Renovate for Nix Devshells

Run and configure Renovate via devshell. This setup allows Renovate to run as an on-demand or scheduled CI job without requiring a continuously running server.

If you're using NixOS, consider the NixOS Renovate module, as it runs Renovate as a continuously running systemd service.

This project also includes renovate-preview, a wrapper around Renovate that prints pending updates in a human-readable format.

Installation

Add this repository as a flake input:

inputs.renovate.url = "github:raphiz/renovate-devshell";

Usage

Import the module into your devenv.sh or devshell.nix setup:

imports = [
  inputs.renovate.modules.default
];

renovate.enable = true;
renovate.settings = {
  # Your Renovate configuration, for example:
  # platform = "gitea";
  # endpoint = "https://git.example.com";
};

This setup:

• Adds the renovate and renovate-preview commands to your $PATH.
• Automatically sets the RENOVATE_CONFIG_FILE environment variable with the provided settings.

Note

It's recommended to use a dedicated shell environment for Renovate to reduce the closure size for both CI jobs and local development.

Ensure your project includes a renovate.json file.

Preview pending updates with:

renovate-preview

Running Renovate in CI

To integrate Renovate into your CI system, configure Renovate settings according to your needs. At a minimum, configure the platform-specific settings.

For sensitive information such as tokens (RENOVATE_GITHUB_COM_TOKEN, RENOVATE_PASSWORD, RENOVATE_TOKEN), use environment variables and your CI's secret management system.

Supported CI Systems

This approach supports any CI system, including:

• GitHub Actions
• GitLab CI/CD
• Jenkins

renovate-preview

The renovate-preview CLI provides a simple, readable summary of available updates. In most cases, you can run the command without additional parameters:

For more details, run:

renovate-preview --help

You can run this preview script independently of the devshell module by executing:

nix run github:raphiz/renovate-devshell#renovate-preview -- --no-validate

Examples

GitHub Action

...to be done...

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.