feat: add caching to self-hosted Renovate workflow#509
Merged
Conversation
Add actions/cache restore/save steps to persist /tmp/renovate/cache between runs. The cache key includes the Renovate version so it busts on upgrades, and uses run_id to ensure each run saves fresh data. Also enable repositoryCache in the self-hosted config so Renovate maintains per-repo JSON caches that speed up extraction. https://claude.ai/code/session_0188Gs8tZPdjYXk24NdU1D6m
GitHub Actions caches are immutable, so delete the existing cache via gh CLI before saving the updated one. Removes run_id from the key since we now explicitly delete and re-create each run. https://claude.ai/code/session_0188Gs8tZPdjYXk24NdU1D6m
Skip cache delete/save if Renovate failed to avoid persisting a potentially bad cache state. https://claude.ai/code/session_0188Gs8tZPdjYXk24NdU1D6m
Add id to restore step and condition the delete step on cache-hit, avoiding a needless gh cache delete call on first run or after version bumps. https://claude.ai/code/session_0188Gs8tZPdjYXk24NdU1D6m
Add a regex custom manager so Renovate can detect and update its own version defined as the RENOVATE_VERSION env var in workflow files. https://claude.ai/code/session_0188Gs8tZPdjYXk24NdU1D6m
This manager is only needed in this repo, not in the shared default config. https://claude.ai/code/session_0188Gs8tZPdjYXk24NdU1D6m
erezrokah
requested review from
Copilot and
stoovon
and removed request for
a team
erezrokah
commented
Mar 17, 2026
Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Pull request overview
This PR speeds up the self-hosted Renovate GitHub Actions workflow by persisting Renovate’s on-disk cache between runs and enabling Renovate’s per-repository JSON cache.
Changes:
- Add cache restore/save steps for
/tmp/renovate/cachein the Renovate workflow, and centralize the Renovate CLI version inRENOVATE_VERSION. - Enable
repositoryCachein the self-hosted Renovate config. - Add a Renovate
customManagerto automatically update the pinnedRENOVATE_VERSIONin the workflow.
Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
.github/workflows/renovate.yml |
Restores/saves Renovate cache and introduces RENOVATE_VERSION env var used by the action. |
.github/self-hosted-renovate.js |
Enables Renovate repositoryCache to speed up repeated runs. |
.github/renovate.json5 |
Adds a regex custom manager to keep RENOVATE_VERSION up to date automatically. |
💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.
Append github.run_id to the cache key so each run saves a unique cache entry, and use restore-keys prefix matching to pick up the latest one. This removes the need to delete the previous cache. https://claude.ai/code/session_0188Gs8tZPdjYXk24NdU1D6m
erezrokah
commented
Mar 17, 2026
| uses: actions/cache@v4 | ||
| with: | ||
| path: /tmp/renovate/cache | ||
| key: renovate-cache-${{ env.RENOVATE_VERSION }}-${{ github.run_id }} |
Member
Author
There was a problem hiding this comment.
This works because of https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflows-and-actions/dependency-caching#cache-hits-and-misses, GitHub caches are immutable
Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Pull request overview
Adds caching support to the repo’s self-hosted Renovate setup to speed up repeated runs and centralize Renovate version pinning.
Changes:
- Introduces a workflow-level
RENOVATE_VERSIONenv var and uses it for the Renovate action input. - Adds an
actions/cachestep intended to persist Renovate cache data across runs. - Enables Renovate repository caching and adds a Renovate custom regex manager to keep
RENOVATE_VERSIONup to date automatically.
Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| .github/workflows/renovate.yml | Adds cache step and moves Renovate version to a workflow env var used by the action. |
| .github/self-hosted-renovate.js | Enables Renovate repository caching. |
| .github/renovate.json5 | Adds a regex-based custom manager to update RENOVATE_VERSION in the workflow. |
💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.
Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
mnorbury
approved these changes
Mar 18, 2026
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Add caching support to renovate