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Run Renovate on demand

The Renovate GitHub app updates dependencies on the app's own schedule. To get updates between the app's runs, start the Update dependencies workflow, update-dependencies.yml, by hand. This page is for maintainers of a project created from Scaffold. For what Renovate updates, see Renovate.

The workflow runs Renovate a single time with your renovate.json, and ignores the schedule and the pull request limits for that run. It commits as renovate[bot], the Renovate app's account. It also updates the pull requests the app opened, so the app and the workflow share 1 set of branches. To commit as another author, set the RENOVATE_GIT_AUTHOR repository variable to Name <[email protected]>. Only the app updates the Dependency Dashboard issue.

Before you begin​

The workflow pushes branches and opens pull requests with the token in the RENOVATE_TOKEN repository secret. Without that secret, the workflow fails at its first step. The built-in GITHUB_TOKEN can't change files in .github/workflows, and its pull requests start no CI runs.

To add the secret:

  1. Create a personal access token with the permissions in Renovate's GitHub platform guide.
  2. Add the token as the RENOVATE_TOKEN secret under Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions.

Start a run​

To run Renovate on demand:

  1. In your repository on GitHub, click Actions.
  2. Select the Update dependencies workflow.
  3. Click Run workflow to open the run options.
  4. Optional: To list the updates in the job log without pushing anything, select Dry run: report updates without pushing branches or opening pull requests.
  5. Optional: To troubleshoot a run, select Enable debug logging.
  6. Click the green Run workflow button.
  7. After the run finishes, confirm that the Pull requests tab lists the dependency pull requests. On a dry run, the job log lists the updates.