Repo Sync

Keep a pair of GitHub repos in sync.

How it Works

This project uses GitHub Actions workflows to keep pairs of git repos in sync. It runs on a schedule (every 15 minutes by default). Shortly after changes are made to the default branch of repo A, the Actions workflow runs on repo B and generates a pull request including the recent changes from repo A. If more changes are made to repo A before the pull request is merged, those changes will be added to the existing pull request. The same is true in the opposite direction: changes made to repo B will eventually get picked up by the workflow in repo A.

Features

• One-way or two-way sync
• Sync between a private and public repo
• Sync between two private repos
• Sync between two public repos
• Sync from a third-party repo to a Github repo
• Uses Github Actions and a flexible scheduled job. No external service required!

Requirements

• Your two repos must share a commit history.
• Your repos must be using GitHub Actions v2. Sign up at github.com/features/actions

Manual Installation

Step 1. Set up Secrets

GitHub Secrets are variables stored on your GitHub repository that are made available in the GitHub Actions environment. There are two (2) required secrets on each repo. Go to Settings > Secrets on your repo page and add the following secrets:

SOURCE_REPO

The shorthand name or URL of the repo to sync.

• If the source repo is a public GitHub repo, use a shorthand name like owner/repo.
• If the source repo is a private GitHub repo, specify an HTTPS clone URL in the format https://<access_token>@github.com/owner/repo.git that includes an access token with repo and workflow scopes. Generate a token.
• If the source repo is not hosted on GitHub, specify an HTTPS URL that includes pull access credentials.

INTERMEDIATE_BRANCH

The name of the temporary branch to use when creating a pull request, e.g. repo-sync. You can use whatever name you like, but it should NOT be the name of a branch that already exists, as it will be overwritten.

Step 2. Create Actions workflow files

Create a file .github/workflows/repo-sync.yml in both repositories and add the following content:

name: Repo Sync

on:
  schedule: 
  - cron: "*/15 * * * *" # every 15 minutes. set to whatever interval you like

jobs:
  repo-sync:
    name: Repo Sync
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - uses: repo-sync/github-sync@v2
      name: Sync repo to branch
      with:
        source_repo: ${{ secrets.SOURCE_REPO }}
        source_branch: main
        destination_branch: ${{ secrets.INTERMEDIATE_BRANCH }}
        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    - uses: repo-sync/pull-request@v2
      name: Create pull request
      with:
        source_branch: ${{ secrets.INTERMEDIATE_BRANCH }}
        destination_branch: main
        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Step 3. Watch the pull requests roll in!

There is no step 3! Once commited to your repo, your workflows will start running on the schedule you've specified in the workflow file. Whenever changes are found, a pull request will be created (or updated if a sync pull request already exists).

Interactive Installation

It's also possible to set up repo-sync using the interactive installation page. This page will ask you to authenticate with your GitHub account. Once you're authenticated, fill out the form specifying source repo, target repo, and an intermediate branch name to use for pull requests. Once you've submitted this form, the page will generate Actions workflow files for you, and can optionally automatically commit them directly to your repository.

The interactive installation page is still new! It works but there may still be some rough edges. If you have any trouble, please file an issue. 🌱

Advanced configuration

The workflow file is fully customizable allowing for advanced configurations.

cron

The default cron is every 15 minutes. This can be easily adjusted by changing the cron string.

External events

Instead of triggering workflows using the cron scheduler, you can setup external events to trigger the workflow when the source repo changes.

Workflow steps

You can add/remove workflow steps to meet your needs. For example, the "Create pull request" step can be removed, or perhaps a "Merge pull request" step can be added.

Customize pull request

You can customize PR title, body, label, reviewer, assingee, milestone by setting environment variables as explained at repo-sync/pull-request.

Use SSH clone url and deploy keys

You can use SSH clone url and specify SSH_PRIVATE_KEY environment variable instead of using the https clone url.

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

Wei He 🎨 💻 📖

Zeke Sikelianos 📖 🤔

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!