Use pkl-gha for GitHub Action Workflows

[StefMa]

Hey there 👋

as a pkl-community you might be interested in using pkl "everywhere" 🙃
So I played over the weekened a bit and introduce pkl-gha (pkl for github actions) to this project.

I don't mind if gets rejected.
But I just thought as pkl "fanatics" I thought it make sense to use it here 😁

Maybe todos:

• Add a github action that checks if the pkl files got formatted (in case someone didn't setup the githook correctly)
• Fix dependabot things. See also How to update pkl-gha created files with dependabot (yaml) updates? StefMa/pkl-gha#4 (comment)

[jasongwartz]

I love the idea!

I don't mind commit hooks as a developer convenience, but they're insufficient to guarantee consistency. Could you please add a new CI check that verifies that the generated YAML config is up-to-date with the Pkl source (like the TS dist one)?

[jasongwartz]

We might also want to remove the dependabot config for GitHub Actions, since it would propose updates to the generated files, not the pkl sources: https:/pkl-community/setup-pkl/blob/main/.github/dependabot.yml#L3

[StefMa]

We might also want to remove the dependabot config for GitHub Actions, since it would propose updates to the generated files, not the pkl sources: https:/pkl-community/setup-pkl/blob/main/.github/dependabot.yml#L3

Actually I wouldn't do that.
With that we would miss all the automatic updates by dependabot.

Since dependabot runs on GitHub actions we can add chain a new workflow with that.
As soon as dependebot updates an action, we can automaticallty run another action that updates the pkl file.
That should work ™️ but I haven't tried it (yet).

For now I would manually update the pkl files.

[jasongwartz]

With that we would miss all the automatic updates by dependabot.

I'm not talking about disabling Dependabot altogether, just for the Actions part. I don't think it makes sense for it to open PRs to generated files.

[jasongwartz]

Related, it would be helpful to have pkl render out the files as eg ci.gen.yaml or ci.generated.yaml to make it clear they are not to be edited, and to add a preamble that says "THIS IS GENERATED, DO NOT EDIT".

[StefMa]

Related, it would be helpful to have pkl render out the files as eg ci.gen.yaml or ci.generated.yaml to make it clear they are not to be edited, and to add a preamble that says "THIS IS GENERATED, DO NOT EDIT".

Right now the generated yml files get the preamble:

# Do not modify!
# This file was generated from a template using https:/StefMa/pkl-gha

Will also add the generated middle part to the files ✔️

Is this even possible with an custom renderer? 🤔
Can the pkl rendere define the output name? How?

[StefMa]

Hey @jasongwartz

I wanted to push this to the finish line 🙃

This question is still open:
#47 (comment)
Would be grat if you can answer this.
Be note that I'm not that deep into the javascript/npm word.
I might need some guidance how to add this to the package.json or some clear instructions what is expected from your side.
Thanks!

Other than that, I also rereanged some things:

• I moved the pkl-workflows into .github/pkl-workflows.
• I moved the git-hook to a normal bash screen inside .github/pkl-workflows
  • I also executed this as part of the github action check (check-action.pkl)

Thats it I guess 🙃

Can't wait to get this thing merged 😇

[jasongwartz]

Could you please incorporate the changes from #41 ?

[jasongwartz]

If this has been typed correctly in your base module, you shouldn't need = new {} to create a new list, the override syntax ["os"] { ... } should work. The only reason to do that typically with a Listing would be if there are default values in the parent object and you want to "start fresh" with a new Listing. Let me go check the typing in your parent module.

[jasongwartz]

Looking at https:/StefMa/pkl-gha/blob/main/GitHubAction.pkl#L592, I think there's extra complexity because matrix is typed as Listing<String|*Dynamic>. Can it really be a Dynamic object?

[StefMa]

Yes, it can be Dynamic.
See https://docs.github.com/en/actions/writing-workflows/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#example-using-a-multi-dimension-matrix

A variable configuration in a matrix can be an array of objects.

[jasongwartz]

Gotcha - to me that looks more like it could be Mapping<String, String> - remember that Dynamic can contain properties, entries, AND elements, eg:

new {
  "an entry"
  prop1 = "value"
  ["entry one"] = "value2"
}

Note that this is actually not representable in JSON or YAML at all (below is from the REPL):

pkl> x = new {
>   "an entry"
>   prop1 = "value"
>   ["entry one"] = "value2"
> }
pkl> (new JsonRenderer {}).renderDocument(x)
–– Pkl Error ––
Cannot render object with both elements and properties/entries as JSON.
Object: new Dynamic { prop1 = "value"; ["entry one"] = "value2"; "an entry" }

But that's an aside, not important to this PR. Just info for you and your library

[StefMa]

Thanks for the hint!
Do you now how I could model this better/differently? 🤔

[jasongwartz]

Thanks @StefMa ! Left a few other pointers.

Re:

I might need some guidance how to add this to the package.json or some clear instructions what is expected from your side.

In package.json, there is a field called "scripts" - each of these are little one-liners that can be run with npm run - that's where eg. npm run package is defined.

So could you please add a new script there called something like "gen:actions", which runs the one-liner from my comment on the current bash script? (The script won't be necessary after that) And then you can modify the "npm run package" script to add && npm run gen:actions (so that running npm run package does both 😄 )

[jasongwartz]

Feel free to send me a message on Discord if you want a hand working through any of that! And sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this

[StefMa]

@jasongwartz its ready for review again 🙃

[jasongwartz]

lgtm, thanks for the contribution!