This repository contains tools for updating dependencies in Azure DevOps repositories using Dependabot.
In this repository you'll find:
- Azure DevOps Extension, source code and docs.
- Dependabot Server, source code and docs.
- Dependabot Updater image, Dockerfile, source code and docs. (Deprecated since v2.0)
Important
This project is currently undergoing a major version increment (V1 → V2); See the migration guide for more details and progress updates.
- Getting started
- Using a configuration file
- Configuring private feeds and registries
- Configuring security advisories and known vulnerabilities
- Configuring experiments
- Configuring assignees and reviewers
- Unsupported features and configurations
- Migration Guide
- Contributing
- Acknowledgements
Unlike the GitHub-hosted version, Dependabot for Azure DevOps must be explicitly setup in your organisation; creating a dependabot.yml
file alone is not enough to enable updates. There are two ways to enable Dependabot, using:
-
Azure DevOps Extension - Ideal if you want to get Dependabot running with minimal administrative effort. The extension can run directly inside your existing pipeline agents and doesn't require hosting of any additional services. Because the extension runs in pipelines, this option does not scale well if you have a large number of projects and repositories.
-
Hosted Server - Ideal if you have a large number of projects and repositories or prefer to run Dependabot as a managed service instead of using pipeline agents. See why should I use the server? for more info.
Note
A hosted version is available to sponsors (most, but not all). It includes hassle free runs where the infrastructure is maintained for you. Much like the GitHub hosted version. Alternatively, you can run and host your own self-hosted server. Once you sponsor, you can send out an email to a maintainer or wait till they reach out. This is meant to ease the burden until GitHub/Azure/Microsoft can get it working natively (which could also be never) and hopefully for free.
Similar to the GitHub-hosted version, Dependabot is configured using a dependabot.yml file located at .azuredevops/dependabot.yml
or .github/dependabot.yml
in your repository.
Most official configuration options are supported since V2; Earlier versions have several limitations, see unsupported features and configurations for more.
Besides accessing the repository, sometimes private feeds/registries may need to be accessed. For example a private NuGet feed or a company internal docker registry.
Private registries are configured in dependabot.yml
, refer to the official documentation.
Examples:
version: 2
registries:
# Azure DevOps private feed, all views
my-analyzers:
type: nuget-feed
url: https://dev.azure.com/organization2/_packaging/my-analyzers/nuget/v3/index.json
token: PAT:${{ MY_DEPENDABOT_ADO_PAT }}
# Azure DevOps private feed, "Release" view only
my-Extern@Release:
type: nuget-feed
url: https://dev.azure.com/organization1/_packaging/my-Extern@Release/nuget/v3/index.json
token: PAT:${{ MY_DEPENDABOT_ADO_PAT }}
# Artifactory private feed using PAT
artifactory:
type: nuget-feed
url: https://artifactory.com/api/nuget/v3/myfeed
token: PAT:${{ MY_DEPENDABOT_ARTIFACTORY_PAT }}
# Other private feed using basic auth (username/password)
telerik:
type: nuget-feed
url: https://nuget.telerik.com/v3/index.json
username: ${{ MY_TELERIK_USERNAME }}
password: ${{ MY_TELERIK_PASSWORD }}
token: ${{ MY_TELERIK_USERNAME }}:${{ MY_TELERIK_PASSWORD }}
updates:
...
Note when using authentication secrets in configuration files:
Important
${{ VARIABLE_NAME }}
notation is used liked described here
BUT the values will be used from pipeline environment variables. Template variables are not supported for this replacement. Replacement only works for values considered secret in the registries section i.e. username
, password
, token
, and key
Important
When using an Azure DevOps Artifact feed, the token format must be PAT:${{ VARIABLE_NAME }}
where VARIABLE_NAME
is a pipeline/environment variable containing the PAT token. The PAT must:
- Have
Packaging (Read)
permission. - Be issued by a user with permission to the feed either directly or via a group. An easy way for this is to give
Contributor
permissions the[{project_name}]\Contributors
group under theFeed Settings -> Permissions
page. The page has the url format:https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_packaging?_a=settings&feed={feed-name}&view=permissions
.
Note
When using dependabot@V1
with a private feed/registry secured with basic auth, the username
, password
, and token
properties are all required. The token format must be ${{ USERNAME }}:${{ PASSWORD }}
.
