now-github-url

This is a Node module and command line utility for getting the correct URL of the Now deployment automatically created by Now's GitHub integration. Given a git directory with a GitHub remote and a git "ref" (a commit SHA or branch name), it uses the GitHub and Now REST APIs to:

1. Get the commit status created by Now for the given ref, the URL of which contains the deployment id; then
2. Get the deployment info from the Now API, which tells us the hostname for the given deployment id.

In other words:

repo + ref → GitHub API → commit status → deployment id → Now API → hostname

This tool makes it easy to alias Now deployments for each branch after tests pass on your CI provider. For instance, in Travis:

1. Run npm install --save --dev now-github-url

2. Add a script/deploy script that does the following:

   branch="$TRAVIS_BRANCH"
   alias=$(now-github-url --ref="$TRAVIS_COMMIT")
   # or hard-code the prefix if you don't have a "name" field
   prefix=$(jq -r .name now.json)
   now $* alias "${prefix}-${branch}.now.sh"

   Or, if you need to test path aliases in your branch deployment:

   branch="$TRAVIS_BRANCH"
   root="$(now-github-url --ref="$TRAVIS_COMMIT")"
   now $* alias $root
   cat rules.json | jq -rM ".rules[-1].dest = \"$root\"" > rules-preview.json
   # or hard-code the prefix if you don't have a "name" field
   prefix=$(jq -r .name now.json)
   now $* alias "${prefix}-${branch}.now.sh" -r rules-preview.json

3. Add a deploy section to your .travis.yml that runs the script with your NOW_TOKEN environment variable:

   deploy:
     on:
       branch: staging
     provider: script
     script: script/deploy
     skip_cleanup: true

4. Create a new Now access token from your dashboard and add it as an environment variable to your Travis repo settings as NOW_TOKEN.

5. If you don't have one already, create a GitHub API access token and add it to your environment as GH_TOKEN.

6. 💰

Local usage

You can also use the utility in a local git repo if you're logged in with the Now CLI and have GH_TOKEN set to a GitHub access token in your environment.

cd ~/my/cool/repo
export NOW_TOKEN="..."
export GH_TOKEN="..."
npx now-github-url