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Configuration Options

This document describes all the configuration options you may use in a Renovate configuration file. Any config you define applies to the whole repository (e.g. if you have a monorepo).

You can store your Renovate configuration file in one of these locations:

  1. renovate.json
  2. renovate.json5
  3. .github/renovate.json
  4. .github/renovate.json5
  5. .gitlab/renovate.json
  6. .gitlab/renovate.json5
  7. .renovaterc
  8. .renovaterc.json
  9. .renovaterc.json5
  10. package.json (within a "renovate" section)

Warning

Storing the Renovate configuration in a package.json file is deprecated and support may be removed in the future.

When Renovate runs on a repository, it tries to find the configuration files in the order listed above. Renovate stops the search after it finds the first match.

Renovate always uses the config from the repository's default branch, even if that configuration specifies multiple baseBranches. Renovate does not read/override the config from within each base branch if present.

Also, be sure to check out Renovate's shareable config presets to save yourself from reinventing any wheels. Shareable config presets only work with the JSON format.

If you have any questions about the config options, or want to get help/feedback about a config, go to the discussions tab in the Renovate repository and start a new "config help" discussion. We will do our best to answer your question(s).

A subtype in the configuration table specifies what type you're allowed to use within the main element.

If a config option has a parent defined, it means it's only allowed to configure it within an object with the parent name, such as packageRules or hostRules.

When an array or object configuration option is mergeable, it means that values inside it will be added to any existing object or array that existed with the same name.

Note

Config options with type=string are always non-mergeable, so mergeable=false.


addLabels

Labels to add to Pull Request.

Name Value
type array
subType string
mergeable true
cli --add-labels
env RENOVATE_ADD_LABELS

The labels field is non-mergeable, meaning that any config setting a list of PR labels will replace any existing list. If you want to append labels for matched rules, then define an addLabels array with one (or more) label strings. All matched addLabels strings will be attached to the PR.

Consider this example:

{
  "labels": ["dependencies"],
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["eslint"],
      "labels": ["linting"]
    },
    {
      "matchDepTypes": ["optionalDependencies"],
      "addLabels": ["optional"]
    }
  ]
}

With the above config:

  • Optional dependencies will have the labels dependencies and optional
  • ESLint dependencies will have the label linting
  • All other dependencies will have the label dependencies

additionalBranchPrefix

Additional string value to be appended to branchPrefix.

Name Value
type string
default ""
env RENOVATE_ADDITIONAL_BRANCH_PREFIX

By default, the value for this config option is an empty string. Normally you don't need to set this config option.

Here's an example where additionalBranchPrefix can help you. Say you're using a monorepo and want to split pull requests based on the location of the package definition, so that individual teams can manage their own Renovate pull requests. This can be done with this configuration:

{
  "additionalBranchPrefix": "{{parentDir}}-"
}

additionalReviewers

Additional reviewers for Pull Requests (in contrast to reviewers, this option adds to the existing reviewer list, rather than replacing it).

Name Value
type array
subType string
mergeable true
cli --additional-reviewers
env RENOVATE_ADDITIONAL_REVIEWERS

This option adds to the existing reviewer list, rather than replacing it like reviewers.

Use additionalReviewers when you want to add to a preset or base list, without replacing the original. For example, when adding focused reviewers for a specific package group.

assignAutomerge

Assign reviewers and assignees even if the PR is to be automerged.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --assign-automerge
env RENOVATE_ASSIGN_AUTOMERGE

By default, Renovate will not assign reviewers and assignees to an automerge-enabled PR unless it fails status checks. By configuring this setting to true, Renovate will instead always assign reviewers and assignees for automerging PRs at time of creation.

assignees

Assignees for Pull Request (either username or email address depending on the platform).

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --assignees
env RENOVATE_ASSIGNEES

Must be valid usernames on the platform in use.

assigneesFromCodeOwners

Determine assignees based on configured code owners and changes in PR.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --assignees-from-code-owners
env RENOVATE_ASSIGNEES_FROM_CODE_OWNERS

If enabled Renovate tries to determine PR assignees by matching rules defined in a CODEOWNERS file against the changes in the PR.

See GitHub or GitLab documentation for details on syntax and possible file locations.

assigneesSampleSize

Take a random sample of given size from assignees.

Name Value
type integer
cli --assignees-sample-size
env RENOVATE_ASSIGNEES_SAMPLE_SIZE

If configured, Renovate will take a random sample of given size from assignees and assign them only, instead of assigning the entire list of assignees you have configured.

autoApprove

Set to true to automatically approve PRs.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
supportedPlatforms azure, gerrit, gitlab
cli --auto-approve
env RENOVATE_AUTO_APPROVE

Setting this to true will automatically approve the PRs.

You can also configure this using packageRules if you want to use it selectively (e.g. per-package).

autoReplaceGlobalMatch

Control whether replacement regular expressions are global matches or only the first match.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --auto-replace-global-match
env RENOVATE_AUTO_REPLACE_GLOBAL_MATCH

Setting this to false will replace only the first match during replacements updates.

Disabling this is useful for situations where values are repeated within the dependency string, such as when the currentVersion is also featured somewhere within the currentDigest, but you only want to replace the first instance.

Consider this example:

FROM java:8@sha256:0e8b2a860
{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["java"],
      "replacementName": "eclipse-temurin",
      "replacementVersion": "11"
    }
  ]
}

With the above replacement scenario, the current dependency has a version of 8, which also features several times within the digest section.

When using the default autoReplaceGlobalMatch configuration, Renovate will try to replace all instances of 8 within the dependency string with the replacementVersion value of 11. This will replace more than is intended and will be caught during replacement validation steps, resulting in the replacement PR to not be created.

When setting autoReplaceGlobalMatch configuration to false, Renovate will only replace the first occurrence of 8 and will successfully create a replacement PR.

automerge

Whether to automerge branches/PRs automatically, without human intervention.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --automerge
env RENOVATE_AUTOMERGE

By default, Renovate raises PRs but leaves them to someone or something else to merge them. By configuring this setting, you allow Renovate to automerge PRs or even branches. Using automerge reduces the amount of human intervention required.

Usually you won't want to automerge all PRs, for example most people would want to leave major dependency updates to a human to review first. You could configure Renovate to automerge all but major this way:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchUpdateTypes": ["minor", "patch", "pin", "digest"],
      "automerge": true
    }
  ]
}

Also note that this option can be combined with other nested settings, such as dependency type. So for example you could choose to automerge all (passing) devDependencies only this way:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchDepTypes": ["devDependencies"],
      "automerge": true
    }
  ]
}

Note

Branches creation follows schedule and the automerge follows automergeSchedule.

Negative reviews on GitHub block Renovate automerge

Renovate won't automerge on GitHub if a PR has a negative review.

Note

On Azure there can be a delay between a PR being set as completed by Renovate, and Azure merging the PR / finishing its tasks. Renovate tries to delay until Azure is in the expected state, but it will continue if it takes too long. In some cases this can result in a dependency not being merged, and a fresh PR being created for the dependency.

Automerge and GitHub branch protection rules

You must select at least one status check in the Require status checks to pass before merging section of your branch protection rules on GitHub, if you match all three conditions:

  • automerge=true
  • platformAutomerge=true, Renovate defaults to true
  • You use GitHub's Require status checks to pass before merging branch protection rule

If you don't select any status check, and you use platform automerge, then GitHub might automerge PRs with failing tests!

automergeComment

PR comment to add to trigger automerge. Only used if automergeType=pr-comment.

Name Value
type string
default "automergeComment"
cli --automerge-comment
env RENOVATE_AUTOMERGE_COMMENT

Use this only if you configure automergeType="pr-comment".

Example use:

{
  "automerge": true,
  "automergeType": "pr-comment",
  "automergeComment": "bors: r+"
}

automergeSchedule

Limit automerge to these times of day or week.

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --automerge-schedule
default
["at any time"]

Use the automergeSchedule option to define times of week or month during which Renovate may automerge its PRs. The default value for automergeSchedule is "at any time", which functions the same as setting a null schedule. To configure this option refer to schedule as the syntax is the same.

Warning

When platformAutomerge is enabled, Renovate enqueues the platform PR automerge at time of creation, so the schedule specified in automergeSchedule cannot be followed. If it's essential that automerging only happens within the specific automergeSchedule time window, then you need to set platformAutomerge to false and instead rely on Renovate's automerge instead of the platform one.

automergeStrategy

The merge strategy to use when automerging PRs. Used only if automergeType=pr.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues auto, fast-forward, merge-commit, rebase, squash
default "auto"
supportedPlatforms azure, bitbucket, gitea
cli --automerge-strategy
env RENOVATE_AUTOMERGE_STRATEGY

The automerge strategy defaults to auto, so Renovate decides how to merge pull requests as best it can. If possible, Renovate follows the merge strategy set on the platform itself for the repository.

If you've set automerge=true and automergeType=pr for any of your dependencies, then you may choose what automerge strategy Renovate uses by setting the automergeStrategy config option. If you're happy with the default behavior, you don't need to do anything.

You may choose from these values:

  • auto, Renovate decides how to merge
  • fast-forward, "fast-forwarding" the main branch reference, no new commits in the resultant tree
  • merge-commit, create a new merge commit
  • rebase, rewrite history as part of the merge, but usually keep the individual commits
  • squash, flatten the commits that are being merged into a single new commit

Platforms may only support some of these merge strategies.

If the chosen automerge strategy is not supported on your platform then Renovate stops automerging. In that case you'll have to set a supported automerge strategy.

automergeType

How to automerge, if enabled.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues branch, pr, pr-comment
default "pr"
cli --automerge-type
env RENOVATE_AUTOMERGE_TYPE

This setting is only applicable if you opt in to configure automerge to true for any of your dependencies.

Automerging defaults to using Pull Requests (automergeType="pr"). In that case Renovate first creates a branch and associated Pull Request, and then automerges the PR on a subsequent run once it detects the PR's status checks are "green". If by the next run the PR is already behind the base branch it will be automatically rebased, because Renovate only automerges branches which are up-to-date and green. If Renovate is scheduled for hourly runs on the repository but commits are made every 15 minutes to the main branch, then an automerge like this will keep getting deferred with every rebase.

Tip

If you have no tests but still want Renovate to automerge, you need to add "ignoreTests": true to your configuration.

If you prefer that Renovate more silently automerge without Pull Requests at all, you can configure "automergeType": "branch". In this case Renovate will:

  • Create the branch, wait for test results
  • Rebase it any time it gets out of date with the base branch
  • Automerge the branch commit if it's: (a) up-to-date with the base branch, and (b) passing all tests
  • As a backup, raise a PR only if either: (a) tests fail, or (b) tests remain pending for too long (default: 24 hours)

The final value for automergeType is "pr-comment", intended only for users who already have a "merge bot" such as bors-ng and want Renovate to not actually automerge by itself and instead tell bors-ng to merge for it, by using a comment in the PR. If you're not already using bors-ng or similar, don't worry about this option.

azureWorkItemId

The id of an existing work item on Azure Boards to link to each PR.

Name Value
type integer
default 0
supportedPlatforms azure
cli --azure-work-item-id
env RENOVATE_AZURE_WORK_ITEM_ID

When creating a PR in Azure DevOps, some branches can be protected with branch policies to check for linked work items. Creating a work item in Azure DevOps is beyond the scope of Renovate, but Renovate can link an already existing work item when creating PRs.

baseBranches

List of one or more custom base branches defined as exact strings and/or via regex expressions.

Name Value
type array
subType string
env RENOVATE_BASE_BRANCHES

By default, Renovate will detect and process only the repository's default branch. For most projects, this is the expected approach. Renovate also allows users to explicitly configure baseBranches, e.g. for use cases such as:

  • You wish Renovate to process only a non-default branch, e.g. dev: "baseBranches": ["dev"]
  • You have multiple release streams you need Renovate to keep up to date, e.g. in branches main and next: "baseBranches": ["main", "next"]
  • You want to update your main branch and consistently named release branches, e.g. main and release/<version>: "baseBranches": ["main", "/^release\\/.*/"]

It's possible to add this setting into the renovate.json file as part of the "Configure Renovate" onboarding PR. If so then Renovate will reflect this setting in its description and use package file contents from the custom base branch(es) instead of default.

baseBranches supports Regular Expressions that must begin and end with /, e.g.:

{
  "baseBranches": ["main", "/^release\\/.*/"]
}

You can negate the regex by prefixing it with !. Only use a single negation and do not mix it with other branch names, since all branches are combined with or. With a negation, all branches except those matching the regex will be added to the result:

{
  "baseBranches": ["!/^pre-release\\/.*/"]
}

You can also use the special "$default" string to denote the repository's default branch, which is useful if you have it in an org preset, e.g.:

{
  "baseBranches": ["$default", "/^release\\/.*/"]
}

Note

Do not use the baseBranches config option when you've set a forkToken. You may need a forkToken when you're using the Forking Renovate app.

bbUseDefaultReviewers

Use the default reviewers (Bitbucket only).

Name Value
type boolean
default true
supportedPlatforms bitbucket, bitbucket-server
cli --bb-use-default-reviewers
env RENOVATE_BB_USE_DEFAULT_REVIEWERS

Configuring this to true means that Renovate will detect and apply the default reviewers rules to PRs (Bitbucket only).

branchConcurrentLimit

Limit to a maximum of x concurrent branches. 0 means no limit, null (default) inherits value from prConcurrentLimit.

Name Value
type integer
cli --branch-concurrent-limit
env RENOVATE_BRANCH_CONCURRENT_LIMIT

By default, Renovate won't enforce any concurrent branch limits. The config:recommended preset that many extend from limits the number of concurrent branches to 10, but in many cases a limit as low as 3 or 5 can be most efficient for a repository.

If you want the same limit for both concurrent branches and concurrent PRs, then set a value for prConcurrentLimit and it will be re-used for branch calculations too. But if you want to allow more concurrent branches than concurrent PRs, you can configure both values (e.g. branchConcurrentLimit=5 and prConcurrentLimit=3).

This limit is enforced on a per-repository basis.

Example config:

{
  "branchConcurrentLimit": 3
}

Warning

Leaving PRs/branches as unlimited or as a high number increases the time it takes for Renovate to process a repository. If you find that Renovate is too slow when rebasing out-of-date branches, decrease the branchConcurrentLimit.

If you have too many concurrent branches which rebase themselves each run, Renovate can take a lot of time to rebase. Solutions:

  • Decrease the concurrent branch limit (note: this won't go and delete any existing, so won't have an effect until you either merge or close existing ones manually)
  • Remove automerge and/or automatic rebasing (set rebaseWhen to conflicted). However if you have branch protection saying PRs must be up to date then it's not ideal to remove automatic rebasing

branchName

Branch name template.

Name Value
type string
default "{{{branchPrefix}}}{{{additionalBranchPrefix}}}{{{branchTopic}}}"
env RENOVATE_BRANCH_NAME

Warning

We strongly recommended that you avoid configuring this field directly. Use at your own risk.

If you truly need to configure this then it probably means either:

  • You are hopefully mistaken, and there's a better approach you should use, so open a new "config help" discussion at the Renovate discussions tab or
  • You have a use case we didn't expect, please open a discussion to see if we want to get a feature request from you

branchNameStrict

Whether to be strict about the use of special characters within the branch name.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --branch-name-strict
env RENOVATE_BRANCH_NAME_STRICT

If true, Renovate removes special characters when slugifying the branch name:

  • all special characters are removed
  • only alphabetic characters are allowed
  • hyphens - are used to separate sections

The default false behavior will mean that special characters like . may end up in the branch name.

branchPrefix

Prefix to use for all branch names.

Name Value
type string
default "renovate/"
cli --branch-prefix
env RENOVATE_BRANCH_PREFIX

You can modify this field if you want to change the prefix used. For example if you want branches to be like deps/eslint-4.x instead of renovate/eslint-4.x then you configure branchPrefix = deps/. Or if you wish to avoid forward slashes in branch names then you could use renovate_ instead, for example.

branchPrefix must be configured at the root of the configuration (e.g. not within any package rule) and is not allowed to use template values. e.g. instead of renovate/{{parentDir}}-, configure the template part in additionalBranchPrefix, like "additionalBranchPrefix": "{{parentDir}}-".

Note

This setting does not change the default onboarding branch name, i.e. renovate/configure. If you wish to change that too, you need to also configure the field onboardingBranch in your global bot config.

branchPrefixOld

Old branchPrefix value to check for existing PRs.

Name Value
type string
default "renovate/"
cli --branch-prefix-old
env RENOVATE_BRANCH_PREFIX_OLD

Renovate uses branch names as part of its checks to see if an update PR was created previously, and already merged or ignored. If you change branchPrefix, then no previously closed PRs will match, which could lead to Renovate recreating PRs in such cases. Instead, set the old branchPrefix value as branchPrefixOld to allow Renovate to look for those branches too, and avoid this happening.

branchTopic

Branch topic.

Name Value
type string
default "{{{depNameSanitized}}}-{{{newMajor}}}{{#if separateMinorPatch}}{{#if isPatch}}.{{{newMinor}}}{{/if}}{{/if}}.x{{#if isLockfileUpdate}}-lockfile{{/if}}"
env RENOVATE_BRANCH_TOPIC

This field is combined with branchPrefix and additionalBranchPrefix to form the full branchName. branchName uniqueness is important for dependency update grouping or non-grouping so be cautious about ever editing this field manually. This is an advanced field, and it's recommend you seek a config review before applying it.

bumpVersion

Bump the version in the package file being updated.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues major, minor, patch, prerelease
supportedManagers helmv3, npm, nuget, maven, sbt
cli --bump-version
env RENOVATE_BUMP_VERSION
default null

Currently, this config option only works with these managers:

  • cargo
  • helmv3
  • npm
  • nuget
  • maven
  • ocb
  • pep621
  • poetry
  • sbt

Raise a feature request if you want to use this config option with other package managers.

Use bumpVersion if you want Renovate to update the version field in your package file when it updates the dependencies in that file. This can be handy when you have automated your package's release, as you you don't need extra steps after the Renovate upgrade, you can just release a new version.

Configure this value to "prerelease", "patch", "minor" or "major" to have Renovate update the version in your edited package file. e.g. if you wish Renovate to always increase the target package.json version with a patch update, configure this to "patch".

For npm only you can also configure this field to "mirror:x" where x is the name of a package in the package.json. Doing so means that the package.json version field will mirror whatever the version is that x depended on. Make sure that version is a pinned version of course, as otherwise it won't be valid.

For sbt note that Renovate will update the version string only for packages that have the version string in their project's built.sbt file.

cloneSubmodules

Set to true to initialize submodules during repository clone.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --clone-submodules
env RENOVATE_CLONE_SUBMODULES

Enabling this option will mean that any detected Git submodules will be cloned at time of repository clone.

Important: private submodules aren't supported by Renovate, unless the underlying ssh layer already has the correct permissions.

commitBody

Commit message body template. Will be appended to commit message, separated by two line returns.

