[DRAFT] Use a fixit robot, not a pre-commit hook

0-use-a-robot-not-a-pre-commit-hook.md

I never want anyone on my team to ever have to waste a second of their life on stupid shit like:

• Formatting
• Lints (with automatic fixes)

Behold! I drag something like this, from project to project. It's time I scream about it.

n.b.

• concurrency to reduce conflicts
• cancel-in-progress to prefer the HEAD
• Put all your fixes in scripts/fixbot; easy to run locally

Github Branch Protection

The easy way is to treat your team like adults and allow force pushes; but, sadly, we both know that won't pass compliance.

The correct way is to create a Github Application. Eventually you'll do this because deploy keys are dangerous and storing secrets in Github Actions is negligent.

The fast way is to:

1. Generate a SSH key for your fixbot:
   ssh-keygen -f fixbot_key -C yourname+fixbot@yourcompany.com
2. Add the public key (fixbot_key.pub) as a Deploy Key with write access to your repository:
   https://github.com/your-org/your-repository/settings/keys
3. Create a fixbot environment:
   https://github.com/your-org/your-repository/settings/environments
   • Deployment branches and tags: Protected branches only
   • Environment secrets:
     • DEPLOY_SSH_KEY: add the private key (fixbot_key) here!
4. Delete fixbot_key and fixbot_key.pub
5. Add Deploy Keys to the Bypass List for your repository's ruleset (you are using rulesets, right?):
   https://github.com/your-org/your-repository/settings/rules

Run on main or Pull Requests (PRs)?

Friends of mine set this up to run on their PRs. Combined with a squash and merge workflow, it keeps their main history tidy.

I don't.

Why?

1. I rebase
2. I don't want my branch to change underneath me
3. My PR's are written to be easy to review; that means I generally aim for minimal diffs

Autoformatted code creates diffs that are larger than necessary. (TODO: examples)

You're weird

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one:

• https://github.com/DefinitelyTyped/DefinitelyTyped/blob/master/.github/workflows/format-and-commit.yml

fixbot.yml

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  fixbot:
    environment: fixbot
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
        with:
          ssh-key: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_SSH_KEY }}

      - run: scripts/fixbot

      - uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v7
        with:
          commit_message: "🤖 fixbot"