GitHub Commit Sign

A thin wrapper to perform signed commits to a GitHub repository through their GraphQL APIs. Useful to create signed commits in CI/CD environments.

Available as

• GitHub Action
• Docker image
• CLI tool
• npm module

Why

• Commit changes to a GitHub repository without cloning it locally
• By using the GitHub GraphQL API, we can commit multiple changes at once
• By using GitHub APIs, we can implicitly sign commits via web-flow signing, like vscode.dev does

Use cases

• Automate the process of committing file additions, changes, or deletions to a GitHub repository without cloning it locally
• Integrate with existing CI/CD pipelines perform signed commits on behalf of the pipeline, without hard-to-setup GPG config
• Avoid storing private SSH keys in CI/CD environments (only the GITHUB_TOKEN is needed and can be easily saved as secret string passed as environment variable at pipeline runtime)
• you name it...

I have actually written this to get signed commits in GitHub Actions running here.

⚠️ Before you start

About GITHUB_TOKEN

In GitHub Actions the GITHUB_TOKEN is automatically generated per each run and is available as an environment variable. For the commit action to work, the GITHUB_TOKEN must be set as environment variable and it must have write access to the repository you want to commit to.

The following applies, based on the context you are running the action in:

• GitHub Actions: If the repository is the same where your workflow run, you can either:

  • Configure it by adding the following to your workflow YAML file (restricted priviledges, recommended):

  permissions:
    contents: write

  • Set it up for all workflows in your repository (wider priviledges, not recommended): Go to Repository Settings > Actions > General > Workflow permissions, and set Read and write permissions.

• GitHub Actions: if you need to commit to other repositories, you may need to override the default GITHUB_TOKEN with a personal access token with the repo scope. Go to Profile > Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens > Token (classic), and Generate new token (classic) with the full-control over repo scope.

  • Tip: store the generated token in repository secrets!

• Docker image, npm module, or CLI: when running outside of GitHub Actions, set an environment variable called GITHUB_TOKEN with the token value having full-control over repo scope.

Usage assumptions

• Changed (or new) files must exist locally
  • for practial reasons, those files must have the same file name and file path as the ones in the repository you are replacing with your commit (or the same file name and file path you want them to have in the repository)
• Deleted files may not exist locally, and their path may just be provided as argument
• GraphQL APIs are not meant to be used to push a lot of code! If that is your case, please consider using a local clone and git.

GitHub Action usage

You can use this module as a GitHub Action. It is a Docker-based action.

Print help

    # Print help
    - name: Print help
      uses: pirafrank/github-commit-sign@v0
      with:
        args: "--help"

Commit changes

Requirements when running in a GitHub Actions workflow:

• GITHUB_TOKEN must be set as environment variable and it must have write access to the repository you want to commit to. Read the Before you start section above for more details.
• --changed and --deleted may have multiple file paths, as a single string with space-separated values, or by repeating the option per each file path. All file paths must be relative to the repository root.

    # Commit changes...
    - name: Commit changes
      id: commit_changes
      uses: pirafrank/github-commit-sign@v0
      if: ${{ vars.RUN_COMMIT_CHANGES == 'true' }}
      env:
        GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      with:
        args: "commit --owner=${{ github.repository_owner }} --repo=${{ github.event.repository.name }} --branch=${{ github.ref_name }} --commitMessage='this is a webflow signed commit' --changed new.txt dummy/subdir/changed.txt --deleted dummy/delete_me.txt another_deleted.txt"
    # ...then use output details in another step
    - name: Print git commit output
      if: ${{ vars.RUN_COMMIT_CHANGES == 'true' }}
      run: |
        echo "Run command: ${{ steps.commit_changes.outputs.command }}"
        echo "Commit URL: ${{ steps.commit_changes.outputs.commitUrl }}"

Tip

You may want to create string format list of added and changed files in a previous step in your workflow.

Other commands

The action accepts the same commands you can provide to the CLI. Pass them as a single string to the args input. Read below for more details.

Docker image

You can use this module as a Docker image. It is a multi-arch image, so it should run on any architecture.

The image is available on Docker Hub as pirafrank/github-commit-sign.

The image run the CLI instance of the program, thus accepting the same commands you can provide to the CLI. Pass them as you'd do with any other Docker image.

CLI usage

Requirements

• Node.js (18.18+)
• A GitHub token with the repo scope.
  • The token must be set in the environment variable called GITHUB_TOKEN.

Installation

npm install -g @pirafrank/github-commit-sign

Usage examples

export GITHUB_TOKEN='your_github_token_here'
ggh commit \
  --owner yourname \
  --repo some_repo_of_yours \
  --branch main \
  --added .gitignore \
  --commitMessage 'added .gitignore'

export GITHUB_TOKEN='your_github_token_here'
ggh commit \
  --owner yourname \
  --repo some_repo_of_yours \
  --branch main \
  --deleted .gitignore \
  --commitMessage 'remove .gitignore'

Multi-file commit is also possible:

• --changed and --deleted may have multiple file paths, as a single string with space-separated values, or by repeating the option per each file path. All file paths must be relative to the repository root.

export GITHUB_TOKEN='your_github_token_here'
ggh commit \
  --owner yourname \
  --repo some_repo_of_yours \
  --branch main \
  --changed 'some_dir/some_file.txt' 'some_other_dir/some_other_file.txt' \
  --deleted 'some_dir/delete_me.txt' \
  --deleted 'some_dir/subdir/delete_me_too.txt' \
  --commitMessage 'stuff'

Use --help for a full list of available commands and options.

npm module

The module exports the following functions:

• createCommitOnBranch
• checkIfBranchExists
• getShaOfParentCommit

Before using any of them, you must call the init function with the GITHUB_TOKEN and the GitHub GraphQL URL as arguments.

init("your_github_token_here", "https://api.github.com/graphql");

If called without arguments, it will use the GITHUB_TOKEN and GITHUB_GRAPHQL_URL environment variables.

init();

Please refer to index.js for the function signatures.

Tests

Create a .env file with your repo-scoped GITHUB_TOKEN, then run:

npm test

License

MIT