Name Value
type string
env RENOVATE_COMMIT_BODY
default null

Configure this if you wish Renovate to add a commit body, otherwise Renovate uses a regular single-line commit.

For example, To add [skip ci] to every commit you could configure:

{
  "commitBody": "[skip ci]"
}

Another example would be if you want to configure a DCO signoff to each commit.

If you want Renovate to signoff its commits, add the :gitSignOff preset to your extends array:

{
  "extends": [":gitSignOff"]
}

commitBodyTable

If enabled, append a table in the commit message body describing all updates in the commit.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --commit-body-table
env RENOVATE_COMMIT_BODY_TABLE

commitMessage

Message to use for commit messages and pull request titles.

Name Value
type string
default "{{{commitMessagePrefix}}} {{{commitMessageAction}}} {{{commitMessageTopic}}} {{{commitMessageExtra}}} {{{commitMessageSuffix}}}"
env RENOVATE_COMMIT_MESSAGE

Warning

We deprecated editing the commitMessage directly, and we recommend you stop using this config option. Instead use config options like commitMessageAction, commitMessageExtra, and so on, to create the commit message you want.

commitMessageAction

Action verb to use in commit messages and PR titles.

Name Value
type string
default "Update"
env RENOVATE_COMMIT_MESSAGE_ACTION

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

This is used to alter commitMessage and prTitle without needing to copy/paste the whole string. Actions may be like Update, Pin, Roll back, Refresh, etc. Check out the default value for commitMessage to understand how this field is used.

commitMessageExtra

Extra description used after the commit message topic - typically the version.

Name Value
type string
default "to {{#if isPinDigest}}{{{newDigestShort}}}{{else}}{{#if isMajor}}{{prettyNewMajor}}{{else}}{{#if isSingleVersion}}{{prettyNewVersion}}{{else}}{{#if newValue}}{{{newValue}}}{{else}}{{{newDigestShort}}}{{/if}}{{/if}}{{/if}}{{/if}}"
env RENOVATE_COMMIT_MESSAGE_EXTRA

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

This is used to alter commitMessage and prTitle without needing to copy/paste the whole string. The "extra" is usually an identifier of the new version, e.g. "to v1.3.2" or "to tag 9.2".

commitMessageLowerCase

Lowercase PR- and commit titles.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues auto, never
default "auto"
cli --commit-message-lower-case
env RENOVATE_COMMIT_MESSAGE_LOWER_CASE

With semanticCommits pr- and commit-titles will by default ("auto") be converted to all-lowercase. Set this to "never" to leave the titles untouched, allowing uppercase characters in semantic commit titles.

commitMessagePrefix

Prefix to add to start of commit messages and PR titles. Uses a semantic prefix if semanticCommits is enabled.

Name Value
type string
env RENOVATE_COMMIT_MESSAGE_PREFIX
default null

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

This is used to alter commitMessage and prTitle without needing to copy/paste the whole string. The "prefix" is usually an automatically applied semantic commit prefix, but it can also be statically configured.

commitMessageSuffix

Suffix to add to end of commit messages and PR titles.

Name Value
type string
env RENOVATE_COMMIT_MESSAGE_SUFFIX
default null

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

This is used to add a suffix to commit messages. Usually left empty except for internal use (multiple base branches, and vulnerability alerts).

commitMessageTopic

The upgrade topic/noun used in commit messages and PR titles.

Name Value
type string
default "dependency {{depName}}"
env RENOVATE_COMMIT_MESSAGE_TOPIC

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

You can use commitMessageTopic to change the commitMessage and prTitle without copy/pasting the whole string. The "topic" usually refers to the dependency being updated, for example: "dependency react".

We recommend you use matchManagers and commitMessageTopic in a packageRules array to set the commit message topic, like this:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchManagers": ["github-actions"],
      "commitMessageTopic": "{{depName}}"
    }
  ]
}

composerIgnorePlatformReqs

Configure use of --ignore-platform-reqs or --ignore-platform-req for the Composer package manager.

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --composer-ignore-platform-reqs
env RENOVATE_COMPOSER_IGNORE_PLATFORM_REQS

By default, Renovate will ignore Composer platform requirements as the PHP platform used by Renovate most probably won't match the required PHP environment of your project as configured in your composer.json file.

Composer 2.2 and up will be run with --ignore-platform-req='ext-*' --ignore-platform-req='lib-*', which ignores extension and library platform requirements but not the PHP version itself and should work in most cases.

Older Composer versions will be run with --ignore-platform-reqs, which means that all platform constraints (including the PHP version) will be ignored by default. This can result in updated dependencies that are not compatible with your platform.

To customize this behaviour, you can explicitly ignore platform requirements (for example ext-zip) by setting them separately in this array. Each item will be added to the Composer command with --ignore-platform-req, resulting in it being ignored during its invocation. Note that this requires your project to use Composer V2, as V1 doesn't support excluding single platform requirements. The used PHP version will be guessed automatically from your composer.json definition, so php should not be added as explicit dependency.

If an empty array is configured, Renovate uses its default behaviour.

Set to null (not recommended) to fully omit --ignore-platform-reqs/--ignore-platform-req during Composer invocation. This requires the Renovate image to be fully compatible with your Composer platform requirements in order for the Composer invocation to succeed, otherwise Renovate will fail to create the updated lock file. The Composer output should inform you about the reasons the update failed.

confidential

If enabled, issues created by Renovate are set as confidential.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
supportedPlatforms gitlab
cli --confidential
env RENOVATE_CONFIDENTIAL

If enabled, all issues created by Renovate are set as confidential, even in a public repository.

Note

The Dependency Dashboard issue will also be confidential. By default issues created by Renovate are visible to all users.

Note

This option is applicable to GitLab only.

configMigration

Enable this to get config migration PRs when needed.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --config-migration
env RENOVATE_CONFIG_MIGRATION

If enabled, Renovate raises a pull request when it needs to migrate the Renovate config file. Renovate only performs configMigration on .json and .json5 files.

We're adding new features to Renovate bot often. Often you can keep using your Renovate config and use the new features right away. But sometimes you need to update your Renovate configuration. To help you with this, Renovate will create config migration pull requests, when you enable configMigration.

Example:

After we changed the baseBranches feature, the Renovate configuration migration pull request would make this change:

{
- "baseBranch": "main"
+ "baseBranches": ["main"]
}

Warning

The configMigration feature writes plain JSON for .json files, and JSON5 for .json5 files. Renovate may downgrade JSON5 content to plain JSON. When downgrading JSON5 to JSON Renovate may also remove the JSON5 comments. This can happen because Renovate wrongly converts JSON5 to JSON, thus removing the comments.

Note

When you close a config migration PR, Renovate ignores it forever. This also means that Renovate won't create a config migration PR in future. If you closed the PR by accident, find the closed PR and re-name the PR title to get a new PR.

This feature is flagged as experimental

Config migration PRs are still being improved, in particular to reduce the amount of reordering and whitespace changes.
To track this feature visit the following GitHub issue #16359.

configWarningReuseIssue

Set this to false to make Renovate create a new issue for each config warning, instead of reopening or reusing an existing issue.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --config-warning-reuse-issue
env RENOVATE_CONFIG_WARNING_REUSE_ISSUE

Renovate's default behavior is to reuse/reopen a single Config Warning issue in each repository so as to keep the "noise" down. However for some people this has the downside that the config warning won't be sorted near the top if you view issues by creation date. Configure this option to false if you prefer Renovate to open a new issue whenever there is a config warning.

constraints

Configuration object to define language or manager version constraints.

Name Value
type object
mergeable true
supportedManagers bundler, composer, gomod, npm, pep621, pipenv, poetry
env RENOVATE_CONSTRAINTS

Constraints are used in package managers which use third-party tools to update "artifacts" like lock files or checksum files. Typically, the constraint is detected automatically by Renovate from files within the repository and there is no need to manually configure it.

Constraints are also used to manually restrict which datasource versions are possible to upgrade to based on their language support. For now this datasource constraint feature only supports python, other compatibility restrictions will be added in the future.

{
  "constraints": {
    "python": "2.7"
  }
}

If you need to override constraints that Renovate detects from the repository, wrap it in the force object like so:

{
  "force": {
    "constraints": {
      "node": "< 15.0.0"
    }
  }
}

Note

Make sure not to mix this up with the term compatibility, which Renovate uses in the context of version releases, e.g. if a Docker image is node:12.16.0-alpine then the -alpine suffix represents compatibility.

constraintsFiltering

Perform release filtering based on language constraints.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues none, strict
default "none"
env RENOVATE_CONSTRAINTS_FILTERING

This option controls whether Renovate filters new releases based on configured or detected constraints. Renovate supports two options:

  • none: No release filtering (all releases allowed)
  • strict: If the release's constraints match the package file constraints, then it's included

More advanced filtering options may come in future.

There must be a constraints object in your Renovate config, or constraints detected from package files, for this to work. Additionally, the "datasource" within Renovate must be capable of returning constraints values about each package's release.

This feature is limited to the following datasources:

  • crate
  • jenkins-plugins
  • npm
  • packagist
  • pypi
  • rubygems

Sometimes when using private registries they may omit constraints information, which then is another reason such filtering may not work even if the datasource and corresponding default public registry supports it.

Warning

Enabling this feature may result in many package updates being filtered out silently. See below for a description of how it works.

When constraintsFiltering=strict, the following logic applies:

  • Are there constraints for this repository, either detected from source or from config?
  • Does this package's release declare constraints of its own (e.g. engines in Node.js)?
  • If so, filter out this release unless the repository constraint is a subset of the release constraint

Here are some examples:

Your repo engines.node Dependency release engines.node Result
18 16 \|\| 18 allowed
^18.10.0 >=18 allowed
^16.10.0 \|\| >=18.0.0 >= 16.0.0 allowed
>=16 16 \|\| 18 filtered
16 ^16.10.0 filtered

When using with npm, we recommend you:

  • Use constraintsFiltering on dependencies, not devDependencies (usually you do not need to be strict about development dependencies)
  • Do not enable rollbackPrs at the same time (otherwise your current version may be rolled back if it's incompatible)

customDatasources

Defines custom datasources for usage by managers.

Name Value
type object
mergeable true
cli --custom-datasources
env RENOVATE_CUSTOM_DATASOURCES

Use customDatasources to fetch releases from APIs or statically hosted sites and Renovate has no own datasource. These datasources can be referred by customManagers or can be used to overwrite default datasources.

For more details see the custom datasource documentation.

This feature is flagged as experimental

Experimental features might be changed or even removed at any time.
To track this feature visit the following GitHub issue #23286.

customManagers

Custom managers using regex matching.

Name Value
type array
subType object
cli --custom-managers
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_CUSTOM_MANAGERS

Use customManagers(previously regexManagers) entries to configure the custom managers in Renovate.

You can define custom managers to handle:

  • Proprietary file formats or conventions
  • Popular file formats not yet supported as a manager by Renovate

Currently we only have one custom manager. The regex manager which is based on using Regular Expression named capture groups.

You must have a named capture group matching (e.g. (?<depName>.*)) or configure its corresponding template (e.g. depNameTemplate) for these fields:

  • datasource
  • depName
  • currentValue

Use named capture group matching or set a corresponding template. We recommend you use only one of these methods, or you'll get confused.

We recommend that you also tell Renovate what versioning to use. If the versioning field is missing, then Renovate defaults to using semver versioning.

For more details and examples about it, see our documentation for the regex manager. For template fields, use the triple brace {{{ }}} notation to avoid Handlebars escaping any special characters.

Tip

Look at our Regex Manager Presets, they may have what you need.

customType

Custom manager to use. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues regex
parents customManagers
default null

Example:

{
  "customManagers": [
    {
      "customType": "regex",
      "matchStrings": [
        "ENV .*?_VERSION=(?<currentValue>.*) # (?<datasource>.*?)/(?<depName>.*?)\\s"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

matchStrings

Regex capture rule to use. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
format regex
parents customManagers

Each matchStrings must be a valid regular expression, optionally with named capture groups.

Example:

{
  "matchStrings": [
    "ENV .*?_VERSION=(?<currentValue>.*) # (?<datasource>.*?)/(?<depName>.*?)\\s"
  ]
}

matchStringsStrategy

Strategy how to interpret matchStrings.

Name Value
type string
default "any"
allowedValues any, recursive, combination
parents customManagers

matchStringsStrategy controls behavior when multiple matchStrings values are provided. Three options are available:

  • any (default)
  • recursive
  • combination

any

Each provided matchString will be matched individually to the content of the packageFile. If a matchString has multiple matches in a file each will be interpreted as an independent dependency.

As example the following configuration will update all three lines in the Dockerfile.

renovate.json
{
  "customManagers": [
    {
      "customType": "regex",
      "fileMatch": ["^Dockerfile$"],
      "matchStringsStrategy": "any",
      "matchStrings": [
        "ENV [A-Z]+_VERSION=(?<currentValue>.*) # (?<datasource>.*?)/(?<depName>.*?)(\\&versioning=(?<versioning>.*?))?\\s",
        "FROM (?<depName>\\S*):(?<currentValue>\\S*)"
      ],
      "datasourceTemplate": "docker"
    }
  ]
}
Dockerfile
FROM amd64/ubuntu:18.04
ENV GRADLE_VERSION=6.2 # gradle-version/gradle&versioning=maven
ENV NODE_VERSION=10.19.0 # github-tags/nodejs/node&versioning=node

recursive

If using recursive the matchStrings will be looped through and the full match of the last will define the range of the next one. This can be used to narrow down the search area to prevent multiple matches. But the recursive strategy still allows the matching of multiple dependencies as described below. All matches of the first matchStrings pattern are detected, then each of these matches will be used as basis for the input for the next matchStrings pattern, and so on. If the next matchStrings pattern has multiple matches then it will split again. This process will be followed as long there is a match plus a next matchingStrings pattern is available.

Matched groups will be available in subsequent matching layers.

This is an example how this can work. The first custom manager will only upgrade grafana/loki as looks for the backup key then looks for the test key and then uses this result for extraction of necessary attributes. But the second custom manager will upgrade both definitions as its first matchStrings matches both test keys.

renovate.json
{
  "customManagers": [
    {
      "customType": "regex",
      "fileMatch": ["^example.json$"],
      "matchStringsStrategy": "recursive",
      "matchStrings": [
        "\"backup\":\\s*{[^}]*}",
        "\"test\":\\s*\\{[^}]*}",
        "\"name\":\\s*\"(?<depName>.*)\"[^\"]*\"type\":\\s*\"(?<datasource>.*)\"[^\"]*\"value\":\\s*\"(?<currentValue>.*)\""
      ],
      "datasourceTemplate": "docker"
    },
    {
      "fileMatch": ["^example.json$"],
      "matchStringsStrategy": "recursive",
      "matchStrings": [
        "\"test\":\\s*\\{[^}]*}",
        "\"name\":\\s*\"(?<depName>.*)\"[^\"]*\"type\":\\s*\"(?<datasource>.*)\"[^\"]*\"value\":\\s*\"(?<currentValue>.*)\""
      ],
      "datasourceTemplate": "docker"
    }
  ]
}
example.json
{
  "backup": {
    "test": {
      "name": "grafana/loki",
      "type": "docker",
      "value": "1.6.1"
    }
  },
  "setup": {
    "test": {
      "name": "python",
      "type": "docker",
      "value": "3.9.0"
    }
  }
}

combination

You may use this option to combine the values of multiple lines inside a file. You can combine multiple lines with matchStringStrategy values, but the combination approach is less susceptible to white space or line breaks stopping a match.

combination can only match one dependency per file. To update multiple dependencies with combination you must define multiple custom managers.

Matched group values will be merged to form a single dependency.

renovate.json
{
  "customManagers": [
    {
      "customType": "regex",
      "fileMatch": ["^main.yml$"],
      "matchStringsStrategy": "combination",
      "matchStrings": [
        "prometheus_image:\\s*\"(?<depName>.*)\"\\s*//",
        "prometheus_version:\\s*\"(?<currentValue>.*)\"\\s*//"
      ],
      "datasourceTemplate": "docker"
    },
    {
      "fileMatch": ["^main.yml$"],
      "matchStringsStrategy": "combination",
      "matchStrings": [
        "thanos_image:\\s*\"(?<depName>.*)\"\\s*//",
        "thanos_version:\\s*\"(?<currentValue>.*)\"\\s*//"
      ],
      "datasourceTemplate": "docker"
    }
  ]
}
Ansible variable file (YAML)
prometheus_image: "prom/prometheus"  // a comment
prometheus_version: "v2.21.0" // a comment
------
thanos_image: "prom/prometheus"  // a comment
thanos_version: "0.15.0" // a comment

In the above example, each custom manager will match a single dependency each.

depNameTemplate

Optional depName for extracted dependencies. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type string
parents customManagers
default null

If depName cannot be captured with a named capture group in matchString then it can be defined manually using this field. It will be compiled using Handlebars and the regex groups result.

extractVersionTemplate

Optional extractVersion for extracted dependencies. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type string
parents customManagers
default null

If extractVersion cannot be captured with a named capture group in matchString then it can be defined manually using this field. It will be compiled using Handlebars and the regex groups result.

packageNameTemplate

Optional packageName for extracted dependencies, else defaults to depName value. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type string
parents customManagers
default null

packageName is used for looking up dependency versions. It will be compiled using Handlebars and the regex groups result. It will default to the value of depName if left unconfigured/undefined.

currentValueTemplate

Optional currentValue for extracted dependencies. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type string
parents customManagers
default null

If the currentValue for a dependency is not captured with a named group then it can be defined in config using this field. It will be compiled using Handlebars and the regex groups result.

datasourceTemplate

Optional datasource for extracted dependencies. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type string
parents customManagers
default null

If the datasource for a dependency is not captured with a named group then it can be defined in config using this field. It will be compiled using Handlebars and the regex groups result.

depTypeTemplate

Optional depType for extracted dependencies. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type string
parents customManagers
default null

If depType cannot be captured with a named capture group in matchString then it can be defined manually using this field. It will be compiled using Handlebars and the regex groups result.

versioningTemplate

Optional versioning for extracted dependencies. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type string
parents customManagers
default null

If the versioning for a dependency is not captured with a named group then it can be defined in config using this field. It will be compiled using Handlebars and the regex groups result.

registryUrlTemplate

Optional registry URL for extracted dependencies. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type string
parents customManagers
default null

If the registryUrls for a dependency is not captured with a named group then it can be defined in config using this field. It will be compiled using Handlebars and the regex groups result.

autoReplaceStringTemplate

Optional extractVersion for extracted dependencies. Valid only within a customManagers object.

