # with directories: ["/", "**/*"], and that glob does match e2e/js and e2e/ts, | |
| # so those directories DO get version updates. Dropping the pattern therefore | |
| # discards their kind 2 failures as well as their kind 3 ones -- there is an | |
| # open version-update pull request under e2e/ts in both repos as this is | |
| # written. The npm ecosystem label does not rescue the distinction either: | |
| # Dependabot writes "npm_and_yarn" for both kinds, so "npm_and_yarn in /e2e/ts | |
| # for js-yaml" could be either a security job or the refresh of a | |
| # version-update pull request. | |
| # | |
| # Accepted deliberately anyway. Kind 1 is what this watcher primarily exists to | |
| # catch and is still reported for those directories, so what is given up is the | |
| # narrower "one open pull request has gone stale" signal, for two directories of | |
| # test scaffolding, in exchange for dropping 16 unactionable failures in each of | |
| # the two Node repos over retained history. | |
| # | |
| # Reading the directories out of dependabot.yml instead looks more general but is | |
| # worse: entries may use globs (directories: ["**/*"]), which never match a title | |
| # literally, so genuine failures would be dropped without a word. Prefer a | |
| # denylist: when it goes stale it re-introduces noise, which is loud, whereas a | |
| # stale allowlist hides failures, which is silent. | |
| # | |
| # Runs entirely within this repo (no external service). A failed scheduled run | |
| # emails the person who last edited the cron below. Note: GitHub auto-disables | |
| # scheduled workflows after 60 days of repo inactivity. | |
| on: | |
| schedule: | |
| - cron: "17 14 * * 3" # Wednesdays 14:17 UTC | |
| workflow_dispatch: | |
| permissions: | |
| actions: read | |
| jobs: | |
| check-dependabot-runs: | |
| runs-on: ubuntu-latest | |
| steps: | |
| - name: Fail if any Dependabot version update failed in the last 8 days | |
| env: | |
| GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }} | |
| REPO: ${{ github.repository }} | |
| run: | | |
| since=$(date -u -d '8 days ago' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ) | |
| # --created filters server-side, so --limit applies to runs already | |
| # narrowed to the window rather than to all of history. Runs come back | |
| # newest-first, so reaching the limit would drop the oldest in-window | |
| # runs and this step would report all-clear without them -- hence a | |
| # limit far above any plausible week's worth of runs. | |
| runs=$(gh run list \ | |
| --repo "$REPO" \ | |
| --workflow "Dependabot Updates" \ | |
| --created ">=$since" \ | |
| --limit 500 \ | |
| --json conclusion,createdAt,displayTitle,url) | |
| failures=$(echo "$runs" | jq ' | |
| [.[] | |
| | select((.displayTitle | contains(" in /. for ")) | not) | |
| | select((.displayTitle | test(" in /e2e/(js|ts) for ")) | not) | |
| | select(.conclusion == "failure" | |
| or .conclusion == "startup_failure" | |
| or .conclusion == "timed_out")]') | |
| count=$(echo "$failures" | jq 'length') | |
| if [ "$count" -gt 0 ]; then | |
| echo "::error::$count failed Dependabot version update run(s) in the last 8 days:" | |
| echo "$failures" | jq -r '.[] | "- \(.displayTitle) (\(.createdAt))\n \(.url)"' | |
| exit 1 | |
| fi | |
| echo "No failed Dependabot version update runs in the last 8 days." |