Renovate fails to update dependencies correctly

[MikeMcC399]

Issue

When Renovate attempts to update dependencies from package.json it regularly fails the CI workflow .github/workflows/check-dist.yml which runs

npm ci
npm run format
npm run build

and checks that there are no uncommitted changes.

Examples of failed Renovate PRs, attempting to update dependencies, are:

• fix(deps): update dependency debug to v4.3.7 #1250
• fix(deps): update dependency @octokit/core to v6 #1135
• fix(deps): update dependency @actions/cache to v3.2.4 #1124
• fix(deps): update dependency @actions/core to v1.10.1 #1034

Renovate is not re-formatting and re-building the app.

Suggestion

Renovate should either be reconfigured to correctly reformat and rebuild the action, or it should avoid attempts to update dependencies and restrict itself to devDependencies only.

[MikeMcC399]

Related to https://docs.renovatebot.com/configuration-options/#ignorescripts

[MikeMcC399]

This is a call to the Cypress.io team as the server-side of the Renovate configuration is not publicly accessible, so it makes more sense to have any adjustments to the Renovate configuration also handled internally.

[jennifer-shehane]

@MikeMcC399 Can this not be updated in the renovate.json file?

[MikeMcC399]

@jennifer-shehane

Can this not be updated in the renovate.json file?

Apparently Renovate does not support running pre-commit hooks, such as from Husky, so it seems that the answer to your question is: no.

It would be possible to configure renovate so that it does not attempt to update npm dependencies, which would avoid unsuccessful PRs being created. On the other hand, there is some value to being alerted to new versions by Renovate, even if the auto-created PRs are invalid.

In each case the options are then:

• manually (re-)build the action in the Renovate branch and add a new commit
• close the Renovate PR and replace it with a manual PR
• close the Renovate PR and skip the update

I did some spot-checks on other repos containing GitHub Actions and I couldn't find any repos where this issue has been resolved.