Name Value
type string
parents customManagers
default null

Allows overwriting how the matched string is replaced. This allows for some migration strategies. E.g. moving from one Docker image repository to another one.

helm-values.yaml
# The image of the service <registry>/<repo>/<image>:<tag>
image: my.old.registry/aRepository/andImage:1.18-alpine
The regex definition
{
  "customManagers": [
    {
      "customType": "regex",
      "fileMatch": ["values.yaml$"],
      "matchStrings": [
        "image:\\s+(?<depName>my\\.old\\.registry/aRepository/andImage):(?<currentValue>[^\\s]+)"
      ],
      "depNameTemplate": "my.new.registry/aRepository/andImage",
      "autoReplaceStringTemplate": "image: {{{depName}}}:{{{newValue}}}",
      "datasourceTemplate": "docker"
    }
  ]
}

This will lead to following update where 1.21-alpine is the newest version of my.new.registry/aRepository/andImage:

# The image of the service <registry>/<repo>/<image>:<tag>
image: my.new.registry/aRepository/andImage:1.21-alpine

customizeDashboard

Customize sections in the Dependency Dashboard issue.

Name Value
type object
additionalProperties [object Object]
cli --customize-dashboard
env RENOVATE_CUSTOMIZE_DASHBOARD

You may use the customizeDashboard object to customize the Dependency Dashboard.

Supported fields:

  • repoProblemsHeader: This field will replace the header of the Repository Problems in the Dependency Dashboard issue.

defaultRegistryUrlTemplate

Template for generating a defaultRegistryUrl for custom datasource.

Name Value
type string
default ""
parents customDatasources

This field is used to build a registryUrl for the dependency. It is not needed if either:

  • The dependency can be found with the default registryUrls of the datasource (e.g. npmjs registry if the datasource is npm), or
  • The matching groups you specified as part of the matching already include a registryUrl group As this is a template it can be dynamically set. E.g. add the packageName as part of the URL:
{
  customDatasources: {
    foo: {
      defaultRegistryUrlTemplate: 'https://example.foo.bar/v1/{{ packageName }}',
    },
  },
}

format

Format of the custom datasource.

Name Value
type string
parents customDatasources
default "json"
allowedValues json, plain

Defines which format the API is returning. Currently json or plain are supported, see the custom datasource documentation for more information.

transformTemplates

List of jsonata transformation rules.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents customDatasources
cli --transform-templates
env RENOVATE_TRANSFORM_TEMPLATES

transformTemplates is a list of jsonata rules which get applied serially. Use this if the API does not return a Renovate compatible schema.

defaultRegistryUrls

List of registry URLs to use as the default for a datasource.

Name Value
type array
subType string

Override a datasource's default registries with this config option. The datasources's customRegistrySupport value must be true for the config option to work.

Default registries are only used when both:

  • The manager did not extract any registryUrls values, and
  • No registryUrls values have been applied via config, such as packageRules

Think of defaultRegistryUrls as a way to specify the "fallback" registries for a datasource, for use when no registryUrls are extracted or configured. Compare that to registryUrls, which are a way to override registries.

dependencyDashboard

Whether to create a "Dependency Dashboard" issue in the repository.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --dependency-dashboard
env RENOVATE_DEPENDENCY_DASHBOARD

Starting from version v26.0.0 the "Dependency Dashboard" is enabled by default as part of the commonly-used config:recommended preset.

To disable the Dependency Dashboard, add the preset :disableDependencyDashboard or set dependencyDashboard to false.

{
  "extends": ["config:recommended", ":disableDependencyDashboard"]
}

Configuring dependencyDashboard to true will lead to the creation of a "Dependency Dashboard" issue within the repository. This issue has a list of all PRs pending, open, closed (unmerged) or in error. The goal of this issue is to give visibility into all updates that Renovate is managing.

Examples of what having a Dependency Dashboard will allow you to do:

  • View all PRs in one place, rather than having to filter PRs by author
  • Rebase/retry multiple PRs without having to open each individually
  • Override any rate limiting (e.g. concurrent PRs) or scheduling to force Renovate to create a PR that would otherwise be suppressed
  • Recreate an unmerged PR (e.g. for a major update that you postponed by closing the original PR)

Tip

Enabling the Dependency Dashboard by itself does not change the "control flow" of Renovate. Renovate still creates and manages PRs, and still follows your schedules and rate limits. The Dependency Dashboard gives you extra visibility and control over your updates.

dependencyDashboardApproval

Controls if updates need manual approval from the Dependency Dashboard issue before PRs are created.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --dependency-dashboard-approval
env RENOVATE_DEPENDENCY_DASHBOARD_APPROVAL

This feature allows you to use Renovate's Dependency Dashboard to force approval of updates before they are created.

By setting dependencyDashboardApproval to true in config (including within packageRules), you can tell Renovate to wait for your approval from the Dependency Dashboard before creating a branch/PR. You can approve a pending PR by selecting the checkbox in the Dependency Dashboard issue.

Tip

When you set dependencyDashboardApproval to true the Dependency Dashboard issue will be created automatically, you do not need to turn on dependencyDashboard explicitly.

You can configure Renovate to wait for approval for:

  • all package upgrades
  • major, minor, patch level upgrades
  • specific package upgrades
  • upgrades coming from specific package managers

If you want to approve all upgrades, set dependencyDashboardApproval to true:

{
  "dependencyDashboardApproval": true
}

If you want to require approval for major updates, set dependencyDashboardApproval to true within a major object:

{
  "major": {
    "dependencyDashboardApproval": true
  }
}

If you want to approve specific packages, set dependencyDashboardApproval to true within a packageRules entry where you have defined a specific package or pattern.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^@package-name"],
      "dependencyDashboardApproval": true
    }
  ]
}

dependencyDashboardAutoclose

Set to true to let Renovate close the Dependency Dashboard issue if there are no more updates.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --dependency-dashboard-autoclose
env RENOVATE_DEPENDENCY_DASHBOARD_AUTOCLOSE

You can configure this to true if you prefer Renovate to close an existing Dependency Dashboard whenever there are no outstanding PRs left.

dependencyDashboardFooter

Any text added here will be placed last in the Dependency Dashboard issue body, with a divider separator before it.

Name Value
type string
cli --dependency-dashboard-footer
env RENOVATE_DEPENDENCY_DASHBOARD_FOOTER
default null

dependencyDashboardHeader

Any text added here will be placed first in the Dependency Dashboard issue body.

Name Value
type string
default "This issue lists Renovate updates and detected dependencies. Read the [Dependency Dashboard](https://docs.renovatebot.com/key-concepts/dashboard/) docs to learn more."
cli --dependency-dashboard-header
env RENOVATE_DEPENDENCY_DASHBOARD_HEADER

dependencyDashboardLabels

These labels will always be applied on the Dependency Dashboard issue, even when they have been removed manually.

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --dependency-dashboard-labels
env RENOVATE_DEPENDENCY_DASHBOARD_LABELS

The labels only get updated when the Dependency Dashboard issue updates its content and/or title. It is pointless to edit the labels, as Renovate bot restores the labels on each run.

dependencyDashboardOSVVulnerabilitySummary

Control if the Dependency Dashboard issue lists CVEs supplied by osv.dev.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues none, all, unresolved
default "none"
cli --dependency-dashboard-o-s-v-vulnerability-summary
env RENOVATE_DEPENDENCY_DASHBOARD_O_S_V_VULNERABILITY_SUMMARY

Use this option to control if the Dependency Dashboard lists the OSV-sourced CVEs for your repository. You can choose from:

  • none (default) do not list any CVEs
  • unresolved list CVEs that have no fixes
  • all list all CVEs

This feature is independent of the osvVulnerabilityAlerts option.

The source of these CVEs is OSV.dev.

This feature is flagged as experimental

Experimental features might be changed or even removed at any time.

dependencyDashboardTitle

Title for the Dependency Dashboard issue.

Name Value
type string
default "Dependency Dashboard"
cli --dependency-dashboard-title
env RENOVATE_DEPENDENCY_DASHBOARD_TITLE

Configure this option if you prefer a different title for the Dependency Dashboard.

description

Plain text description for a config or preset.

Name Value
type array
subType string
mergeable true

The description field can be used inside any configuration object to add a human-readable description of the object's config purpose. Descriptions fields embedded within presets are also collated as part of the onboarding description.

digest

Configuration to apply when updating a digest (no change in tag/version).

Name Value
type object
default
{
  "branchTopic": "{{{depNameSanitized}}}-digest",
  "commitMessageExtra": "to {{newDigestShort}}",
  "commitMessageTopic": "{{{depName}}} digest"
}
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_DIGEST

Add to this object if you wish to define rules that apply only to PRs that update digests.

draftPR

If set to true then Renovate creates draft PRs, instead of normal status PRs.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
supportedPlatforms azure, gitea, github, gitlab
cli --draft-p-r
env RENOVATE_DRAFT_P_R

If you want the PRs created by Renovate to be considered as drafts rather than normal PRs, you could add this property to your renovate.json:

{
  "draftPR": true
}

This option is evaluated at PR/MR creation time.

Note

Forgejo, Gitea and GitLab implement draft status by checking if the PR's title starts with certain strings. This means that draftPR on Forgejo, Gitea and GitLab are incompatible with the legacy method of triggering Renovate to rebase a PR by renaming the PR to start with rebase!.

enabled

Enable or disable Renovate bot.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --enabled
env RENOVATE_ENABLED

The most common use of enabled is if you want to turn Renovate's functionality off, for some reason.

For example, if you wanted to disable Renovate completely on a repository, you could make this your renovate.json:

{
  "enabled": false
}

To disable Renovate for all eslint packages, you can configure a package rule like:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^eslint"],
      "enabled": false
    }
  ]
}

To disable Renovate for npm devDependencies but keep it for dependencies you could configure:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchManagers": ["npm"],
      "matchDepTypes": ["devDependencies"],
      "enabled": false
    }
  ]
}

enabledManagers

A list of package managers to enable. Only managers on the list are enabled.

Name Value
type array
subType string
mergeable false
cli --enabled-managers
env RENOVATE_ENABLED_MANAGERS

This is a way to allow only certain package managers and implicitly disable all others.

Example:

{
  "enabledManagers": ["dockerfile", "npm"]
}

To enable custom managers you will need to add custom. prefix before their names

Example:

{
  "enabledManagers": ["custom.regex"]
}

For the full list of available managers, see the Supported Managers documentation.

encrypted

An object containing configuration encrypted with project key.

Name Value
type object
cli --encrypted
env RENOVATE_ENCRYPTED

Before you put any secrets in your repository configuration, encrypt the secrets. You can encrypt secrets using either a HTML page, or the CLI.

To encrypt secrets for the Mend Renovate App for github.com with a HTML page, go to app.renovatebot.com/encrypt and complete the form. If you're self-hosting Renovate, you may download and edit the form, to use your own PGP public key.

You can also encrypt secrets from the CLI, using the curl, echo, jq, gpg, grep and tr CLI programs. Here is an example:

curl https://app.renovatebot.com/renovate.pgp --output renovate.pgp
echo -n '{"o":"your-organization", "r":"your-repository (optional)", "v":"your-secret-value"}' | jq . -c | gpg --encrypt -a --recipient-file renovate.pgp | grep -v '^----' | tr -d '\n'

The above script uses:

  • curl to download the Mend Renovate hosted app's public key
  • echo to echo a JSON object into jq
  • jq to validate the JSON and then compact it
  • gpg to encrypt the contents
  • grep and tr to extract the encrypted payload which we will use

The jq step is optional, you can leave it out if you wish. Its primary value is validating that the string you echo to gpg is valid JSON, and compact.

Note

Encrypted secrets must have at least an org/group scope, and optionally a repository scope. This means that Renovate will check if a secret's scope matches the current repository before applying it, and warn/discard if there is a mismatch.

Encrypted secrets usually have a single organization. But you may encrypt a secret with more than one organization, for example: org1,org2. This way the secret can be used in both the org1 and org2 organizations.

For more information on how to use secrets for private packages, read Private package support.

env

Environment variables that Renovate uses when executing package manager commands.

Name Value
type object
cli --env
env RENOVATE_ENV

This option allows users to specify explicit environment variables values. It is valid only as a top-level configuration option and not, for example, within packageRules.

Warning

The bot administrator must configure a list of allowed environment names in the allowedEnv config option, before users can use those allowed names in the env option.

Behavior:

  • This option only applies when Renovate runs package manager commands (e.g. npm install), within the updateArtifacts() function
  • Values set in the env configuration override corresponding environment variables, including those from customEnvVariables and process.env
Example renovate.json with env configuration
{
  "env": {
    "SOME_ENV_VARIABLE": "SOME_STRING_VALUE"
  }
}

excludeCommitPaths

A file matching any of these glob patterns will not be committed, even if the file has been updated.

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --exclude-commit-paths
env RENOVATE_EXCLUDE_COMMIT_PATHS

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

Be careful you know what you're doing with this option. The initial intended use is to allow the user to exclude certain dependencies from being added/removed/modified when "vendoring" dependencies. Example:

{
  "excludeCommitPaths": ["vendor/golang.org/x/text/**"]
}

The above would mean Renovate would not include files matching the above glob pattern in the commit, even if it thinks they should be updated.

expandCodeOwnersGroups

Expand the configured code owner groups into a full list of group members.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
supportedPlatforms gitlab
cli --expand-code-owners-groups
env RENOVATE_EXPAND_CODE_OWNERS_GROUPS

If configured, Renovate will expand any matching CODEOWNERS groups into a full list of group members and assign them individually instead of the group. This is particularly useful when combined with assigneesSampleSize and assigneesFromCodeOwners, so that only a subset of the Codeowners are assigned instead of the whole group.

extends

Configuration presets to use or extend.

Name Value
type array
subType string
env RENOVATE_EXTENDS

See shareable config presets for details. Learn how to use presets by reading the Key concepts, Presets page.

extractVersion

A regex (re2) to extract a version from a datasource's raw version string.

Name Value
type string
format regex
default null

Only use this config option when the raw version strings from the datasource do not match the expected format that you need in your package file. You must define a "named capture group" called version like in the examples below.

For example, to extract only the major.minor precision from a GitHub release, the following would work:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["foo"],
      "extractVersion": "^(?<version>v\\d+\\.\\d+)"
    }
  ]
}

The above will change a raw version of v1.31.5 to v1.31, for example.

Alternatively, to strip a release- prefix:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["bar"],
      "extractVersion": "^release-(?<version>.*)$"
    }
  ]
}

The above will change a raw version of release-2.0.0 to 2.0.0, for example. A similar one could strip leading v prefixes:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["baz"],
      "extractVersion": "^v(?<version>.*)$"
    }
  ]
}

fetchChangeLogs

Controls if and when changelogs/release notes are fetched.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues off, branch, pr
default "pr"

Use this config option to configure changelogs/release notes fetching. The available options are:

  • off - disable changelogs fetching
  • branch - fetch changelogs while creating/updating branch
  • pr(default) - fetches changelogs while creating/updating pull-request

Avoid setting fetchChangeLogs=branch, because this slows down Renovate. But if you're embedding changelogs in commit information, you may use fetchChangeLogs=branch.

Renovate can fetch changelogs when they are hosted on one of these platforms:

  • Bitbucket Cloud
  • GitHub (.com and Enterprise Server)
  • GitLab (.com and CE/EE)

If you are running on any platform except github.com, you need to configure a Personal Access Token to allow Renovate to fetch changelogs notes from github.com.

Note

Renovate can only show changelogs from some platforms and some package managers. We're planning improvements so that Renovate can show more changelogs. Read issue 14138 on GitHub to get an overview of the planned work.

fileMatch

RegEx (re2) pattern for matching manager files.

Name Value
type array
subType string
format regex
mergeable true

fileMatch is used by Renovate to know which files in a repository to parse and extract. fileMatch patterns in the user config are added to the default values and do not replace them. The default fileMatch patterns cannot be removed, so if you need to include or exclude specific paths then use the ignorePaths or includePaths configuration options.

Some fileMatch patterns are short, like Renovate's default Go Modules fileMatch for example. Here Renovate looks for any go.mod file. In this case you can probably keep using that default fileMatch.

At other times, the possible files is too vague for Renovate to have any default. For default, Kubernetes manifests can exist in any *.yaml file and we don't want Renovate to parse every single YAML file in every repository just in case some of them have a Kubernetes manifest, so Renovate's default fileMatch for manager kubernetes is actually empty ([]) and needs the user to tell Renovate what directories/files to look in.

Finally, there are cases where Renovate's default fileMatch is good, but you may be using file patterns that a bot couldn't possibly guess about. For example, Renovate's default fileMatch for Dockerfile is ['(^|/|\\.)([Dd]ocker|[Cc]ontainer)file$', '(^|/)([Dd]ocker|[Cc]ontainer)file[^/]*$']. This will catch files like backend/Dockerfile, prefix.Dockerfile or Dockerfile-suffix, but it will miss files like ACTUALLY_A_DOCKERFILE.template. Because fileMatch is mergeable, you don't need to duplicate the defaults and could add the missing file like this:

{
  "dockerfile": {
    "fileMatch": ["^ACTUALLY_A_DOCKERFILE\\.template$"]
  }
}

If you configure fileMatch then it must be within a manager object (e.g. dockerfile in the above example). The full list of supported managers can be found here.

filterUnavailableUsers

Filter reviewers and assignees based on their availability.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
supportedPlatforms gitlab
cli --filter-unavailable-users
env RENOVATE_FILTER_UNAVAILABLE_USERS

When this option is enabled PRs are not assigned to users that are unavailable. This option only works on platforms that support the concept of user availability. For now, you can only use this option on the GitLab platform.

followTag

If defined, packages will follow this release tag exactly.

Name Value
type string
default null

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

For followTag to work, the datasource must support distribution streams or tags, like for example npm does.

The main usecase is to follow a pre-release tag of a dependency, say TypeScripts's "insiders" build:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["typescript"],
      "followTag": "insiders"
    }
  ]
}

If you've set a followTag then Renovate skips its normal major/minor/patch upgrade logic and stable/unstable consistency logic, and instead keeps your dependency version synced strictly to the version in the tag.

Renovate follows tags strictly, this can cause problems when a tagged stream is no longer maintained. For example: you're following the next tag, but later the stream you actually want is called stable instead. If next is no longer getting updates, you must switch your followTag to stable to get updates again.

forkModeDisallowMaintainerEdits

Disallow maintainers to push to Renovate pull requests when running in fork mode.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
supportedPlatforms github
cli --fork-mode-disallow-maintainer-edits
env RENOVATE_FORK_MODE_DISALLOW_MAINTAINER_EDITS

Use forkModeDisallowMaintainerEdits to disallow maintainers from editing Renovate's pull requests when in fork mode.

If GitHub pull requests are created from a fork repository, the PR author can decide to allow upstream repository to modify the PR directly.

Allowing maintainers to edit pull requests directly is helpful when Renovate pull requests require more changes. The reviewer can simply push to the pull request without having to create a new PR. More details here.

