files-sync-action is a GitHub Action that synchronizes files across multiple repositories based on a configuration file written in YAML. It is useful in cases where you want to unify files, such as various tool configuration files or workflow files, across repositories. There are various patterns for motivation to synchronize files, depending on the team. To support these use cases, it allows for detailed configuration.

• 🔄 Create PRs to synchronize files and directories across multiple repositories
• 🛠️ Support flexible configuration of reviewers and labels for PRs
• 🏁 Supports stable file synchronization even in large repositories.
• 📝 Support file customization using EJS

In this section, we explain the most common usage of files-sync-action. To start using it, simply create a Workflow file that runs files-sync-action and a configuration file, as shown below:

.github/workflows/files-sync.yml

name: Sync Files
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: wadackel/files-sync-action@v2
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GH_FILES_SYNC_TOKEN }}

name: Sync Files
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Generate token
        id: generate_token
        uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v1
        with:
          app_id: ${{ secrets.GH_APP_ID }}
          private_key: ${{ secrets.GH_APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}
      - uses: wadackel/files-sync-action@v2
        with:
          github_token: ${{ steps.generate_token.outputs.token }}

name: Sync Files
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Generate token
        id: generate_token
        uses: tibdex/github-app-token@v1
        with:
          app_id: ${{ secrets.GH_APP_ID }}
          installation_id: ${{ secrets.GH_APP_INSTALLATION_ID }}
          private_key: ${{ secrets.GH_APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}
      - uses: wadackel/files-sync-action@v2
        with:
          github_token: ${{ steps.generate_token.outputs.token }}

.github/files-sync-config.yml

settings:
  pull_request:
    reviewers:
      - 'wadackel'
    labels:
      - 'files-sync'

patterns:
  - files:
      - tsconfig.json
      - .prettierrc.json
      - from: workflows/ci.yml
        to: .github/workflows/ci.yml
    repositories:
      - owner/repo1
      - owner/repo2

If you need more customization, please refer to the Sync Configuration section.

files-sync-action supports authentication using both Personal Access Tokens and GitHub Apps.

We recommend using Fine-grained personal access tokens for Personal Access Token authentication, as they allow for more granular access control compared to traditional tokens. Authentication using GitHub Apps is useful for team development.

To use files-sync-action, you need to set the following Repository permissions for each respective token:

Required: true
Default: n/a

Personal Access Token to use to create file sync and PR. Required if GITHUB_APP_* is not specified.

Required: false
Default: https://api.github.com

API URL of the GitHub server.

Required: false
Default: .github/files-sync-config.yml

The path for the sync configuration file.

URL array of PRs created to synchronize files.

An array of all synchronized file names.

The configuration file for file synchronization can be written in YAML. By default, it refers to .github/files-sync-config.yml. If you want to change the path, please modify the value of inputs.config_file.

The configuration file consists of a settings section, which defines common settings, and a patterns section, which defines individual file synchronization patterns. The contents defined in settings are inherited by all patterns.

Configure the settings to be used commonly across all file synchronization patterns. You can customize the default commit and branch settings, as well as the contents of the PR.

Defaults:

settings:
  commit:
    # defaults to "chore: sync files with `owner/repo`"
    format: '<%- prefix %>: <%- subject %>'
    prefix: 'chore'
    subject: 'sync files with `<%- repository %>`'
  branch:
    # defaults to "files-sync/owner-repo-0"
    format: '<%- prefix %>/<%- repository %>-<%- index %>'
    prefix: 'files-sync'
  pull_request:
    disabled: false
    force: true
    title: 'Sync files with `<%- repository %>`'
    body: |
      This PR contains the following updates:

      | :chart_with_upwards_trend: Change | :hammer_and_wrench: Synchronizing Repository | :link: Workflow |
      | :-- | :-- | :-- |
      | <%- changes.length %> files | [<%- repository %>](<%- github %>/<%- repository %>) | [\`<%- workflow %>#<%- run.number %>\`](<%- run.url %>) |

      ---

      ### Changed Files

      <%_ for (const file of changes) { -%>
      - <% if (file.from === file.to) { %>\`<%- file.to %>\`<% } else { %>\`<%- file.from %>\` to \`<%- file.to %>\`<% }%>
      <%_ } -%>
    reviewers: []
    assignees: []
    labels: []

Configure the synchronization pattern for files and directories and the target repositories for synchronization. While inheriting the contents defined in settings, you can customize the commit, branch, and PR settings for each synchronization pattern.

Examples:

patterns:
  - files:
      - tsconfig.json # file (simple)
      - from: workflows/ci.yml # file (details)
        to: .github/workflows/ci.yml
      - from: shared # directory
        to: shared
        exclude:
          - '*.txt'
    repositories:
      - owner/repo1
      - owner/repo2
      - owner/repo3
    commit:
      prefix: 'build'
    pull_request:
      reviewers:
        - 'team:team_slug'
        - 'login_name'
      labels:
        - 'A-build'

Configure the details of the files to synchronize. When synchronizing a directory, you can use exclude to exclude only certain file patterns.

Configure the commit contents to use when synchronizing files.

The following template variables are available for various keys:

Configure the branch to commit to when synchronizing files.

The following template variables are available for various keys:

The following template variables are available for various keys:

files-sync-action is inspired by the following GitHub Actions. Thanks!!

• BetaHuhn/repo-file-sync-action
• adrianjost/files-sync-action

Introducing the steps for developing files-sync-action.

Using a Node.js Version Manager such as asdf or nodenv, activate the version of Node.js written in .node-version.

Next, activate pnpm using corepack, and install the dependent packages.

$ corepack enable pnpm
$ pnpm i

Introducing cases where you want to verify the operation of files-sync-action on your local machine during development.

Create a configuration file for local testing and a script for running tests. These files are excluded from Git management by .gitignore.

$ touch test.yml test.js

Customize the contents of each created file.

test.js

process.env['INPUT_GITHUB_TOKEN'] = '...';
process.env['INPUT_CONFIG_FILE'] = 'test.yml';
process.env['INPUT_GITHUB_API_URL'] = 'https://api.github.com';
process.env['GITHUB_SERVER_URL'] = 'https://github.com';
process.env['GITHUB_REPOSITORY'] = 'local/test';
process.env['GITHUB_RUN_ID'] = '0';
process.env['GITHUB_RUN_NUMBER'] = '0';
await import('./dist/index.js');

test.yml

patterns:
  - files:
      - README.md
      # ...
    repositories:
      - your/repo

To modify the implementation of files-sync-action and verify it on your local machine, build the script locally and run it using the configuration file created for testing.

$ pnpm build && node test.js

MIT © wadackel