leif

multi-repo syncronization & management tool

• About
• Definitions
• Example leif.yml
• Assertions
• Usage
• Commands

About

Leif was born out of needs arising from managing the oclif CLI project (stylized "leif", itself an oclif CLI).

The oclif GitHub organization contains roughly 50 repositories. On occasion, we need to perform the same small task in every repo, such as updating the open-source license file. Secondly, as a NodeJS project, a lot of the oclif repos have very similiar state (think: dependencies, package.json properties, testing configs, etc) which, over time, drift slightly from one-another. This is natural entropy with many developers working in the project, so also occasionally we need to bring them all back into line.

Leif performs these time consuming tasks for us. We define state changes to our repos in a leif.yml file, run the leif CLI and assert them on every repo in the org within minutes. Coupled with a cron executor, like CicleCI, leif runs on a regular candence and ensures our repos do not drift from the desired defined state. Maintenance bliss!

For you to run leif, you need the leif CLI (this repo), a leif.yml file and a GitHub API token with read/write access to your repos. The leif.yml file (see the example below) is where you list GitHub repos names and define assertions. An assertion is explicit state about a repo. "State", as used here, means directories, files and GitHub repo properties. When run, the leif CLI will read the leif.yml file and check that each listed repo has the defined state. If not, leif creates a PR to the repo with the applicable changes or sets the GitHub repo property via the GitHub API.

Leif asserts explicit state on repos.

Definitions

assertion - A user defined state of a repo. Users define assertions using of the many Assertion types. If the repo's state differs from the assertion, leif commits the changes; an assertion becomes a single commit.

sequence - A logical grouping of one or more assertions. Leif allows us to chain many assertions into a sequenece and run them all syncronously. leif.yml can have one or many sequences. A sequence becomes a GitHub PR.

workflow - A workflow marries repos with sequences. With workflows, users define which sequences run on which repos. leif.yml can have one or many workflows.

repo groups - A logical grouping of repos in the same GitHub org, ex: core repos, documentation repos, forked repos, etc.

Example leif.yml

---
repos:
  - rasphilco/leif
  - group: foo-example-org
    github_org: foo-example
    repos:
      - bar
      - baz
sequences:
  sync-package.json:
    description: 'sync pjson properties'
    assertions:
      - type: json-has-properties
        description: 'updating properties'
        source_relative_filepath: state/package.json
        target_relative_filepath: package.json
  sync-dependabot:
    description: 'sync dependabot.yml'
    assertions:
      - type: file-is-exact
        description: 'updating dependabot'
        source_relative_filepath: state/dependabot.yml
        target_relative_filepath: .github/dependabot.yml

workflows:
  sync-repo:
    apply_to_repos:
      - rasphilco/leif
    apply_to_groups:
      - foo-example-org
    sequences:
      - test-assertions
      - sync-dependabot

Assertions

• file-does-not-exist
• file-is-exact

type: file-does-not-exist

Property	Example	Description
description	remove old LICENSE	describe what is transpiring, which will become the commit message
if	test -e "./new/LISCENSE.txt"	assertion only runs if this bash expression returns successfully
target_relative_filepath (required)	./old/LICENSE.txt	relative filepath to target file (relative to repo root)

type: file-is-exact

Property	Example	Description
description	add LICENSE	describe what is transpiring, which will become the commit message
if	foo	assertion only runs if this bash expression (run at the repo root) returns successfully
source_relative_filepath (required)	path/to/LICENSE.txt	relative filepath to source file (relative to the cwd where leif is ran)
target_relative_filepath (required)	LICENSE.txt	relative filepath to target file (relative to repo root)

Usage

$ npm install -g @rasphilco/leif
$ leif COMMAND
running command...
$ leif (--version)
@rasphilco/leif/0.12.0 darwin-x64 node-v12.22.6
$ leif --help [COMMAND]
USAGE
  $ leif COMMAND
...

Commands

• leif cleanup [ORG]
• leif help [COMMAND]
• leif run YAML

leif cleanup [ORG]

remove repos from the local leif working directory

USAGE
  $ leif cleanup [ORG] [-a]

ARGUMENTS
  ORG  GitHub org/username of repos to remove

FLAGS
  -a, --all  remove all orgs

DESCRIPTION
  remove repos from the local leif working directory

See code: src/commands/cleanup.ts

leif help [COMMAND]

display help for leif

USAGE
  $ leif help [COMMAND] [--all]

ARGUMENTS
  COMMAND  command to show help for

FLAGS
  --all  see all commands in CLI

DESCRIPTION
  display help for leif

See code: @oclif/plugin-help

leif run YAML

run leif state workflows

USAGE
  $ leif run [YAML] -f <value> [-d] [-s <value> -w <value>] [-r <value>]

ARGUMENTS
  YAML  path to a leif yaml file

FLAGS
  -d, --dry-run              view output without committing changes
  -f, --dir=<value>          (required) [default: .] absolute path to directory with supporting files
  -r, --repo=<value>...      run only on given repo(s)
  -s, --sequence=<value>...  run a specific sequence in a workflow
  -w, --workflow=<value>...  run a specific workflow instead of all workflows

DESCRIPTION
  run leif state workflows

See code: src/commands/run.ts