You may decide to disallow edits to Renovate pull requests in order to workaround issues in Renovate where modified fork branches are not deleted properly: See this issue. If this option is enabled, reviewers will need to create a new PR if more changes are needed.

Note

This option is only relevant if you set forkToken.

forkProcessing

Whether to process forked repositories. By default, all forked repositories are skipped when in autodiscover mode.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues auto, enabled, disabled
default "auto"
cli --fork-processing
env RENOVATE_FORK_PROCESSING

By default, Renovate skips any forked repositories when in autodiscover mode. It even skips a forked repository that has a Renovate configuration file, because Renovate doesn't know if that file was added by the forked repository.

Process a fork in autodiscover mode

If you want Renovate to run on a forked repository when in autodiscover mode then:

  • Ensure a renovate.json config exists with "forkProcessing": "enabled" in your repository,
  • Or run the CLI command with --fork-processing=enabled

Process a fork in other modes

If you're running Renovate in some other mode, for example when giving a list of repositories to Renovate, but want to skip forked repositories: set "forkProcessing": "disabled" in your global config.

When using the Mend Renovate App

The behavior of forkProcessing depends on how you allow Renovate to run on your account.

Renovate runs on all repositories

If you allow Renovate to run on all your repositories, forkProcessing will be "disabled". To run Renovate on a fork: add "forkProcessing": "enabled" to the forked repository's renovate.json file.

Renovate runs on selected repositories

If you allow Renovate to run on "Selected" repositories, forkProcessing will be "enabled" for each "Selected" repository.

Allowed filenames

Only the onboardingConfigFileName (which defaults to renovate.json) is supported for forkProcessing. You can't use other filenames because Renovate only checks the default filename when using the Git-hosting platform's API.

gitAuthor

Author to use for Git commits. Must conform to RFC5322.

Name Value
type string
cli --git-author
env RENOVATE_GIT_AUTHOR
default null

You can customize the Git author that's used whenever Renovate creates a commit. The gitAuthor option accepts a RFC5322-compliant string. It's recommended to include a name followed by an email address, e.g.

Development Bot <dev-bot@my-software-company.com>

Danger

We strongly recommend that the Git author email you use is unique to Renovate. Otherwise, if another bot or human shares the same email and pushes to one of Renovate's branches then Renovate will mistake the branch as unmodified and potentially force push over the changes.

gitIgnoredAuthors

Git authors which are ignored by Renovate. Must conform to RFC5322.

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --git-ignored-authors
env RENOVATE_GIT_IGNORED_AUTHORS

Specify commit authors ignored by Renovate.

By default, Renovate will treat any PR as modified if another Git author has added to the branch. When a PR is considered modified, Renovate won't perform any further commits such as if it's conflicted or needs a version update. If you have other bots which commit on top of Renovate PRs, and don't want Renovate to treat these PRs as modified, then add the other Git author(s) to gitIgnoredAuthors.

Example:

{
  "gitIgnoredAuthors": ["some-bot@example.org"]
}

gitLabIgnoreApprovals

Ignore approval rules for MRs created by Renovate, which is useful for automerge.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --git-lab-ignore-approvals
env RENOVATE_GIT_LAB_IGNORE_APPROVALS

Ignore the default project level approval(s), so that Renovate bot can automerge its merge requests, without needing approval(s). Under the hood, it creates a MR-level approval rule where approvals_required is set to 0. This option works only when automerge=true, automergeType=pr or automergeType=branch, and platformAutomerge=true. Also, approval rules overriding should not be prevented in GitLab settings.

goGetDirs

Directory pattern to run go get on.

Name Value
type array
subType string
default
["./..."]
supportedManagers gomod
cli --go-get-dirs
env RENOVATE_GO_GET_DIRS

By default, Renovate will run go get -d -t ./... to update the go.sum. If you need to modify this path, for example in order to ignore directories, you can override the default ./... value using this option:

{
  "goGetDirs": ["./some-project/", "./tools/..."]
}

group

Config if groupName is enabled.

Name Value
type object
default
{"branchTopic": "{{{groupSlug}}}", "commitMessageTopic": "{{{groupName}}}"}
mergeable true

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

The default configuration for groups are essentially internal to Renovate and you normally shouldn't need to modify them. But you may add settings to any group by defining your own group configuration object.

groupName

Human understandable name for the dependency group.

Name Value
type string
cli --group-name
env RENOVATE_GROUP_NAME

There are multiple cases where it can be useful to group multiple upgrades together. Internally Renovate uses this for branches such as "Pin Dependencies", "Lock File Maintenance", etc. Another example used previously is to group together all related eslint packages, or perhaps angular or babel. To enable grouping, you configure the groupName field to something non-null.

The groupName field allows free text and does not have any semantic interpretation by Renovate. All updates sharing the same groupName will be placed into the same branch/PR. For example, to group all non-major devDependencies updates together into a single PR:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchDepTypes": ["devDependencies"],
      "matchUpdateTypes": ["patch", "minor"],
      "groupName": "devDependencies (non-major)"
    }
  ]
}

groupSlug

Slug to use for group (e.g. in branch name). Slug is calculated from groupName if null.

Name Value
type string

By default, Renovate will "slugify" the groupName to determine the branch name. For example if you named your group "devDependencies (non-major)" then the branchName would be renovate/devdependencies-non-major. If you wished to override this then you could configure like this:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchDepTypes": ["devDependencies"],
      "matchUpdateTypes": ["patch", "minor"],
      "groupName": "devDependencies (non-major)",
      "groupSlug": "dev-dependencies"
    }
  ]
}

As a result of the above, the branchName would be renovate/dev-dependencies instead.

Note

You shouldn't usually need to configure this unless you really care about your branch names.

hashedBranchLength

If enabled, branch names will use a hashing function to ensure each branch has that length.

Name Value
type integer
env RENOVATE_HASHED_BRANCH_LENGTH

Some code hosting systems have restrictions on the branch name lengths, this option lets you get around these restrictions. You can set the hashedBranchLength option to a number of characters that works for your system and then Renovate will generate branch names with the correct length by hashing additionalBranchPrefix and branchTopic, and then truncating the hash so that the full branch name (including branchPrefix) has the right number of characters.

Example: If you have set branchPrefix: "deps-" and hashedBranchLength: 12 it will result in a branch name like deps-5bf36ec instead of the traditional pretty branch name like deps-react-17.x.

hostRules

Host rules/configuration including credentials.

Name Value
type array
subType object
cli --host-rules
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_HOST_RULES

The primary purpose of hostRules is to configure credentials for host authentication. You tell Renovate how to match against the host you need authenticated, and then you also tell it which credentials to use.

The lookup keys for hostRules are: hostType and matchHost, both of which are optional.

Supported credential fields are token, username, password, timeout, enabled and insecureRegistry.

Example for configuring docker auth:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "docker.io",
      "username": "<some-username>",
      "password": "<some-password>"
    }
  ]
}

If multiple hostRules match a request, then they will be applied in the following order/priority:

  1. rules with only hostType specified
  2. rules with only matchHost specified (sorted by matchHost length if multiple match)
  3. rules with both matchHost and hostType specified (sorted by matchHost length if multiple match)

To disable requests to a particular host, you can configure a rule like:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "registry.npmjs.org",
      "enabled": false
    }
  ]
}

A preset alternative to the above is:

{
  "extends": [":disableHost(registry.npmjs.org)"]
}

To match specific ports you have to add a protocol to matchHost:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "https://domain.com:9118",
      "enabled": false
    }
  ]
}

Warning

Using matchHost without a protocol behaves the same as if you had set no matchHost configuration.

Note

Disabling a host is only 100% effective if added to self-hosted config. Renovate currently still checks its cache for results first before trying to connect, so if a public host is blocked in your repository config (e.g. renovate.json) then it's possible you may get cached results from that host if another repository using the same bot has successfully queried for the same dependency recently.

abortIgnoreStatusCodes

A list of HTTP status codes safe to ignore even when abortOnError=true.

Name Value
type array
subType number
parents hostRules

This field can be used to configure status codes that Renovate ignores and passes through when abortOnError is set to true. For example to also skip 404 responses then configure the following:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "abortOnError": true,
      "abortIgnoreStatusCodes": [404]
    }
  ]
}

Tip

This field is not mergeable, so the last-applied host rule takes precedence.

abortOnError

If enabled, Renovate aborts its run when HTTP request errors occur.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
parents hostRules

Use this field to configure Renovate to abort runs for custom hosts. By default, Renovate will only abort for known public hosts, which has the downside that transient errors for other hosts can cause autoclosing of PRs.

To abort Renovate runs for HTTP failures from any host:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "abortOnError": true
    }
  ]
}

To abort Renovate runs for any docker datasource failures:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "hostType": "docker",
      "abortOnError": true
    }
  ]
}

To abort Renovate for errors for a specific docker host:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "docker.company.com",
      "abortOnError": true
    }
  ]
}

When this field is enabled, Renovate will abort its run if it encounters either (a) any low-level http error (e.g. ETIMEDOUT) or (b) gets a response not matching any of the configured abortIgnoreStatusCodes (e.g. 500 Internal Error);

authType

Authentication type for HTTP header. e.g. "Bearer" or "Basic". Use "Token-Only" to use only the token without an authorization type.

Name Value
type string
parents hostRules
default "Bearer"

You may use the authType option to create a custom HTTP authorization header. For authType to work, you must also set your own token.

Do not set authType=Bearer: it's the default setting for Renovate anyway. Do not set a username or password when you're using authType, as authType doesn't use usernames or passwords.

An example for npm basic auth with token:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "npm.custom.org",
      "token": "<some-token>",
      "authType": "Basic"
    }
  ]
}

This will generate the following header: authorization: Basic <some-token>.

To use a bare token in the authorization header (required by e.g. Hex) - use the authType "Token-Only":

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "https://hex.pm/api/repos/private_repo/",
      "token": "<some-token>",
      "authType": "Token-Only"
    }
  ]
}

This will generate the header authorization: <some-token>.

concurrentRequestLimit

Limit concurrent requests per host.

Name Value
type integer
parents hostRules

Usually the default setting is fine, but you can use concurrentRequestLimit to limit the number of concurrent outstanding requests. You only need to adjust this setting if a datasource is rate limiting Renovate or has problems with the load. The limit will be set for any host it applies to.

Example config:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "api.github.com",
      "concurrentRequestLimit": 2
    }
  ]
}

Use an exact host for matchHost and not a domain (e.g. api.github.com as shown above and not github.com). Do not combine with hostType in the same rule or it won't work.

maxRequestsPerSecond

Limit requests rate per host.

Name Value
type integer
parents hostRules
default 0

In addition to concurrentRequestLimit, you can limit the maximum number of requests that can be made per one second. It can be used to set minimal delay between two requests to the same host. Fractional values are allowed, e.g. 0.25 means 1 request per 4 seconds. Default value 0 means no limit.

Example config:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "api.github.com",
      "maxRequestsPerSecond": 2
    }
  ]
}

maxRetryAfter

Maximum retry-after header value to wait for before retrying a failed request.

Name Value
type integer
default 60
parents hostRules

A remote host may return a 4xx response with a Retry-After header value, which indicates that Renovate has been rate-limited. Renovate may try to contact the host again after waiting a certain time, that's set by the host. By default, Renovate tries again after the Retry-After header value has passed, up to a maximum of 60 seconds. If the Retry-After value is more than 60 seconds, Renovate will abort the request instead of waiting.

You can configure a different maximum value in seconds using maxRetryAfter:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "api.github.com",
      "maxRetryAfter": 25
    }
  ]
}

newLogLevel

New log level to use if matchMessage matches.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal
parents logLevelRemap
default null

For log level remapping, newLogLevel will set for the particular log message:

{
  "logLevelRemap": [
    {
      "matchMessage": "/Error executing maven wrapper update command/",
      "newLogLevel": "warn"
    }
  ]
}

dnsCache

Enable got DNS cache.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
parents hostRules

Enable got dnsCache support. It uses lru-cache with the max option set to 1000.

This feature is flagged as experimental

Experimental features might be changed or even removed at any time.

enableHttp2

Enable got HTTP/2 support.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
parents hostRules

Enable got http2 support.

headers

Put fields to be forwarded to the HTTP request headers in the headers config option.

Name Value
type object
parents hostRules

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

You can provide a headers object that includes fields to be forwarded to the HTTP request headers. By default, all headers starting with "X-" are allowed.

A bot administrator may configure an override for allowedHeaders to configure more permitted headers.

headers value(s) configured in the bot admin hostRules (for example in a config.js file) are not validated, so it may contain any header regardless of allowedHeaders.

For example:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "https://domain.com/all-versions",
      "headers": {
        "X-custom-header": "secret"
      }
    }
  ]
}

hostType

hostType for a package rule. Can be a platform name or a datasource name.

Name Value
type string
parents hostRules
default null

hostType is another way to filter rules and can be either a platform such as github and bitbucket-server, or it can be a datasource such as docker and rubygems. You usually don't need to configure it in a host rule if you have already configured matchHost and only one host type is in use for those, as is usually the case. hostType can help for cases like an enterprise registry that serves multiple package types and has different authentication for each, although it's often the case that multiple matchHost rules could achieve the same thing.

insecureRegistry

Explicitly turn on insecure Docker registry access (HTTP).

Name Value
type boolean
default false
parents hostRules

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

Enable this option to allow Renovate to connect to an insecure Docker registry that is HTTP only. This is insecure and is not recommended.

Example:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "reg.insecure.com",
      "insecureRegistry": true
    }
  ]
}

keepAlive

Enable HTTP keep-alive for hosts.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
parents hostRules

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

If enabled, this allows a single TCP connection to remain open for multiple HTTP(S) requests/responses.

artifactAuth

A list of package managers to enable artifact auth. Only managers on the list are enabled. All are enabled if null.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents hostRules
allowedValues composer

You may use this field whenever it is needed to only enable authentication for a specific set of managers.

For example, using this option could be used whenever authentication using Git for private composer packages is already being handled through the use of SSH keys, which results in no need for also setting up authentication using tokens.

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "hostType": "gitlab",
      "matchHost": "gitlab.myorg.com",
      "token": "abc123",
      "artifactAuth": ["composer"]
    }
  ]
}

Supported artifactAuth and hostType combinations:

artifactAuth hostTypes
composer gitlab, packagist, github, git-tags

This feature is flagged as experimental

Experimental features might be changed or even removed at any time.

matchHost

A domain name, host name or base URL to match against.

Name Value
type string
parents hostRules
default null

This can be a base URL (e.g. https://api.github.com) or a hostname like github.com or api.github.com. If the value starts with http(s) then it will only match against URLs which start with the full base URL. Otherwise, it will be matched by checking if the URL's hostname matches the matchHost directly or ends with it. When checking the end of the hostname, a single dot is prefixed to the value of matchHost, if one is not already present, to ensure it can only match against whole domain segments.

The matchHost URL must be the same as the registryUrl set in .npmrc, or you'll get authentication issues when the artifacts are updated when yarn or npm runs.

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "https://gitlab.myorg.com/api/v4/packages/npm/",
      "token": "abc123"
    }
  ]
}

The above corresponds with an .npmrc like the following:

registry=https://gitlab.myorg.com/api/v4/packages/npm/

Note

Values containing a URL path but missing a scheme will be prepended with 'https://' (e.g. domain.com/path -> https://domain.com/path)

timeout

Timeout (in milliseconds) for queries to external endpoints.

Name Value
type integer
parents hostRules

Use this figure to adjust the timeout for queries. The default is 60s, which is quite high. To adjust it down to 10s for all queries, do this:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "timeout": 10000
    }
  ]
}

httpsCertificateAuthority

The overriding trusted CA certificate.

Name Value
type string
parents hostRules

By default, Renovate uses the curated list of well-known CAs by Mozilla. You may use another Certificate Authority instead, by setting it in the httpsCertificateAuthority config option.

httpsPrivateKey

The private key in PEM format.

Name Value
type string
parents hostRules

Specifies the private key in PEM format for mTLS authentication.

Warning

Do not put your private key into this field, to avoid losing confidentiality completely. You must use secrets to pass it down securely instead.

httpsCertificate

The certificate chains in PEM format.

Name Value
type string
parents hostRules

Specifies the Certificate chains in PEM format for mTLS authentication.

ignoreDeprecated

Avoid upgrading from a non-deprecated version to a deprecated one.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --ignore-deprecated
env RENOVATE_IGNORE_DEPRECATED

By default, Renovate won't update a dependency version to a deprecated release unless the current version was itself deprecated. The goal of this is to make sure you don't upgrade from a non-deprecated version to a deprecated one, only because it's higher than the current version.

If for some reason you wish to force deprecated updates with Renovate, you can configure ignoreDeprecated to false, which we do not recommend for most situations.

ignoreDeps

Dependencies to ignore.

Name Value
type array
subType string
mergeable true
cli --ignore-deps
env RENOVATE_IGNORE_DEPS

The ignoreDeps configuration field allows you to define a list of dependency names to be ignored by Renovate. Currently it supports only "exact match" dependency names and not any patterns. e.g. to ignore both eslint and eslint-config-base you would add this to your config:

{
  "ignoreDeps": ["eslint", "eslint-config-base"]
}

The above is the same as if you wrote this package rule:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["eslint", "eslint-config-base"],
      "enabled": false
    }
  ]
}

ignorePaths

Skip any package file whose path matches one of these. Can be a string or glob pattern.

Name Value
type array
mergeable false
subType string
default
["**/node_modules/**", "**/bower_components/**"]
cli --ignore-paths
env RENOVATE_IGNORE_PATHS

Renovate will extract dependencies from every file it finds in a repository, unless that file is explicitly ignored. With this setting you can selectively ignore package files that would normally be "autodiscovered" and updated by Renovate.

For instance if you have a project with an "examples/" directory you wish to ignore:

{
  "ignorePaths": ["**/examples/**"]
}

Renovate's default ignore is node_modules and bower_components only. If you are extending from the popular config:recommended preset then it adds ignore patterns for vendor, examples, test(s) and fixtures directories too.

ignorePlugins

Set this to true if allowPlugins=true but you wish to skip running plugins when updating lock files.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --ignore-plugins
env RENOVATE_IGNORE_PLUGINS

Set this to true if running plugins causes problems. Applicable for Composer only for now.

ignorePrAuthor

Set to true to fetch the entire list of PRs instead of only those authored by the Renovate user.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --ignore-pr-author
env RENOVATE_IGNORE_PR_AUTHOR

This is usually needed if someone needs to migrate bot accounts, including from the Mend Renovate App to self-hosted. If ignorePrAuthor is configured to true, it means Renovate will fetch the entire list of repository PRs instead of optimizing to fetch only those PRs which it created itself. You should only want to enable this if you are changing the bot account (e.g. from @old-bot to @new-bot) and want @new-bot to find and update any existing PRs created by @old-bot. It's recommended to revert this setting once that transition period is over and all old PRs are resolved.

ignorePresets

A list of presets to ignore, including any that are nested inside an extends array.

Name Value
type array
subType string
env RENOVATE_IGNORE_PRESETS

Use this if you are extending a complex preset but don't want to use every "sub preset" that it includes. For example, consider this config:

{
  "extends": ["config:recommended"],
  "ignorePresets": ["group:monorepos"]
}

It would take the entire "config:recommended" preset - which has a lot of sub-presets - but ignore the "group:monorepos" rule.

ignoreReviewers

Reviewers to be ignored in PR reviewers presence (either username or email address depending on the platform).

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --ignore-reviewers
env RENOVATE_IGNORE_REVIEWERS

By default, Renovate does not add assignees or reviewers to PRs which are configured for automerge. If tests have failed, Renovate then does add them, but only if the assignees and reviewers list is empty. In the case that a user is automatically added as reviewer (such as Renovate Approve bot) and you want to ignore it for the purpose of this decision, add it to the ignoreReviewers list.

{
  "reviewers": ["foo"],
  "ignoreReviewers": ["renovate-approve"]
}

ignoreScripts

Set this to false if allowScripts=true and you wish to run scripts when updating lock files.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
supportedManagers npm, composer
cli --ignore-scripts
env RENOVATE_IGNORE_SCRIPTS

Applicable for npm and Composer only for now. Set this to true if running scripts causes problems.

ignoreTests

Set to true to enable automerging without tests.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --ignore-tests
env RENOVATE_IGNORE_TESTS

Currently Renovate's default behavior is to only automerge if every status check has succeeded.

Setting this option to true means that Renovate will ignore all status checks. You can set this if you don't have any status checks but still want Renovate to automerge PRs. Beware: configuring Renovate to automerge without any tests can lead to broken builds on your base branch, please think again before enabling this!

ignoreUnstable

Ignore versions with unstable SemVer.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --ignore-unstable
env RENOVATE_IGNORE_UNSTABLE

By default, Renovate won't update any package versions to unstable versions (e.g. 4.0.0-rc3) unless the current version has the same major.minor.patch and was already unstable (e.g. it was already on 4.0.0-rc2). Renovate will also not "jump" unstable versions automatically, e.g. if you are on 4.0.0-rc2 and newer versions 4.0.0 and 4.1.0-alpha.1 exist then Renovate will update you to 4.0.0 only. If you need to force permanent unstable updates for a package, you can add a package rule setting ignoreUnstable to false.

Also check out the followTag configuration option above if you wish Renovate to keep you pinned to a particular release tag.

includePaths

Include package files only within these defined paths.

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --include-paths
env RENOVATE_INCLUDE_PATHS

If you wish for Renovate to process only select paths in the repository, use includePaths.

Alternatively, if you need to exclude certain paths in the repository then consider ignorePaths instead. If you are more interested in including only certain package managers (e.g. npm), then consider enabledManagers instead.

internalChecksAsSuccess

Whether to consider passing internal checks such as minimumReleaseAge when determining branch status.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --internal-checks-as-success
env RENOVATE_INTERNAL_CHECKS_AS_SUCCESS

By default, internal Renovate checks such as renovate/stability-days are not counted towards a branch being "green" or not. This is primarily to prevent automerge when the only check is a passing Renovate check.

Internal checks will always be counted/considered if they are in pending or failed states. If there are multiple passing checks for a branch, including non-Renovate ones, then this setting won't make any difference.

Change this setting to true if you want to use internal Renovate checks towards a passing branch result.

internalChecksFilter

When and how to filter based on internal checks.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues strict, flexible, none
default "strict"
cli --internal-checks-filter
env RENOVATE_INTERNAL_CHECKS_FILTER

This setting determines whether Renovate controls when and how filtering of internal checks are performed, particularly when multiple versions of the same update type are available. Currently this applies to the minimumReleaseAge check only.

  • none: No filtering will be performed, and the highest release will be used regardless of whether it's pending or not
  • strict: All pending releases will be filtered. PRs will be skipped unless a non-pending version is available
  • flexible: Similar to strict, but in the case where all versions are pending then a PR will be created with the highest pending version

The flexible mode can result in "flapping" of Pull Requests, for example: a pending PR with version 1.0.3 is first released but then downgraded to 1.0.2 once it passes minimumReleaseAge. We recommend that you use the strict mode, and enable the dependencyDashboard so that you can see suppressed PRs.

keepUpdatedLabel

If set, users can add this label to PRs to request they be kept updated with the base branch.

Name Value
type string
supportedPlatforms azure, gitea, github, gitlab
cli --keep-updated-label
env RENOVATE_KEEP_UPDATED_LABEL
default null

On supported platforms you may add a label to a PR so that Renovate recreates/rebases the PR when the branch falls behind the base branch. Adding the keepUpdatedLabel label to a PR makes Renovate behave as if rebaseWhen were set to behind-base-branch, but only for the given PR. Renovate does not remove the label from the PR after it finishes rebasing. This is different from the rebaseLabel option, where Renovate removes the label from the PR after rebasing.

keepUpdatedLabel can be useful when you have approved certain PRs and want Renovate to keep the PRs up-to-date until you're ready to merge them. The setting keepUpdatedLabel is best used in this scenario:

  • By default, you configure rebaseWhen to never or conflicted to reduce rebasing
  • Sometimes, you want Renovate to keep specific PRs up-to-date with their base branch (equivalent to rebaseWhen=behind-base-branch)

labels

Labels to set in Pull Request.

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --labels
env RENOVATE_LABELS

By default, Renovate won't add any labels to PRs. If you want Renovate to add labels to PRs it creates then define a labels array of one or more label strings. If you want the same label(s) for every PR then you can configure it at the top level of config. However you can also fully override them on a per-package basis.

Consider this example:

{
  "labels": ["dependencies"],
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["eslint"],
      "labels": ["linting"]
    }
  ]
}

With the above config, every PR raised by Renovate will have the label dependencies while PRs containing eslint-related packages will instead have the label linting.

Renovate only adds labels when it creates the PR, which means:

  • If you remove labels which Renovate added, it won't re-apply them
  • If you change your config, the new/changed labels are not applied to any open PRs

The labels array is non-mergeable, meaning if multiple packageRules match then Renovate uses the last value for labels. If you want to add/combine labels, use the addLabels config option, which is mergeable.

lockFileMaintenance

Configuration for lock file maintenance.

Name Value
type object
default
{
  "enabled": false,
  "recreateWhen": "always",
  "rebaseStalePrs": true,
  "branchTopic": "lock-file-maintenance",
  "commitMessageAction": "Lock file maintenance",
  "commitMessageTopic": null,
  "commitMessageExtra": null,
  "schedule": ["before 4am on monday"],
  "groupName": null,
  "prBodyDefinitions": {"Change": "All locks refreshed"}
}
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_LOCK_FILE_MAINTENANCE

You can use lockFileMaintenance to refresh lock files to keep them up-to-date.

When Renovate performs lockFileMaintenance it deletes the lock file and runs the relevant package manager. That package manager creates a new lock file, where all dependency versions are updated to the latest version. Renovate then commits that lock file to the update branch and creates the lock file update PR.

Supported lock files:

  • .terraform.lock.hcl
  • Cargo.lock
  • Chart.lock
  • composer.lock
  • flake.lock
  • Gemfile.lock
  • gradle.lockfile
  • jsonnetfile.lock.json
  • package-lock.json
  • packages.lock.json
  • pdm.lock
  • Pipfile.lock
  • pnpm-lock.yaml
  • poetry.lock
  • pubspec.lock
  • pyproject.toml
  • requirements.txt
  • yarn.lock

Support for new lock files may be added via feature request.

By default, lockFileMaintenance is disabled. To enable lockFileMaintenance add this to your configuration:

{
  "lockFileMaintenance": { "enabled": true }
}

To reduce "noise" in the repository, Renovate performs lockFileMaintenance "before 4am on monday", i.e. to achieve once-per-week semantics. Depending on its running schedule, Renovate may run a few times within that time window - even possibly updating the lock file more than once - but it hopefully leaves enough time for tests to run and automerge to apply, if configured.

logLevelRemap

Remap log levels to different levels.

Name Value
type array
subType object

This option allows you to remap log levels for specific messages.

Be careful with remapping warn or error messages to lower log levels, as it may hide important information.

{
  "logLevelRemap": [
    {
      "matchMessage": "/^pip-compile:/",
      "newLogLevel": "info"
    },
    {
      "matchMessage": "Package lookup error",
      "newLogLevel": "warn"
    }
  ]
}

major

Configuration to apply when an update type is major.

Name Value
type object
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_MAJOR

Add to this object if you wish to define rules that apply only to major updates.

milestone

The number of a milestone. If set, the milestone will be set when Renovate creates the PR.

Name Value
type integer
supportedPlatforms github
cli --milestone
env RENOVATE_MILESTONE

If set to the number of an existing GitHub milestone, Renovate will add that milestone to its PR. Renovate will only add a milestone when it creates the PR.

Example Renovate config
{
  "milestone": 12
}

minimumReleaseAge

Time required before a new release is considered stable.

Name Value
type string
cli --minimum-release-age
env RENOVATE_MINIMUM_RELEASE_AGE

This feature used to be called stabilityDays.

If this is set and an update has a release timestamp header, then Renovate will check if the set duration has passed.

Note: Renovate will wait for the set duration to pass for each separate version. Renovate does not wait until the package has seen no releases for x time-duration(minimumReleaseAge). minimumReleaseAge is not intended to help with slowing down fast releasing project updates. If you want to slow down PRs for a specific package, setup a custom schedule for that package. Read our selective-scheduling help to learn how to set the schedule.

If the time since the release is less than the set minimumReleaseAge a "pending" status check is added to the branch. If enough days have passed then the "pending" status is removed, and a "passing" status check is added.

Some datasources don't have a release timestamp, in which case this feature is not compatible. Other datasources may have a release timestamp, but Renovate does not support it yet, in which case a feature request needs to be implemented.

Maven users: you cannot use minimumReleaseAge if a Maven source returns unreliable last-modified headers.

Note

Configuring this option will add a renovate/stability-days option to the status checks.

There are a couple of uses for minimumReleaseAge:

Suppress branch/PR creation for X days

If you combine minimumReleaseAge=3 days and internalChecksFilter="strict" then Renovate will hold back from creating branches until 3 or more days have elapsed since the version was released. We recommend that you set dependencyDashboard=true so you can see these pending PRs.

Prevent holding broken npm packages

npm packages less than 72 hours (3 days) old can be unpublished, which could result in a service impact if you have already updated to it. Set minimumReleaseAge to 3 days for npm packages to prevent relying on a package that can be removed from the registry:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchDatasources": ["npm"],
      "minimumReleaseAge": "3 days"
    }
  ]
}

Await X time duration before Automerging

If you enabled automerge and minimumReleaseAge, it means that PRs will be created immediately but automerging will be delayed until the time-duration has passed. This works because Renovate will add a "renovate/stability-days" pending status check to each branch/PR and that pending check will prevent the branch going green to automerge.

minor

Configuration to apply when an update type is minor.

Name Value
type object
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_MINOR

Add to this object if you wish to define rules that apply only to minor updates.

npmToken

npm token used to authenticate with the default registry.

Name Value
type string
cli --npm-token
env RENOVATE_NPM_TOKEN
default null

See Private npm module support for details on how this is used. Typically you would encrypt it and put it inside the encrypted object.

npmrc

String copy of .npmrc file. Use \n instead of line breaks.

Name Value
type string
cli --npmrc
env RENOVATE_NPMRC
default null

See Private npm module support for details on how this is used.

npmrcMerge

Whether to merge config.npmrc with repo .npmrc content if both are found.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --npmrc-merge
env RENOVATE_NPMRC_MERGE

This option exists to provide flexibility about whether npmrc strings in config should override .npmrc files in the repo, or be merged with them. In some situations you need the ability to force override .npmrc contents in a repo (npmrcMerge=false) while in others you might want to simply supplement the settings already in the .npmrc (npmrcMerge=true). A use case for the latter is if you are a Renovate bot admin and wish to provide a default token for npmjs.org without removing any other .npmrc settings which individual repositories have configured (such as scopes/registries).

If false (default), it means that defining config.npmrc will result in any .npmrc file in the repo being overridden and its values ignored. If configured to true, it means that any .npmrc file in the repo will have config.npmrc prepended to it before running npm.

osvVulnerabilityAlerts

Use vulnerability alerts from osv.dev.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --osv-vulnerability-alerts
env RENOVATE_OSV_VULNERABILITY_ALERTS

Renovate integrates with OSV, an open-source vulnerability database, to check if extracted dependencies have known vulnerabilities. Set osvVulnerabilityAlerts to true to get pull requests with vulnerability fixes (once they are available).

You will only get OSV-based vulnerability alerts for direct dependencies. Renovate only queries the OSV database for dependencies that use one of these datasources:

This feature is flagged as experimental

Experimental features might be changed or even removed at any time.
To track this feature visit the following GitHub issue #20542.

packageRules

Rules for matching packages.

Name Value
type array
mergeable true
cli --package-rules
env RENOVATE_PACKAGE_RULES

packageRules is a powerful feature that lets you apply rules to individual packages or to groups of packages using regex pattern matching.

Here is an example if you want to group together all packages starting with eslint into a single branch/PR:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^eslint"],
      "groupName": "eslint packages"
    }
  ]
}

Note how the above uses matchPackagePatterns with a regex value.

Here's an example config to limit the "noisy" aws-sdk package to weekly updates:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["aws-sdk"],
      "schedule": ["after 9pm on sunday"]
    }
  ]
}

For Maven dependencies, the package name is <groupId:artefactId>, e.g. "matchPackageNames": ["com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream"]

Note how the above uses matchPackageNames instead of matchPackagePatterns because it is an exact match package name. This is the equivalent of defining "matchPackagePatterns": ["^aws\-sdk$"]. However you can mix together both matchPackageNames and matchPackagePatterns in the same package rule and the rule will be applied if either match. Example:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["neutrino"],
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^@neutrino/"],
      "groupName": "neutrino monorepo"
    }
  ]
}

The above rule will group together the neutrino package and any package matching @neutrino/*.

File name matches are convenient to use if you wish to apply configuration rules to certain package or lock files using patterns. For example, if you have an examples directory and you want all updates to those examples to use the chore prefix instead of fix, then you could add this configuration:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchFileNames": ["examples/**"],
      "extends": [":semanticCommitTypeAll(chore)"]
    }
  ]
}

If you wish to limit Renovate to apply configuration rules to certain files in the root repository directory, you have to use matchFileNames with a minimatch pattern (which can include an exact file name match). For example you have multiple package.json and want to use dependencyDashboardApproval only on the root package.json:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchFileNames": ["package.json"],
      "dependencyDashboardApproval": true
    }
  ]
}

Tip

Renovate evaluates all packageRules and does not stop after the first match. Order your packageRules so the least important rules are at the top, and the most important rules at the bottom. This way important rules override settings from earlier rules if needed.

Warning

Avoid nesting any object-type configuration in a packageRules array, such as a major or minor block.

allowedVersions

A version range or regex pattern capturing allowed versions for dependencies.

Name Value
type string
parents packageRules
default null

Use this - usually within a packageRule - to limit how far to upgrade a dependency. For example, if you wish to upgrade to Angular v1.5 but not to angular v1.6 or higher, you could define this to be <= 1.5 or < 1.6.0:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["angular"],
      "allowedVersions": "<=1.5"
    }
  ]
}

The valid syntax for this will be calculated at runtime because it depends on the versioning scheme, which is itself dynamic.

This field also supports Regular Expressions if they begin and end with /. For example, the following will enforce that only 3 or 4-part versions are supported, without any prefixes:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream"],
      "allowedVersions": "/^[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+(\\.[0-9]+)?$/"
    }
  ]
}

This field also supports a special negated regex syntax for ignoring certain versions. Use the syntax !/ / like the following:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["chalk"],
      "allowedVersions": "!/java$/"
    }
  ]
}

matchCurrentAge

Matches the current age of the package derived from its release timestamp. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type string
parents packageRules
mergeable true
default null

Use this field if you want to match packages based on the age of the current (existing, in-repo) version.

For example, if you want to group updates for dependencies where the existing version is more than 2 years old:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchCurrentAge": "> 2 years",
      "groupName": "old dependencies"
    }
  ]
}

The matchCurrentAge string must start with one of >, >=, < or <=.

Only one date part is supported, so you cannot do > 1 year 1 month. Instead you should do > 13 months.

Note

We recommend you only use the words hour(s), day(s), week(s), month(s) and year(s) in your time ranges.

matchDepTypes

List of depTypes to match (e.g. [peerDependencies]). Valid only within packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field if you want to limit a packageRule to certain depType values. Invalid if used outside of a packageRule.

excludeDepNames

Dep names to exclude. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

excludeDepPatterns

Dep name patterns to exclude. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
format regex
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

excludePackageNames

Package names to exclude. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Important: Do not mix this up with the option ignoreDeps. Use ignoreDeps instead if all you want to do is have a list of package names for Renovate to ignore.

Use excludePackageNames if you want to have one or more exact name matches excluded in your package rule. See also matchPackageNames.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^eslint"],
      "excludePackageNames": ["eslint-foo"]
    }
  ]
}

The above will match all package names starting with eslint but exclude the specific package eslint-foo.

excludePackagePatterns

Package name patterns to exclude. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
format regex
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field if you want to have one or more package name patterns excluded in your package rule. See also matchPackagePatterns.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^eslint"],
      "excludePackagePatterns": ["^eslint-foo"]
    }
  ]
}

The above will match all package names starting with eslint but exclude ones starting with eslint-foo.

excludePackagePrefixes

Package name prefixes to exclude. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field if you want to have one or more package name prefixes excluded in your package rule, without needing to write a regex. See also matchPackagePrefixes.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePrefixes": ["eslint"],
      "excludePackagePrefixes": ["eslint-foo"]
    }
  ]
}

The above will match all package names starting with eslint but exclude ones starting with eslint-foo.

excludeRepositories

List of repositories to exclude (e.g. ["**/*-archived"]). Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field to restrict rules to a particular repository. e.g.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "excludeRepositories": ["literal/repo", "/^some/.*$/", "**/*-archived"],
      "enabled": false
    }
  ]
}

This field supports Regular Expressions if they begin and end with /, otherwise it will use minimatch.

matchCategories

List of categories to match (for example: ["python"]). Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use matchCategories to restrict rules to a particular language or group. Matching is done using "any" logic, i.e. "match any of the following categories". The categories can be found in the manager documentation.

Note

Rules with matchCategories are only applied after extraction of dependencies. If you want to configure which managers are being extracted at all, use enabledManagers instead.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchCategories": ["python"],
      "addLabels": ["py"]
    }
  ]
}

matchRepositories

List of repositories to match (e.g. ["**/*-archived"]). Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field to restrict rules to a particular repository. e.g.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchRepositories": ["literal/repo", "/^some/.*$/", "**/*-archived"],
      "enabled": false
    }
  ]
}

For more details on supported syntax see Renovate's string pattern matching documentation.

matchBaseBranches

List of strings containing exact matches (e.g. ["main"]) and/or regex expressions (e.g. ["/^release/.*/"]). Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field to restrict rules to a particular branch. e.g.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchBaseBranches": ["main"],
      "excludePackagePatterns": ["^eslint"],
      "enabled": false
    }
  ]
}

This field also supports Regular Expressions if they begin and end with /. e.g.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchBaseBranches": ["/^release/.*/"],
      "excludePackagePatterns": ["^eslint"],
      "enabled": false
    }
  ]
}

matchManagers

List of package managers to match (e.g. ["pipenv"]). Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field to restrict rules to a particular package manager. e.g.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["node"],
      "matchManagers": ["dockerfile"],
      "enabled": false
    }
  ]
}

For the full list of available managers, see the Supported Managers documentation.

matchMessage

Regex/minimatch expression to match against log message.

Name Value
type string
parents logLevelRemap
default null

For log level remapping, use this field to match against the particular log messages.

For more details on supported syntax see Renovate's string pattern matching documentation.

matchDatasources

List of datasources to match (e.g. ["orb"]). Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field to restrict rules to a particular datasource. e.g.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchDatasources": ["orb"],
      "labels": ["circleci-orb!!"]
    }
  ]
}

matchCurrentValue

A regex to match against the raw currentValue string of a dependency. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type string
parents packageRules
mergeable true
default null

This option is matched against the currentValue field of a dependency.

matchCurrentValue supports Regular Expressions which must begin and end with /. For example, the following enforces that only 1.* versions will be used:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["io.github.resilience4j"],
      "matchCurrentValue": "/^1\\./"
    }
  ]
}

This field also supports a special negated regex syntax to ignore certain versions. Use the syntax !/ / like this:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["io.github.resilience4j"],
      "matchCurrentValue": "!/^0\\./"
    }
  ]
}

matchCurrentVersion

A version, or range of versions, to match against the current version of a package. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type string
parents packageRules
mergeable true
default null

The currentVersion field will be one of the following (in order of preference):

  • locked version if a lock file exists
  • resolved version
  • current value

Consider using instead matchCurrentValue if you wish to match against the raw string value of a dependency.

matchCurrentVersion can be an exact version or a version range:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchCurrentVersion": ">=1.0.0",
      "matchPackageNames": ["angular"]
    }
  ]
}

The syntax of the version range must follow the versioning scheme used by the matched package(s). This is usually defined by the manager which discovered them or by the default versioning for the package's datasource. For example, a Gradle package would typically need Gradle constraint syntax (e.g. [,7.0)) and not SemVer syntax (e.g. <7.0).

This field also supports Regular Expressions which must begin and end with /. For example, the following enforces that only 1.* versions will be used:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["io.github.resilience4j"],
      "matchCurrentVersion": "/^1\\./"
    }
  ]
}

This field also supports a special negated regex syntax to ignore certain versions. Use the syntax !/ / like this:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["io.github.resilience4j"],
      "matchCurrentVersion": "!/^0\\./"
    }
  ]
}

matchFileNames

List of strings to do an exact match against package and lock files with full path. Only works inside a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules

Renovate will compare matchFileNames glob matching against the dependency's package file and also lock file if one exists.

The following example matches package.json but not package/frontend/package.json:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchFileNames": ["package.json"],
      "labels": ["npm"]
    }
  ]
}

The following example matches any package.json, including files like backend/package.json:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "description": "Group dependencies from package.json files",
      "matchFileNames": ["**/package.json"],
      "groupName": "All package.json changes"
    }
  ]
}

The following example matches any file in directories starting with app/:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "description": "Group all dependencies from the app directory",
      "matchFileNames": ["app/**"],
      "groupName": "App dependencies"
    }
  ]
}

It is recommended that you avoid using "negative" globs, like **/!(package.json), because such patterns might still return true if they match against the lock file name (e.g. package-lock.json).

matchDepNames

Dep names to match. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

matchDepPatterns

Dep name patterns to match. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
format regex
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

matchNewValue

A regex to match against the raw newValue string of a dependency. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type string
parents packageRules
mergeable true
default null

This option is matched against the newValue field of a dependency.

matchNewValue supports Regular Expressions which must begin and end with /. For example, the following enforces that only 1.* versions will be used:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["io.github.resilience4j"],
      "matchNewValue": "/^1\\./"
    }
  ]
}

This field also supports a special negated regex syntax to ignore certain versions. Use the syntax !/ / like this:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["io.github.resilience4j"],
      "matchNewValue": "!/^0\\./"
    }
  ]
}

For more details on this syntax see Renovate's string pattern matching documentation.

matchPackageNames

Package names to match. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field if you want to have one or more exact name matches in your package rule. See also excludePackageNames.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["angular"],
      "rangeStrategy": "pin"
    }
  ]
}

The above will configure rangeStrategy to pin only for the package angular.

matchPackagePatterns

Package name patterns to match. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
format regex
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field if you want to have one or more package names patterns in your package rule. See also excludePackagePatterns.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^angular"],
      "rangeStrategy": "replace"
    }
  ]
}

The above will configure rangeStrategy to replace for any package starting with angular.

matchPackagePrefixes

Package name prefixes to match. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use this field to match a package prefix without needing to write a regex expression. See also excludePackagePrefixes.

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePrefixes": ["angular"],
      "rangeStrategy": "replace"
    }
  ]
}

Like the earlier matchPackagePatterns example, the above will configure rangeStrategy to replace for any package starting with angular.

matchPackagePrefixes will match against packageName first, and then depName, however depName matching is deprecated and will be removed in a future major release. If matching against depName, use matchDepPatterns instead.

matchSourceUrlPrefixes

A list of source URL prefixes to match against, commonly used to group monorepos or packages from the same organization.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Here's an example of where you use this to group together all packages from the renovatebot GitHub org:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchSourceUrlPrefixes": ["https://github.com/renovatebot/"],
      "groupName": "All renovate packages"
    }
  ]
}

matchSourceUrls

A list of source URLs to exact match against.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Here's an example of where you use this to group together all packages from the Vue monorepo:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchSourceUrls": ["https://github.com/vuejs/vue"],
      "groupName": "Vue monorepo packages"
    }
  ]
}

matchUpdateTypes

Update types to match against (major, minor, pin, pinDigest, etc). Valid only within packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
allowedValues major, minor, patch, pin, pinDigest, digest, lockFileMaintenance, rollback, bump, replacement
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Use matchUpdateTypes to match rules against types of updates. For example to apply a special label to major updates:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchUpdateTypes": ["major"],
      "labels": ["UPDATE-MAJOR"]
    }
  ]
}

Warning

Packages that follow SemVer are allowed to make breaking changes in any 0.x version, even patch and minor. Check if you're using any 0.x package, and see if you need custom packageRules for it. When setting up automerge for dependencies, make sure to stop accidental automerges of 0.x versions. Read the automerge non-major updates docs for a config example that blocks 0.x updates.

matchConfidence

Merge confidence levels to match against (low, neutral, high, very high). Valid only within packageRules object.

Name Value
type array
subType string
allowedValues low, neutral, high, very high
parents packageRules
mergeable true

Warning

This configuration option needs a Mend API key, and is in private beta testing only. API keys are not available for free or via the renovatebot/renovate repository.

Grouping high merge confidence updates
{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchConfidence": ["high", "very high"],
      "groupName": "high merge confidence"
    }
  ]
}

Tokens can be configured via hostRules using the "merge-confidence" hostType:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "hostType": "merge-confidence",
      "token": "********"
    }
  ]
}

customChangelogUrl

If set, Renovate will use this URL to fetch changelogs for a matched dependency. Valid only within a packageRules object.

Name Value
type string
parents packageRules
default null

Use this field to set the source URL for a package, including overriding an existing one. Source URLs are necessary in order to look up changelogs.

Using this field we can specify the exact URL to fetch changelogs from.

Setting the source URL for the dummy package
{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["dummy"],
      "customChangelogUrl": "https://github.com/org/dummy"
    }
  ]
}

Note

Renovate can fetch changelogs from Bitbucket, Gitea (Forgejo), GitHub and GitLab platforms only, and setting the URL to an unsupported host/platform type won't change that.

replacementName

The name of the new dependency that replaces the old deprecated dependency.

Name Value
type string
parents packageRules
default null

This config option only works with some managers. We're working to support more managers, subscribe to issue renovatebot/renovate#14149 to follow our progress.

Managers which do not support replacement:

  • bazel
  • git-submodules
  • gomod
  • gradle
  • homebrew
  • maven
  • regex
  • sbt

Use the replacementName config option to set the name of a replacement package.

Can be used in combination with replacementVersion.

You can suggest a new community package rule by editing the replacements.ts file on the Renovate repository and opening a pull request.

replacementNameTemplate

Controls what the replacement package name.

Name Value
type string
default "{{{packageName}}}"
parents packageRules

Note

replacementName will take precedence if used within the same package rule.

Use the replacementNameTemplate config option to control the replacement name.

Use the triple brace {{{ }}} notation to avoid Handlebars escaping any special characters.

For example, the following package rule can be used to replace the registry for docker images:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchDatasources": ["docker"],
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^docker\\.io/.+"],
      "replacementNameTemplate": "{{{replace 'docker\\.io/' 'ghcr.io/' packageName}}}"
    }
  ]
}

Or, to add a registry prefix to any docker images that do not contain an explicit registry:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "description": "official images",
      "matchDatasources": ["docker"],
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^[a-z-]+$"],
      "replacementNameTemplate": "some.registry.org/library/{{{packageName}}}"
    },
    {
      "description": "non-official images",
      "matchDatasources": ["docker"],
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^[a-z-]+/[a-z-]+$"],
      "replacementNameTemplate": "some.registry.org/{{{packageName}}}"
    }
  ]
}

replacementVersion

The version of the new dependency that replaces the old deprecated dependency.

Name Value
type string
parents packageRules
default null

This config option only works with some managers. We're working to support more managers, subscribe to issue renovatebot/renovate#14149 to follow our progress. For a list of managers which do not support replacement read the replacementName config option docs.

Use the replacementVersion config option to set the version of a replacement package. Must be used with replacementName. For example to replace the npm package jade with version 2.0.0 of the package pug:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchDatasources": ["npm"],
      "matchPackageNames": ["jade"],
      "replacementName": "pug",
      "replacementVersion": "2.0.0"
    }
  ]
}

patch

Configuration to apply when an update type is patch.

Name Value
type object
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_PATCH

Add to this object if you wish to define rules that apply only to patch updates.

pin

Configuration to apply when an update type is pin.

Name Value
type object
default
{
  "rebaseWhen": "behind-base-branch",
  "groupName": "Pin Dependencies",
  "groupSlug": "pin-dependencies",
  "commitMessageAction": "Pin",
  "group": {"commitMessageTopic": "dependencies", "commitMessageExtra": ""}
}
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_PIN

Add to this object if you wish to define rules that apply only to PRs that pin dependencies.

pinDigest

Configuration to apply when pinning a digest (no change in tag/version).

Name Value
type object
default
{
  "groupName": "Pin Dependencies",
  "groupSlug": "pin-dependencies",
  "commitMessageAction": "Pin",
  "group": {"commitMessageTopic": "dependencies", "commitMessageExtra": ""}
}
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_PIN_DIGEST

Add to this object if you wish to define rules that apply only to PRs that pin digests.

pinDigests

Whether to add digests to Dockerfile source images.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --pin-digests
env RENOVATE_PIN_DIGESTS

If enabled Renovate will pin Docker images or GitHub Actions by means of their SHA256 digest and not only by tag so that they are immutable.

platformAutomerge

Controls if platform-native auto-merge is used.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
supportedPlatforms azure, gitea, github, gitlab
cli --platform-automerge
env RENOVATE_PLATFORM_AUTOMERGE

Note

If you use the default platformAutomerge=true then you should enable your Git hosting platform's capabilities to enforce test passing before PR merge. If you don't do this, the platform might merge Renovate PRs even if the repository's tests haven't started, are in still in progress, or possibly even when they have failed. On GitHub this is called "Require status checks before merging", which you can find in the "Branch protection rules" section of the settings for your repository. GitHub docs, about protected branches GitHub docs, require status checks before merging If you're using another platform, search their documentation for a similar feature.

If you have enabled automerge and set automergeType=pr in the Renovate config, then leaving platformAutomerge as true speeds up merging via the platform's native automerge functionality.

On GitHub and GitLab, Renovate re-enables the PR for platform-native automerge whenever it's rebased.

platformAutomerge will configure PRs to be merged after all (if any) branch policies have been met. This option is available for Azure, Gitea, GitHub and GitLab. It falls back to Renovate-based automerge if the platform-native automerge is not available.

You can also fine-tune the behavior by setting packageRules if you want to use it selectively (e.g. per-package).

Note that the outcome of rebaseWhen=auto can differ when platformAutomerge=true. Normally when you set rebaseWhen=auto Renovate rebases any branch that's behind the base branch automatically, and some people rely on that. This behavior is no longer guaranteed when platformAutomerge is true because the platform might automerge a branch which is not up-to-date. For example, GitHub might automerge a Renovate branch even if it's behind the base branch at the time.

Please check platform specific docs for version requirements.

To learn how to use GitHub's Merge Queue feature with Renovate, read our Key Concepts, Automerge, GitHub Merge Queue docs.

platformCommit

Use platform API to perform commits instead of using Git directly.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
supportedPlatforms github
cli --platform-commit
env RENOVATE_PLATFORM_COMMIT

Only use this option if you run Renovate as a GitHub App. It does not apply when you use a Personal Access Token as credential.

When platformCommit is enabled, Renovate will create commits with GitHub's API instead of using git directly. This way Renovate can use GitHub's Commit signing support for bots and other GitHub Apps feature.

postUpdateOptions

Enable post-update options to be run after package/artifact updating.

Name Value
type array
subType string
allowedValues bundlerConservative, gomodMassage, gomodTidy, gomodTidy1.17, gomodTidyE, gomodUpdateImportPaths, helmUpdateSubChartArchives, npmDedupe, pnpmDedupe, yarnDedupeFewer, yarnDedupeHighest
mergeable true

Table with options:

Name Description
bundlerConservative Enable conservative mode for bundler (Ruby dependencies). This will only update the immediate dependency in the lockfile instead of all subdependencies.
gomodMassage Enable massaging replace directives before calling go commands.
gomodTidy Run go mod tidy after Go module updates. This is implicitly enabled for major module updates when gomodUpdateImportPaths is enabled.
gomodTidy1.17 Run go mod tidy -compat=1.17 after Go module updates.
gomodTidyE Run go mod tidy -e after Go module updates.
gomodUpdateImportPaths Update source import paths on major module updates, using mod.
helmUpdateSubChartArchives Update subchart archives in the /charts folder.
npmDedupe Run npm install with --prefer-dedupe for npm >= 7 or npm dedupe after package-lock.json update for npm <= 6.
pnpmDedupe Run pnpm dedupe --config.ignore-scripts=true after pnpm-lock.yaml updates.
yarnDedupeFewer Run yarn-deduplicate --strategy fewer after yarn.lock updates.
yarnDedupeHighest Run yarn-deduplicate --strategy highest (yarn dedupe --strategy highest for Yarn >=2.2.0) after yarn.lock updates.

postUpgradeTasks

Post-upgrade tasks that are executed before a commit is made by Renovate.

Name Value
type object
default
{"commands": [], "fileFilters": [], "executionMode": "update"}
cli --post-upgrade-tasks
env RENOVATE_POST_UPGRADE_TASKS

Note

Post-upgrade tasks can only be used on self-hosted Renovate instances.

Post-upgrade tasks are commands that are executed by Renovate after a dependency has been updated but before the commit is created. The intention is to run any other command line tools that would modify existing files or generate new files when a dependency changes.

Each command must match at least one of the patterns defined in allowedPostUpgradeCommands (a global-only configuration option) in order to be executed. If the list of allowed tasks is empty then no tasks will be executed.

e.g.

{
  "postUpgradeTasks": {
    "commands": ["tslint --fix"],
    "fileFilters": ["yarn.lock", "**/*.js"],
    "executionMode": "update"
  }
}

The postUpgradeTasks configuration consists of three fields:

commands

A list of post-upgrade commands that are executed before a commit is made by Renovate.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents postUpgradeTasks
env RENOVATE_COMMANDS

A list of commands that are executed after Renovate has updated a dependency but before the commit is made.

You can use variable templating in your commands as long as allowPostUpgradeCommandTemplating is enabled.

Note

Do not use git add in your commands to add new files to be tracked, add them by including them in your fileFilters instead.

fileFilters

Files that match the glob pattern will be committed after running a post-upgrade task.

Name Value
type array
subType string
parents postUpgradeTasks
default
["**/*"]
env RENOVATE_FILE_FILTERS

A list of glob-style matchers that determine which files will be included in the final commit made by Renovate. Dotfiles are included.

Optional field which defaults to any non-ignored file in the repo (**/* glob pattern). Specify a custom value for this if you wish to exclude certain files which are modified by your postUpgradeTasks and you don't want committed.

executionMode

Controls when the post upgrade tasks run: on every update, or once per upgrade branch.

Name Value
type string
parents postUpgradeTasks
allowedValues update, branch
default "update"
env RENOVATE_EXECUTION_MODE

Defaults to update, but can also be set to branch. This sets the level the postUpgradeTask runs on, if set to update the postUpgradeTask will be executed for every dependency on the branch. If set to branch the postUpgradeTask is executed for the whole branch.

prBodyColumns

List of columns to use in PR bodies.

Name Value
type array
subType string
default
["Package", "Type", "Update", "Change", "Pending"]
cli --pr-body-columns
env RENOVATE_PR_BODY_COLUMNS

Use this array to provide a list of column names you wish to include in the PR tables.

Adding the package file name to the table
{
  "prBodyColumns": [
    "Package",
    "Update",
    "Type",
    "New value",
    "Package file",
    "References"
  ]
}

Note

"Package file" is predefined in the default prBodyDefinitions object so does not require a definition before it can be used.

prBodyDefinitions

Table column definitions to use in PR tables.

Name Value
type object
freeChoice true
mergeable true
default
{
  "Package": "{{{depNameLinked}}}",
  "Type": "{{{depType}}}",
  "Update": "{{{updateType}}}",
  "Current value": "{{{currentValue}}}",
  "New value": "{{{newValue}}}",
  "Change": "`{{{displayFrom}}}` -> `{{{displayTo}}}`",
  "Pending": "{{{displayPending}}}",
  "References": "{{{references}}}",
  "Package file": "{{{packageFile}}}",
  "Age": "{{#if newVersion}}[![age](https://developer.mend.io/api/mc/badges/age/{{datasource}}/{{replace '/' '%2f' depName}}/{{{newVersion}}}?slim=true)](https://docs.renovatebot.com/merge-confidence/){{/if}}",
  "Adoption": "{{#if newVersion}}[![adoption](https://developer.mend.io/api/mc/badges/adoption/{{datasource}}/{{replace '/' '%2f' depName}}/{{{newVersion}}}?slim=true)](https://docs.renovatebot.com/merge-confidence/){{/if}}",
  "Passing": "{{#if newVersion}}[![passing](https://developer.mend.io/api/mc/badges/compatibility/{{datasource}}/{{replace '/' '%2f' depName}}/{{{currentVersion}}}/{{{newVersion}}}?slim=true)](https://docs.renovatebot.com/merge-confidence/){{/if}}",
  "Confidence": "{{#if newVersion}}[![confidence](https://developer.mend.io/api/mc/badges/confidence/{{datasource}}/{{replace '/' '%2f' depName}}/{{{currentVersion}}}/{{{newVersion}}}?slim=true)](https://docs.renovatebot.com/merge-confidence/){{/if}}"
}
cli --pr-body-definitions
env RENOVATE_PR_BODY_DEFINITIONS

You can configure this object to either:

  • modify the template for an existing table column in PR bodies, or
  • add a definition for a new/additional column.
Modifying the default value for the Package column to put it inside a code block
{
  "prBodyDefinitions": {
    "Package": "`{{{depName}}}`"
  }
}
Adding a custom Sourcegraph column definition
{
  "prBodyDefinitions": {
    "Sourcegraph": "[![code search for \"{{{depName}}}\"](https://sourcegraph.com/search/badge?q=repo:%5Egithub%5C.com/{{{repository}}}%24+case:yes+-file:package%28-lock%29%3F%5C.json+{{{depName}}}&label=matches)](https://sourcegraph.com/search?q=repo:%5Egithub%5C.com/{{{repository}}}%24+case:yes+-file:package%28-lock%29%3F%5C.json+{{{depName}}})"
  },
  "prBodyColumns": [
    "Package",
    "Update",
    "New value",
    "References",
    "Sourcegraph"
  ]
}

Tip

Columns must also be included in the prBodyColumns array in order to be used, so that's why it's included above in the example.

prBodyNotes

List of extra notes or templates to include in the Pull Request body.

Name Value
type array
subType string
mergeable true
cli --pr-body-notes
env RENOVATE_PR_BODY_NOTES

Use this field to add custom content inside PR bodies, including conditionally.

Adding an extra Warning to major updates
{
  "prBodyNotes": ["{{#if isMajor}}:warning: MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR :warning:{{/if}}"]
}

prBodyTemplate

Pull Request body template. Controls which sections are rendered in the body of the pull request.

Name Value
type string
default "{{{header}}}{{{table}}}{{{warnings}}}{{{notes}}}{{{changelogs}}}{{{configDescription}}}{{{controls}}}{{{footer}}}"
env RENOVATE_PR_BODY_TEMPLATE

The available sections are:

  • header
  • table
  • warnings
  • notes
  • changelogs
  • configDescription
  • controls
  • footer

prConcurrentLimit

Limit to a maximum of x concurrent branches/PRs. 0 means no limit.

Name Value
type integer
default 10
cli --pr-concurrent-limit
env RENOVATE_PR_CONCURRENT_LIMIT

This setting - if enabled - limits Renovate to a maximum of x concurrent PRs open at any time.

This limit is enforced on a per-repository basis.

Note

Renovate always creates security PRs, even if the concurrent PR limit is already reached. Security PRs have [SECURITY] in their PR title.

prCreation

When to create the PR for a branch.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues immediate, not-pending, status-success, approval
default "immediate"
cli --pr-creation
env RENOVATE_PR_CREATION

This setting tells Renovate when to create PRs:

  • immediate (default): Renovate creates PRs immediately after creating the corresponding branch
  • not-pending: Renovate waits until status checks have completed (passed or failed) before raising the PR
  • status-success: Renovate only creates PRs if/when the the test pass
  • approval: Renovate creates branches for updates immediately, but creates the PR after getting Dependency Dashboard approval

When prCreation is set to immediate, you'll get a Pull Request and possible associated notification right away when a new update is available. You'll have to wait until the checks have been performed, before you can decide if you want to merge the PR.

When prCreation is set to not-pending, Renovate creates the PR only once all tests have passed or failed. When you get the PR notification, you can take action immediately, as you have the full test results. If there are no checks associated, Renovate will create the PR once 24 hours have elapsed since creation of the commit.

When prCreation is set to status-success, Renovate creates the PR only if all tests have passed. When a branch remains without PR due to a failing test: select the corresponding PR from the Dependency Dashboard, and push your fixes to the branch.

When prCreation is set to approval, Renovate creates the PR only when approved via the Dependency Dashboard. Renovate still creates the branch immediately.

Note

For all cases of non-immediate PR creation, Renovate doesn't run instantly once tests complete. Instead, Renovate create the PR on its next run after the relevant tests have completed, so there will be some delay.

Warning

If you set prCreation=approval you must not use dependencyDashboardApproval=true!

prFooter

Text added here will be placed last in the PR body, with a divider separator before it.

Name Value
type string
default "This PR has been generated by [Renovate Bot](https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate)."
cli --pr-footer
env RENOVATE_PR_FOOTER

prHeader

Text added here will be placed first in the PR body.

Name Value
type string
cli --pr-header
env RENOVATE_PR_HEADER
default null

prHourlyLimit

Rate limit PRs to maximum x created per hour. 0 means no limit.

Name Value
type integer
default 2
cli --pr-hourly-limit
env RENOVATE_PR_HOURLY_LIMIT

This config option slows down the rate at which Renovate creates PRs.

Slowing Renovate down can be handy when you're onboarding a repository with a lot of dependencies. What may happen if you don't set a prHourlyLimit:

  1. Renovate creates an Onboarding PR
  2. You merge the onboarding PR to activate Renovate
  3. Renovate creates a "Pin Dependencies" PR (if needed)
  4. You merge the "Pin Dependencies" PR
  5. Renovate creates every single upgrade PR needed, which can be a lot

The above may cause:

  • Renovate bot's PRs to overwhelm your CI systems
  • a lot of test runs, because branches are rebased each time you merge a PR

To prevent these problems you can set prHourlyLimit to a value like 1 or 2. Renovate will only create that many PRs within each hourly period (:00 through :59). You still get all the PRs in a reasonable time, perhaps over a day or so. Now you can merge the PRs at a do-able rate, once the tests pass.

Tip

The prHourlyLimit setting does not limit the number of concurrently open PRs, only the rate at which PRs are created. The prHourlyLimit setting is enforced on a per-repository basis.

prNotPendingHours

Timeout in hours for when prCreation=not-pending.

Name Value
type integer
default 25
cli --pr-not-pending-hours
env RENOVATE_PR_NOT_PENDING_HOURS

If you configure prCreation=not-pending, then Renovate will wait until tests are non-pending (all pass or at least one fails) before creating PRs. However there are cases where PRs may remain in pending state forever, e.g. absence of tests or status checks that are configure to pending indefinitely. This is why we configured an upper limit for how long we wait until creating a PR.

Note

If the option minimumReleaseAge is non-zero then Renovate disables the prNotPendingHours functionality.

prPriority

Set sorting priority for PR creation. PRs with higher priority are created first, negative priority last.

Name Value
type integer
default 0

Sometimes Renovate needs to rate limit its creation of PRs, e.g. hourly or concurrent PR limits. By default, Renovate sorts/prioritizes based on the update type, going from smallest update to biggest update. Renovate creates update PRs in this order:

  1. pinDigest
  2. pin
  3. digest
  4. patch
  5. minor
  6. major

If you have dependencies that are more or less important than others then you can use the prPriority field for PR sorting. The default value is 0, so setting a negative value will make dependencies sort last, while higher values sort first.

Here's an example of how you would define PR priority so that devDependencies are raised last and react is raised first:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchDepTypes": ["devDependencies"],
      "prPriority": -1
    },
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["react"],
      "prPriority": 5
    }
  ]
}

prTitle

Pull Request title template (deprecated). Inherits from commitMessage if null.

Name Value
type string
env RENOVATE_PR_TITLE

The PR title is important for some of Renovate's matching algorithms (e.g. determining whether to recreate a PR or not) so ideally don't modify it much.

prTitleStrict

Whether to bypass appending extra context to the Pull Request title.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
env RENOVATE_PR_TITLE_STRICT

There are certain scenarios where the default behavior appends extra context to the PR title.

These scenarios include if a baseBranch or if there is a grouped update and either separateMajorMinor or separateMinorPatch is true.

Using this option allows you to skip these default behaviors and use other templating methods to control the format of the PR title.

This feature is flagged as experimental

Experimental features might be changed or even removed at any time.

printConfig

If enabled, Renovate logs the fully resolved config for each repository, plus the fully resolved presets.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --print-config
env RENOVATE_PRINT_CONFIG

This option is useful for troubleshooting, particularly if using presets. e.g. run renovate foo/bar --print-config > config.log and the fully-resolved config will be included in the log file.

pruneBranchAfterAutomerge

Set to true to enable branch pruning after automerging.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --prune-branch-after-automerge
env RENOVATE_PRUNE_BRANCH_AFTER_AUTOMERGE

By default Renovate deletes, or "prunes", the branch after automerging. Set pruneBranchAfterAutomerge to false to keep the branch after automerging.

pruneStaleBranches

Set to false to disable pruning stale branches.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --prune-stale-branches
env RENOVATE_PRUNE_STALE_BRANCHES

Configure to false to disable deleting orphan branches and autoclosing PRs. Defaults to true.

rangeStrategy

Determines how to modify or update existing ranges.

Name Value
type string
default "auto"
allowedValues auto, pin, bump, replace, widen, update-lockfile, in-range-only

Behavior:

  • auto = Renovate decides (this will be done on a manager-by-manager basis)
  • pin = convert ranges to exact versions, e.g. ^1.0.0 -> 1.1.0
  • bump = e.g. bump the range even if the new version satisfies the existing range, e.g. ^1.0.0 -> ^1.1.0
  • replace = Replace the range with a newer one if the new version falls outside it, and update nothing otherwise
  • widen = Widen the range with newer one, e.g. ^1.0.0 -> ^1.0.0 || ^2.0.0
  • update-lockfile = Update the lock file when in-range updates are available, otherwise replace for updates out of range. Works for bundler, cargo, composer, npm, yarn, pnpm, terraform and poetry so far
  • in-range-only = Update the lock file when in-range updates are available, ignore package file updates

Renovate's "auto" strategy works like this for npm:

  1. Widen peerDependencies
  2. If an existing range already ends with an "or" operator like "^1.0.0 || ^2.0.0", then Renovate widens it into "^1.0.0 || ^2.0.0 || ^3.0.0"
  3. Otherwise, if the update is outside the existing range, Renovate replaces the range. So "^2.0.0" is replaced by "^3.0.0"
  4. Finally, if the update is in-range, Renovate will update the lockfile with the new exact version.

By default, Renovate assumes that if you are using ranges then it's because you want them to be wide/open. Renovate won't deliberately "narrow" any range by increasing the semver value inside.

For example, if your package.json specifies a value for left-pad of ^1.0.0 and the latest version on npmjs is 1.2.0, then Renovate won't change anything because 1.2.0 satisfies the range. If instead you'd prefer to be updated to ^1.2.0 in cases like this, then configure rangeStrategy to bump in your Renovate config.

This feature supports caret (^) and tilde (~) ranges only, like ^1.0.0 and ~1.0.0.

The in-range-only strategy may be useful if you want to leave the package file unchanged and only do update-lockfile within the existing range. The in-range-only strategy behaves like update-lockfile, but discards any updates where the new version of the dependency is not equal to the current version. We recommend you avoid using the in-range-only strategy unless you strictly need it. Using the in-range-only strategy may result in you being multiple releases behind without knowing it.

rebaseLabel

Label to request a rebase from Renovate bot.

Name Value
type string
default "rebase"
cli --rebase-label
env RENOVATE_REBASE_LABEL

On supported platforms it is possible to add a label to a PR to manually request Renovate to recreate/rebase it. By default this label is "rebase" but you can configure it to anything you want by changing this rebaseLabel field.

rebaseWhen

Controls when Renovate rebases an existing branch.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues auto, never, conflicted, behind-base-branch
default "auto"
cli --rebase-when
env RENOVATE_REBASE_WHEN

Possible values and meanings:

  • auto: Renovate will autodetect the best setting. It will use behind-base-branch if configured to automerge or repository has been set to require PRs to be up to date. Otherwise, conflicted will be used instead
  • never: Renovate will never rebase the branch or update it unless manually requested
  • conflicted: Renovate will rebase only if the branch is conflicted
  • behind-base-branch: Renovate will rebase whenever the branch falls 1 or more commit behind its base branch

rebaseWhen=conflicted is not recommended if you have enabled Renovate automerge, because:

  • It could result in a broken base branch if two updates are merged one after another without testing the new versions together
  • If you have enforced that PRs must be up-to-date before merging (e.g. using branch protection on GitHub), then automerge won't be possible as soon as a PR gets out-of-date but remains non-conflicted

It is also recommended to avoid rebaseWhen=never as it can result in conflicted branches with outdated PR descriptions and/or status checks.

Avoid setting rebaseWhen=never and then also setting prCreation=not-pending as this can prevent creation of PRs.

recreateWhen

Recreate PRs even if same ones were closed previously.

Name Value
type string
default "auto"
allowedValues auto, always, never
cli --recreate-when
env RENOVATE_RECREATE_WHEN

This feature used to be called recreateClosed.

By default, Renovate detects if it proposed an update to a project before, and will not propose the same update again. For example the Webpack 3.x case described in the separateMajorMinor documentation. You can use recreateWhen to customize this behavior down to a per-package level. For example we override it to always in the following cases where branch names and PR titles must be reused:

  • Package groups
  • When pinning versions
  • Lock file maintenance

You can select which behavior you want from Renovate:

  • always: Recreates all closed or blocking PRs
  • auto: The default option. Recreates only immortal PRs (default)
  • never: No PR is recreated, doesn't matter if it is immortal or not

We recommend that you stick with the default setting for this option. Only change this setting if you really need to.

registryAliases

Aliases for registries.

Name Value
mergeable true
type object
additionalProperties [object Object]
supportedManagers ansible, bitbucket-pipelines, crossplane, docker-compose, dockerfile, droneci, gitlabci, helm-requirements, helmfile, helmv3, kubernetes, kustomize, terraform, vendir, woodpecker
cli --registry-aliases
env RENOVATE_REGISTRY_ALIASES

You can use the registryAliases object to set registry aliases.

This feature works with the following managers:

{
  "registryAliases": {
    "jfrogecosystem": "some.jfrog.mirror",
    "jfrog.com": "some.jfrog.mirror"
  }
}

registryUrls

List of URLs to try for dependency lookup. Package manager specific.

Name Value
type array
subType string

Usually Renovate is able to either (a) use the default registries for a datasource, or (b) automatically detect during the manager extract phase which custom registries are in use. In case there is a need to configure them manually, it can be done using this registryUrls field, typically using packageRules like so:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchDatasources": ["docker"],
      "registryUrls": ["https://docker.mycompany.domain"]
    }
  ]
}

The field supports multiple URLs but it is datasource-dependent on whether only the first is used or multiple.

replacement

Configuration to apply when replacing a dependency.

Name Value
type object
default
{
  "branchTopic": "{{{depNameSanitized}}}-replacement",
  "commitMessageAction": "Replace",
  "commitMessageExtra": "with {{newName}} {{#if isMajor}}{{{prettyNewMajor}}}{{else}}{{#if isSingleVersion}}{{{prettyNewVersion}}}{{else}}{{{newValue}}}{{/if}}{{/if}}",
  "prBodyNotes": [
    "This is a special PR that replaces `{{{depName}}}` with the community suggested minimal stable replacement version."
  ]
}
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_REPLACEMENT

Add to this object if you wish to define rules that apply only to PRs that replace dependencies.

respectLatest

Ignore versions newer than npm "latest" version.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --respect-latest
env RENOVATE_RESPECT_LATEST

Similar to ignoreUnstable, this option controls whether to update to versions that are greater than the version tagged as latest in the repository. By default, renovate will update to a version greater than latest only if the current version is itself past latest.

reviewers

Requested reviewers for Pull Requests (either username or email address depending on the platform).

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --reviewers
env RENOVATE_REVIEWERS

Must be valid usernames.

Required reviewers on GitHub

If you're assigning a team to review on GitHub, you must use the prefix team: and add the last part of the team name. Say the full team name on GitHub is @organization/foo, then you'd set the config option like this:

{
  "reviewers": ["team:foo"]
}

Required reviewers on Azure DevOps

To mark a reviewer as required on Azure DevOps, you must use the prefix required:.

For example: if the username or team name is bar then you would set the config option like this:

{
  "reviewers": ["required:bar"]
}

reviewersFromCodeOwners

Determine reviewers based on configured code owners and changes in PR.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --reviewers-from-code-owners
env RENOVATE_REVIEWERS_FROM_CODE_OWNERS

If enabled Renovate tries to determine PR reviewers by matching rules defined in a CODEOWNERS file against the changes in the PR.

See GitHub or GitLab documentation for details on syntax and possible file locations.

reviewersSampleSize

Take a random sample of given size from reviewers.

Name Value
type integer
cli --reviewers-sample-size
env RENOVATE_REVIEWERS_SAMPLE_SIZE

rollback

Configuration to apply when rolling back a version.

Name Value
type object
default
{
  "branchTopic": "{{{depNameSanitized}}}-rollback",
  "commitMessageAction": "Roll back",
  "semanticCommitType": "fix"
}
mergeable true
env RENOVATE_ROLLBACK

Add to this object if you wish to define rules that apply only to PRs that roll back versions.

rollbackPrs

Create PRs to roll back versions if the current version is not found in the registry.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --rollback-prs
env RENOVATE_ROLLBACK_PRS

There are times when a dependency version in use by a project gets removed from the registry. For some registries, existing releases or even whole packages can be removed or "yanked" at any time, while for some registries only very new or unused releases can be removed. Renovate's "rollback" feature exists to propose a downgrade to the next-highest release if the current release is no longer found in the registry.

Renovate does not create these rollback PRs by default, so this functionality needs to be opted-into. We recommend you do this selectively with packageRules and not globally.

schedule

Limit branch creation to these times of day or week.

Name Value
type array
subType string
cli --schedule
default
["at any time"]

The schedule option allows you to define times of week or month for Renovate updates. Running Renovate around the clock can be too "noisy" for some projects. To reduce the noise you can use the schedule config option to limit the time frame in which Renovate will perform actions on your repository. You can use the standard Cron syntax and Later syntax to define your schedule.

The default value for schedule is "at any time", which is functionally the same as declaring a null schedule. i.e. Renovate will run on the repository around the clock.

The easiest way to define a schedule is to use a preset if one of them fits your requirements. See Schedule presets for details and feel free to request a new one in the source repository if you think it would help others.

Some text schedules that are known to work
every weekend
before 5:00am
after 10pm and before 5:00am
after 10pm and before 5am every weekday
on friday and saturday
every 3 months on the first day of the month
* 0 2 * *

Warning

For Cron schedules, you must use the * wildcard for the minutes value, as Renovate doesn't support minute granularity.

One example might be that you don't want Renovate to run during your typical business hours, so that your build machines don't get clogged up testing package.json updates. You could then configure a schedule like this at the repository level:

{
  "schedule": ["after 10pm and before 5am every weekday", "every weekend"]
}

This would mean that Renovate can run for 7 hours each night plus all the time on weekends.

This scheduling feature can also be particularly useful for "noisy" packages that are updated frequently, such as aws-sdk.

To restrict aws-sdk to only monthly updates, you could add this package rule:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["aws-sdk"],
      "extends": ["schedule:monthly"]
    }
  ]
}

Technical details: We mostly rely on the text parsing of the library @breejs/later but only its concepts of "days", "time_before", and "time_after". Read the parser documentation at breejs.github.io/later/parsers.html#text. To parse Cron syntax, Renovate uses cron-parser. Renovate does not support scheduled minutes or "at an exact time" granularity.

Tip

If you want to disable Renovate, then avoid setting schedule to "never". Instead, use the enabled config option to disable Renovate. Read the enabled config option docs to learn more.

Note

Actions triggered via the Dependency Dashboard are not restricted by a configured schedule.

Tip

To validate your later schedule before updating your renovate.json, you can use this CodePen.

semanticCommitScope

Commit scope to use if Semantic Commits are enabled.

Name Value
type string
default "deps"
cli --semantic-commit-scope
env RENOVATE_SEMANTIC_COMMIT_SCOPE

By default you will see Angular-style commit prefixes like "chore(deps):". If you wish to change it to something else like "package" then it will look like "chore(package):". You can also use parentDir or baseDir to namespace your commits for monorepos e.g. "{{parentDir}}".

semanticCommitType

Commit type to use if Semantic Commits is enabled.

Name Value
type string
default "chore"
cli --semantic-commit-type
env RENOVATE_SEMANTIC_COMMIT_TYPE

By default you will see Angular-style commit prefixes like "chore(deps):". If you wish to change it to something else like "ci" then it will look like "ci(deps):".

semanticCommits

Enable Semantic Commit prefixes for commits and PR titles.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues auto, enabled, disabled
default "auto"
cli --semantic-commits
env RENOVATE_SEMANTIC_COMMITS

If you are using a semantic prefix for your commits, then you will want to enable this setting. Although it's configurable to a package-level, it makes most sense to configure it at a repository level. If configured to enabled, then the semanticCommitScope and semanticCommitType fields will be used for each commit message and PR title.

Renovate autodetects if your repository is already using semantic commits or not and follows suit, so you only need to configure this if you wish to override Renovate's autodetected setting.

separateMajorMinor

If set to false, Renovate will upgrade dependencies to their latest release only. Renovate will not separate major or minor branches.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --separate-major-minor
env RENOVATE_SEPARATE_MAJOR_MINOR

Renovate's default behavior is to create a separate branch/PR if both minor and major version updates exist (note that your choice of rangeStrategy value can influence which updates exist in the first place however). For example, if you were using Webpack 2.0.0 and versions 2.1.0 and 3.0.0 were both available, then Renovate would create two PRs so that you have the choice whether to apply the minor update to 2.x or the major update of 3.x. If you were to apply the minor update then Renovate would keep updating the 3.x branch for you as well, e.g. if Webpack 3.0.1 or 3.1.0 were released. If instead you applied the 3.0.0 update then Renovate would clean up the unneeded 2.x branch for you on the next run.

It is recommended that you leave this option to true, because of the polite way that Renovate handles this. For example, let's say in the above example that you decided you wouldn't update to Webpack 3 for a long time and don't want to build/test every time a new 3.x version arrives. In that case, simply close the "Update Webpack to version 3.x" PR and it won't be recreated again even if subsequent Webpack 3.x versions are released. You can continue with Webpack 2.x for as long as you want and get any updates/patches that are made for it. Then eventually when you do want to update to Webpack 3.x you can make that update to package.json yourself and commit it to the base branch once it's tested. After that, Renovate will resume providing you updates to 3.x again! i.e. if you close a major upgrade PR then it won't come back again, but once you make the major upgrade yourself then Renovate will resume providing you with minor or patch updates.

This option also has priority over package groups configured by packageRule. So Renovate will propose separate PRs for major and minor updates of packages even if they are grouped. If you want to enforce grouped package updates, you need to set this option to false within the packageRule.

separateMinorPatch

If set to true, Renovate will separate minor and patch updates into separate branches.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --separate-minor-patch
env RENOVATE_SEPARATE_MINOR_PATCH

By default, Renovate won't distinguish between "patch" (e.g. 1.0.x) and "minor" (e.g. 1.x.0) releases - it groups them together. E.g., if you are running version 1.0.0 of a package and both versions 1.0.1 and 1.1.0 are available then Renovate will raise a single PR for version 1.1.0. If you wish to distinguish between patch and minor upgrades, for example if you wish to automerge patch but not minor, then you can configured this option to true.

separateMultipleMajor

If set to true, PRs will be raised separately for each available major upgrade version.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --separate-multiple-major
env RENOVATE_SEPARATE_MULTIPLE_MAJOR

Configure this to true if you wish to get one PR for every separate major version upgrade of a dependency. e.g. if you are on webpack@v1 currently then default behavior is a PR for upgrading to webpack@v3 and not for webpack@v2. If this setting is true then you would get one PR for webpack@v2 and one for webpack@v3.

separateMultipleMinor

If set to true, Renovate creates separate PRs for each minor stream.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --separate-multiple-minor
env RENOVATE_SEPARATE_MULTIPLE_MINOR

Enable this for dependencies when it is important to split updates into separate PRs per minor release stream (e.g. python).

For example, if you are on python@v3.9.0 currently, then by default Renovate creates a PR to upgrade you to the latest version such as python@v3.12.x. By default, Renovate skips versions in between, like python@v3.10.x.

But if you set separateMultipleMinor=true then you get separate PRs for each minor stream, like python@3.9.x, python@v3.10.x and python@v3.11.x, etc.

This feature is flagged as experimental

Experimental features might be changed or even removed at any time.

skipInstalls

Skip installing modules/dependencies if lock file updating is possible without a full install.

Name Value
type boolean
cli --skip-installs
env RENOVATE_SKIP_INSTALLS
default null

By default, Renovate will use the most efficient approach to updating package files and lock files, which in most cases skips the need to perform a full module install by the bot. If this is set to false, then a full install of modules will be done. This is currently applicable to npm only, and only used in cases where bugs in npm result in incorrect lock files being updated.

statusCheckNames

Custom strings to use as status check names.

Name Value
type object
mergeable true
default
{
  "artifactError": "renovate/artifacts",
  "configValidation": "renovate/config-validation",
  "mergeConfidence": "renovate/merge-confidence",
  "minimumReleaseAge": "renovate/stability-days"
}
cli --status-check-names
env RENOVATE_STATUS_CHECK_NAMES

Warning

For advanced use only! Use at your own risk!

You can customize the name/context of status checks that Renovate adds to commits/branches/PRs.

This option enables you to modify any existing status checks name/context, but adding new status checks this way is not supported. Setting the value to null or an empty string, effectively disables or skips that status check. This option is mergeable, which means you only have to specify the status checks that you want to modify.

Example of overriding status check strings
{
  "statusCheckNames": {
    "minimumReleaseAge": "custom/stability-days",
    "mergeConfidence": "custom/merge-confidence-level"
  }
}

stopUpdatingLabel

Label to make Renovate stop updating a PR.

Name Value
type string
default "stop-updating"
supportedPlatforms azure, gitea, github, gitlab
cli --stop-updating-label
env RENOVATE_STOP_UPDATING_LABEL

This feature only works on supported platforms, check the table above.

If you want Renovate to stop updating a PR, you can apply a label to the PR. By default, Renovate listens to the label: "stop-updating".

You can set your own label name with the "stopUpdatingLabel" field:

{
  "stopUpdatingLabel": "take-a-break-renovate"
}

suppressNotifications

Options to suppress various types of warnings and other notifications.

Name Value
type array
subType string
default
["deprecationWarningIssues"]
allowedValues artifactErrors, branchAutomergeFailure, configErrorIssue, dependencyLookupWarnings, deprecationWarningIssues, lockFileErrors, missingCredentialsError, onboardingClose, prEditedNotification, prIgnoreNotification
mergeable true

Use this field to suppress various types of warnings and other notifications from Renovate. For example:

{
  "suppressNotifications": ["prIgnoreNotification"]
}

The above config will suppress the comment which is added to a PR whenever you close a PR unmerged.

timezone

Must conform to IANA Time Zone format.

Name Value
type string
cli --timezone
env RENOVATE_TIMEZONE
default null

It is only recommended to configure this field if you wish to use the schedules feature and want to write them in your local timezone. Please see the above link for valid timezone names.

transitiveRemediation

Enable remediation of transitive dependencies.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
supportedManagers npm
supportedPlatforms github
cli --transitive-remediation
env RENOVATE_TRANSITIVE_REMEDIATION

When enabled, Renovate tries to remediate vulnerabilities even if they exist only in transitive dependencies.

Applicable only for GitHub platform (with vulnerability alerts enabled) and npm manager. When the lockfileVersion is higher than 1 in package-lock.json, remediations are only possible when changes are made to package.json.

This is considered a feature flag with the aim to remove it and default to this behavior once it has been more widely tested.

updateInternalDeps

Whether to update internal dep versions in a monorepo. Works on Yarn Workspaces.

Name Value
type boolean
default false
cli --update-internal-deps
env RENOVATE_UPDATE_INTERNAL_DEPS

Renovate defaults to skipping any internal package dependencies within monorepos. In such case dependency versions won't be updated by Renovate.

To opt in to letting Renovate update internal package versions normally, set this configuration option to true.

updateLockFiles

Set to false to disable lock file updating.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --update-lock-files
env RENOVATE_UPDATE_LOCK_FILES

updateNotScheduled

Whether to update branches when not scheduled. Renovate will not create branches outside of the schedule.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --update-not-scheduled
env RENOVATE_UPDATE_NOT_SCHEDULED

When schedules are in use, it generally means "no updates". However there are cases where updates might be desirable - e.g. if you have configured prCreation=not-pending, or you have rebaseWhen=behind-base-branch and the base branch is updated so you want Renovate PRs to be rebased.

This defaults to true, meaning that Renovate will perform certain "desirable" updates to existing PRs even when outside of schedule. If you wish to disable all updates outside of scheduled hours then configure this field to false.

updatePinnedDependencies

Whether to update pinned (single version) dependencies or not.

Name Value
type boolean
default true
cli --update-pinned-dependencies
env RENOVATE_UPDATE_PINNED_DEPENDENCIES

By default, Renovate will try to update all detected dependencies, regardless of whether they are defined using pinned single versions (e.g. 1.2.3) or constraints/ranges (e.g. (^1.2.3). You can set this option to false if you wish to disable updating for pinned (single version) dependencies specifically.

useBaseBranchConfig

Whether to read configuration from baseBranches instead of only the default branch.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues merge, none
default "none"
cli --use-base-branch-config
env RENOVATE_USE_BASE_BRANCH_CONFIG

By default, Renovate will read config file from the default branch only and will ignore any config files in base branches. You can configure useBaseBranchConfig=merge to instruct Renovate to merge the config from each base branch over the top of the config in the default branch.

The config file name in the base branch must be the same as in the default branch and cannot be package.json. This scenario may be useful for testing the config changes in base branches instantly.

userStrings

User-facing strings for the Renovate comment when a PR is closed.

Name Value
type object
freeChoice true
default
{
  "ignoreTopic": "Renovate Ignore Notification",
  "ignoreMajor": "Because you closed this PR without merging, Renovate will ignore this update. You will not get PRs for *any* future `{{{newMajor}}}.x` releases. But if you manually upgrade to `{{{newMajor}}}.x` then Renovate will re-enable `minor` and `patch` updates automatically.",
  "ignoreDigest": "Because you closed this PR without merging, Renovate will ignore this update. You will not get PRs for the `{{{depName}}}` `{{{newDigestShort}}}` update again.",
  "ignoreOther": "Because you closed this PR without merging, Renovate will ignore this update (`{{{newValue}}}`). You will get a PR once a newer version is released. To ignore this dependency forever, add it to the `ignoreDeps` array of your Renovate config."
}
cli --user-strings
env RENOVATE_USER_STRINGS

When a PR is closed, Renovate posts a comment to let users know that future updates will be ignored. If you want, you can change the text in the comment with the userStrings config option.

You can edit these user-facing strings:

  • ignoreDigest: Text of the PR comment for digest upgrades.
  • ignoreMajor: Text of the PR comment for major upgrades.
  • ignoreOther: Text of the PR comment for other (neither digest nor major) upgrades.
  • ignoreTopic: Topic of the PR comment.

For example:

{
  "userStrings": {
    "ignoreTopic": "Custom topic for PR comment",
    "ignoreMajor": "Custom text for major upgrades.",
    "ignoreDigest": "Custom text for digest upgrades.",
    "ignoreOther": "Custom text for other upgrades."
  }
}

versionCompatibility

A regex (re2) with named capture groups to show how version and compatibility are split from a raw version string.

Name Value
type string
format regex
default null

This option is used for advanced use cases where the version string embeds more data than just the version. It's typically used with docker and tags datasources.

Here are two examples:

  • The image tag ghcr.io/umami-software/umami:postgresql-v1.37.0 embeds text like postgresql- as a prefix to the actual version to differentiate different DB types.
  • Docker image tags like node:18.10.0-alpine embed the base image as a suffix to the version.

Here is an example of solving these types of cases:

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchDatasources": ["docker"],
      "matchPackageNames": ["ghcr.io/umami-software/umami"],
      "versionCompatibility": "^(?<compatibility>.*)-(?<version>.*)$",
      "versioning": "semver"
    },
    {
      "matchDatasources": ["docker"],
      "matchPackageNames": ["node"],
      "versionCompatibility": "^(?<version>[^-]+)(?<compatibility>-.*)?$",
      "versioning": "node"
    }
  ]
}

This feature is most useful when the currentValue is a version and not a range/constraint.

This feature can be used in combination with extractVersion although that's likely only a rare edge case. When combined, extractVersion is applied to datasource results first, and then versionCompatibility. extractVersion should be used when the raw version string returned by the datasource contains extra details (such as a v prefix) when compared to the value/version used within the repository.

During the lookup phase, Renovate evaluates the versionCompatibility regex against the currentValue string. If there is a match, the version part is stored internally temporarily as compareValue and the compatibility part stored as currentCompatibility. Storing currentCompatibility allows Renovate to reuse this value later to filter for new versions with the same compatibility. Renovate applies this compatibility check to datasource lookup results by passing both the versionCompatibility and currentCompatibility strings to a filter.

For a new version to be allowed, it must:

  • Satisfy the versionCompatibility regex, and
  • Have the same compatibility part as the currentValue

At this point, Renovate's core lookup logic is comparing versions to versions, and ignoring compatibility strings like -jre8. Finally, once updates are decided, Renovate restores the compatibility part to the newValue result.

versioning

Versioning to use for filtering and comparisons.

Name Value
type string
allowedValues aws-machine-image, azure-rest-api, bazel-module, cargo, composer, conan, deb, debian, docker, git, go-mod-directive, gradle, hashicorp, helm, hermit, hex, ivy, kubernetes-api, loose, maven, nixpkgs, node, npm, nuget, pep440, perl, poetry, python, redhat, regex, rez, rpm, ruby, semver, semver-coerced, swift, ubuntu, unity3d
default null

Usually, each language or package manager has a specific type of "versioning": JavaScript uses npm's SemVer implementation, Python uses pep440, etc.

Renovate also uses custom versioning, like "docker" to address the most common way people tag versions using Docker, and "loose" as a fallback that tries SemVer first. Otherwise Renovate does its best to sort and compare.

By exposing versioning to config, you can override the default versioning for a package manager if needed. We do not recommend overriding the default versioning, but there are some cases such as Docker or Gradle where versioning is not strictly defined and you may need to specify the versioning type per-package.

Renovate supports 4-part versions (1.2.3.4) in full for the NuGet package manager. Other managers can use the "loose" versioning fallback: the first 3 parts are used as the version, all trailing parts are used for alphanumeric sorting.

vulnerabilityAlerts

Config to apply when a PR is needed due to a vulnerability in the existing package version.

Name Value
type object
default
{
  "groupName": null,
  "schedule": [],
  "dependencyDashboardApproval": false,
  "minimumReleaseAge": null,
  "rangeStrategy": "update-lockfile",
  "commitMessageSuffix": "[SECURITY]",
  "branchTopic": "{{{datasource}}}-{{{depName}}}-vulnerability",
  "prCreation": "immediate"
}
mergeable true
supportedPlatforms github

Renovate can read GitHub's Vulnerability Alerts to customize its Pull Requests. For this to work, you must enable the Dependency graph, and Dependabot alerts. Follow these steps:

  1. While logged in to GitHub, navigate to your repository
  2. Select the "Settings" tab
  3. Select "Code security and analysis" in the sidebar
  4. Enable the "Dependency graph"
  5. Enable "Dependabot alerts"
  6. If you're running Renovate in app mode: make sure the app has read permissions for "Dependabot alerts". If you're the account administrator, browse to the app (for example the Mend Renovate App), select "Configure", and then scroll down to the "Permissions" section and make sure that read access to "Dependabot alerts" is mentioned

Once the above conditions are met, and you got one or more vulnerability alerts from GitHub for this repository, then Renovate tries to raise fix PRs.

You may use the vulnerabilityAlerts configuration object to customize vulnerability-fix PRs.

Setting a custom label and assignee
{
  "vulnerabilityAlerts": {
    "labels": ["security"],
    "automerge": true,
    "assignees": ["@rarkins"]
  }
}

Warning

There's a small chance that a wrong vulnerability alert results in a flapping/looping vulnerability fix. If you allow Renovate to automerge vulnerability fixes, please check if the automerged fix is correct.

Note

When Renovate creates a vulnerabilityAlerts PR, it ignores settings like prConcurrentLimit, branchConcurrentLimit, prHourlyLimit, or schedule. This means that Renovate always tries to create a vulnerabilityAlerts PR. In short: vulnerability alerts "skip the line".

To disable the vulnerability alerts feature, set enabled=false in a vulnerabilityAlerts config object, like this:

Disabling vulnerability alerts
{
  "vulnerabilityAlerts": {
    "enabled": false
  }
}