renovate

What is renovate?

Renovate is a powerful tool for automating dependency updates in your projects. It helps keep your dependencies up-to-date, ensuring that your project remains secure and compatible with the latest versions of libraries and tools.

What are renovate's main functionalities?

Automated Dependency Updates

Renovate can automatically update your dependencies by creating pull requests for new versions. The configuration above extends the base configuration, which includes sensible defaults for most projects.

{
  "extends": ["config:base"]
}

Customizable Configuration

You can customize Renovate's behavior using a configuration file. In this example, packages that match the pattern '^@my-org/' are grouped together in a single pull request.

{
  "extends": ["config:base"],
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "packagePatterns": ["^@my-org/"],
      "groupName": "my-org packages"
    }
  ]
}

Scheduling Updates

Renovate allows you to schedule when updates should be created. The configuration above schedules updates to be created before 5 AM on Mondays.

{
  "extends": ["config:base"],
  "schedule": ["before 5am on monday"]
}

Other packages similar to renovate

dependabot

Dependabot is a GitHub-native tool for automating dependency updates. It is similar to Renovate in that it creates pull requests for new versions of dependencies. However, Dependabot is more tightly integrated with GitHub and may be easier to set up for users already using GitHub.

greenkeeper

Greenkeeper is another tool for automating dependency updates. It was one of the first tools in this space and offers similar functionality to Renovate. However, Greenkeeper has been deprecated in favor of Snyk, which now includes similar features.

snyk

Snyk is a comprehensive security tool that includes features for automating dependency updates. While it offers similar functionality to Renovate, Snyk also provides additional security features such as vulnerability scanning and remediation.

README

What is the Mend Renovate CLI?

Renovate is an automated dependency update tool. It helps to update dependencies in your code without needing to do it manually. When Renovate runs on your repo, it looks for references to dependencies (both public and private) and, if there are newer versions available, Renovate can create pull requests to update your versions automatically.

Features

• Delivers update PRs directly to your repo
  • Relevant package files are discovered automatically
  • Pull Requests automatically generated in your repo
• Provides useful information to help you decide which updates to accept (age, adoption, pass rates, merge confidence)
• Highly configurable and flexible to fit in with your needs and repository standards
• Largest collection of languages and platforms (listed below)
• Connects with private repositories and package registries

Languages

Renovate can provide updates for most popular languages, platforms, and registries including: npm, Java, Python, .NET, Scala, Ruby, Go, Docker and more. Supports over 90 different package managers.

Platforms

Renovate updates code repositories on the following platforms: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, AWS Code Commit, Gitea, Forgejo, Gerrit (experimental)

Ways to run Renovate

The most effective way to run Renovate is to use an automated job scheduling system that regularly runs Renovate on all enabled repositories and responds with priority to user activity. Mend offers cloud-hosted and self-hosted solutions. See the options below.

Mend Renovate Community (Cloud-Hosted)

Supports: GitHub.com, Bitbucket Cloud

Hosted by Mend.io. No setup is needed. Community plan available (Free)

• GitHub Cloud: Install the Renovate Cloud-Hosted App on your GitHub org, then select the repos to enable
• Bitbucket Cloud: Add the Mend App to your Workspace, then add the Mend Renovate user to the projects you want to enable

Mend Renovate Community (Self-hosted)

Supports: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket Data Center

Install and run your own Renovate server. Access internal packages.

• Mend Renovate Community Self-Hosted (Free)
• Mend Renovate Enterprise (Paid plan)

Other ways to run Renovate

If you can’t use a pre-built job scheduling system, or want to build your own, the following options are available:

Run Renovate on your Pipeline

Mend provides a GitHub Action or a GitLab Runner to help you run Renovate as a CI pipeline job.

• GitHub Action: renovatebot/github-action.
• GitLab Runner: Renovate Runner project
• AzureDevOps action: Renovate Me extension
  Note: This extension is created and maintained personally by a Renovate developer/user. Support requests for the extension will not be answered directly in the main Renovate repository.
• Custom pipeline: You can create a custom pipeline with a yml definition that triggers npx renovate. More details on how to configure the pipeline.

Run Renovate CLI

There are several ways to run the Renovate CLI directly. See docs: Running Renovate for all options.

Supports: all platforms

Docs

More about Renovate

• Renovate basics
  • Why use Renovate
  • What does it do? / How does it work?
  • Who is using it?
• Supported platforms and languages
  • Supported platforms
  • Supported languages / package managers
• Advanced Renovate usage
  • Accessing private packages
  • Merge Confidence data

Renovate Docs

• Renovate Configuration
• Mend Renovate Self-Hosted Docs

Comparisons

• Different ways to run Renovate
• Renovate vs Dependabot

Get involved

Issues and Discussions

Please open a Discussion to get help, suggest a new feature, or to report a bug. We only want maintainers to open Issues.

• GitHub Discussions for Renovate

Contributing

To contribute to Renovate, or run a local copy, please read the contributing guidelines.

• Guidelines for Contributing
• Items that need contribution: good first issues

Contact and Social Media

The Renovate project is proudly supported and actively maintained by Mend.io.

• Contact Mend.io for commercial support questions.

Follow us on:

• Twitter: x.com/mend_io
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mend-io

Security / Disclosure

If you find any bug with Renovate that may be a security problem, then e-mail us at: [e-mail]. This way we can evaluate the bug and hopefully fix it before it gets abused. Please give us enough time to investigate the bug before you report it anywhere else.

Please do not create GitHub issues for security-related doubts or problems.