Note
When using dependabot@V1
with a repository containing a nuget.config
file configured with custom package sources, the key
property is required for each registry. The key must match between dependabot.yml
and nuget.config
otherwise the package source will be duplicated, package source mappings will be ignored, and auth errors will occur during dependency discovery. If your nuget.config
looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<packageSources>
<clear />
<add key="nuget.org" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" />
<add key="my-organisation1-nuget" value="https://dev.azure.com/my-organization/_packaging/my-nuget-feed/nuget/v3/index.json" />
</packageSources>
<packageSourceMapping>
<packageSource key="nuget.org">
<package pattern="*" />
</packageSource>
<packageSource key="my-organisation-nuget">
<package pattern="Organisation.*" />
</packageSource>
</packageSourceMapping>
</configuration>
Then your dependabot.yml
registry should look like this:
version: 2
registries:
my-org:
type: nuget-feed
key: my-organisation1-nuget
url: https://dev.azure.com/my-organization/_packaging/my-nuget-feed/nuget/v3/index.json
token: PAT:${{ MY_DEPENDABOT_ADO_PAT }}
Security-only updates is a mechanism to only create pull requests for dependencies with vulnerabilities by updating them to the earliest available non-vulnerable version. Security updates are supported in the same way as the GitHub-hosted version provided that a GitHub access token with public_repo
access is provided in the gitHubAccessToken
or gitHubConnection
task inputs.
You can provide extra security advisories, such as those for an internal dependency, in a JSON file via the securityAdvisoriesFile
task input e.g. securityAdvisoriesFile: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/advisories.json'
. An example file is available in ./advisories-example.json.
Dependabot uses an internal feature flag system called "experiments". Typically, experiments represent new features or changes in logic which are still being internally tested before becoming generally available. In some cases, you may want to opt-in to experiments to work around known issues or to opt-in to preview features ahead of general availability (GA).
Experiments vary depending on the package ecyosystem used; They can be enabled using the experiments
task input with a comma-seperated list of key/value pairs representing the experiments e.g. experiments: 'tidy=true,vendor=true,goprivate=*'
.
Note
Dependabot experinment names are not [publicly] documented. For convenience, some known experiments are listed below; However, be aware that this may be out-of-date at the time of reading.
List of known experiments from [email protected]
Package Ecosystem | Experiment Name | Value Type | More Information |
---|---|---|---|
All | grouped_updates_experimental_rules | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#7581 |
All | grouped_security_updates_disabled | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#8529 |
All | lead_security_dependency | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#10727 |
All | record_ecosystem_versions | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#7517 |
All | enable_record_ecosystem_meta | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#10905 |
All | record_update_job_unknown_error | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#8144 |
All | dependency_change_validation | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#9888 |
All | add_deprecation_warn_to_pr_message | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#10421 |
All | threaded_metadata | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#9485 |
Go | tidy | true/false | |
Go | vendor | true/false | |
Go | goprivate | string | |
NPM | npm_fallback_version_above_v6 | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#10757 |
NPM | enable_corepack_for_npm_and_yarn | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#10985 |
NuGet | nuget_native_analysis | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#10025 |
NuGet | nuget_native_updater | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#10521 |
NuGet | nuget_legacy_dependency_solver | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#10671 |
NuGet | nuget_use_direct_discovery | true/false | dependabot/dependabot-core#10597 |
To find the latest list of Dependabot experiments, search the
dependabot-core
GitHub repository using queries like "enabled?(x)" and "options.fetch(x)".
Dependabot allows for the configuration of both assignees
and reviewers
. However, Azure DevOps does not have the concept of pull request assignees. Because of this, assignees
will be treated as required reviewers and reviewers
will be treated as optional reviewers.
Reviewers can be any of the following values:
- User GUID
- User username
- User email address
- User full [display] name
- Group name
- Team name
We aim to support all official configuration options, but there are some limitations:
schedule
is ignored, use pipeline scheduled triggers instead.securityAdvisoriesFile
task input is not yet supported.
schedule
is ignored, use pipeline scheduled triggers instead.directories
are only supported if task inputuseUpdateScriptVNext: true
is set.groups
are only supported if task inputuseUpdateScriptVNext: true
is set.ignore
may not behave to official specifications unless task inputuseUpdateScriptVNext: true
is set. If you are having issues, search for related issues such as tinglesoftware#582 before creating a new issue.assignees
andreviewers
must be a list of user guids or email addresses; group/team names are not supported.- Private feed/registry authentication may not work with all package ecyosystems. Support is slightly improved when task input
useUpdateScriptVNext: true
is set, but not still not fully supported. See problems with authentication for more.
DEPENDABOT_ASSIGNEES
andDEPENDABOT_REVIEWERS
must be a list of user guids; email addresses and group/team names are not supported.- Private feed/registry authentication may not work with all package ecyosystems. See problems with authentication for more.
directories
are not supported.groups
are not supported.assignees
andreviewers
must be a list of user guids; email addresses and group/team names are not supported.- Private feed/registry authentication may not work with all package ecyosystems. See problems with authentication for more.
👋 Want to give us feedback on Dependabot for Azure DevOps, or contribute to it? That's great - thank you so much!
Please leave all issues, bugs, and feature requests on the issues page. We'll respond ASAP! Use the discussions page for all other questions and comments.
Please refer to the contributing guidelines for more information on how to get started.
The work in this repository is based on inspired and occasionally guided by some predecessors in the same area: