update-workflows

Run this tool to update .github/workflows/*.yml files based on a configuration file.

Usage

python -m update_workflows

This reads .github/workflows.yml which contains references to workflow templates:

- simonw/python-test
- simonw/python-publish

Or with custom filenames:

test: simonw/python-test
publish: simonw/python-publish

The command will fetch the latest version of each workflow from the simonw/actions-workflows repository and update the corresponding files in .github/workflows/.

List Format

When using the list format, the workflow filename is derived from the template name:

- simonw/python-test

This creates/updates .github/workflows/python-test.yml

Dict Format

When using the dict format, you specify custom filenames:

test: simonw/python-test
publish: simonw/python-publish

This creates/updates:

• .github/workflows/test.yml
• .github/workflows/publish.yml

CLI Options

Basic Options

# Dry-run mode (shows what would be updated)
python -m update_workflows --dry-run

Bulk Operations

# Process all projects in current directory and subdirectories
# (finds all directories with .github/workflows.yml)
python -m update_workflows --all

# Process all projects with dry-run
python -m update_workflows --all --dry-run

Git Integration

# Update and commit changes with auto-generated message
python -m update_workflows --commit

# Update, commit, and push changes
python -m update_workflows --push

# Process all projects, committing and pushing updates
python -m update_workflows --all --push

The --commit option automatically generates commit messages in the format:

update-workflows: test.yml, publish.yml

The --push option implies --commit, so you don't need to specify both.

Note: You cannot use --commit or --push with --dry-run.

Example: Bulk Update Multiple Projects

If you have a directory structure like:

dev/
  my-project-1/
    .github/workflows.yml
    .github/workflows/test.yml
  my-project-2/
    .github/workflows.yml
    .github/workflows/publish.yml

Run this from the dev/ directory:

cd dev
python -m update_workflows --all --push

This will:

1. Find all projects with .github/workflows.yml
2. Update the workflow files in each project
3. Commit the changes in each project's git repository
4. Push the commits to each project's remote