Self-Hosted configuration options

You can only use these configuration options when you're self-hosting Renovate.

Please also see Self-Hosted Experimental Options.

Note

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

allowCustomCrateRegistries

Set this to true to allow custom crate registries.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--allow-custom-crate-registries
env	RENOVATE_ALLOW_CUSTOM_CRATE_REGISTRIES

allowPlugins

Set this to true if repositories are allowed to run install plugins.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--allow-plugins
env	RENOVATE_ALLOW_PLUGINS

allowPostUpgradeCommandTemplating

Set this to true to allow templating for post-upgrade commands.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--allow-post-upgrade-command-templating
env	RENOVATE_ALLOW_POST_UPGRADE_COMMAND_TEMPLATING

Set to true to allow templating of dependency level post-upgrade commands.

Let's look at an example of configuring packages with existing Angular migrations.

Add two properties to config.js: allowPostUpgradeCommandTemplating and allowedPostUpgradeCommands:

module.exports = {
  allowPostUpgradeCommandTemplating: true,
  allowedPostUpgradeCommands: ['^npm ci --ignore-scripts$', '^npx ng update'],
};

In the renovate.json file, define the commands and files to be included in the final commit.

The command to install dependencies (npm ci --ignore-scripts) is needed because, by default, the installation of dependencies is skipped (see the skipInstalls global option).

{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackageNames": ["@angular/core"],
      "postUpgradeTasks": {
        "commands": [
          "npm ci --ignore-scripts",
          "npx ng update {{{depName}}} --from={{{currentVersion}}} --to={{{newVersion}}} --migrate-only --allow-dirty --force"
        ],
        "fileFilters": ["**/**"]
      }
    }
  ]
}

With this configuration, the executable command for @angular/core looks like this:

npm ci --ignore-scripts
npx ng update @angular/core --from=10.0.0 --to=11.0.0 --migrate-only --allow-dirty --force

allowScripts

Set this to true if repositories are allowed to run install scripts.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--allow-scripts
env	RENOVATE_ALLOW_SCRIPTS

allowedPostUpgradeCommands

A list of regular expressions that decide which post-upgrade tasks are allowed.

Name	Value
type	array
subType	string
cli	--allowed-post-upgrade-commands
env	RENOVATE_ALLOWED_POST_UPGRADE_COMMANDS

A list of regular expressions that decide which commands in postUpgradeTasks are allowed to run. If this list is empty then no tasks will be executed.

For example:

{
  "allowedPostUpgradeCommands": ["^tslint --fix$", "^tslint --[a-z]+$"]
}

autodiscover

Autodiscover all repositories.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--autodiscover
env	RENOVATE_AUTODISCOVER

When you enable autodiscover, by default, Renovate runs on every repository that the bot account can access. You can limit which repositories Renovate can access by using the autodiscoverFilter config option.

autodiscoverFilter

Filter the list of autodiscovered repositories.

Name	Value
type	array
subType	string
cli	--autodiscover-filter
env	RENOVATE_AUTODISCOVER_FILTER

You can use this option to filter the list of repositories that the Renovate bot account can access through autodiscover. It takes a minimatch glob-style or regex pattern.

If you set multiple filters, then the matches of each filter are added to the overall result.

If you use an environment variable or the CLI to set the value for autodiscoverFilter, then commas , within filters are not supported. Commas will be used as delimiter for a new filter.

# DO NOT use commas inside the filter if your are using env or cli variables to configure it.
RENOVATE_AUTODISCOVER_FILTER="/myapp/{readme.md,src/**}"

# in this example you can use regex instead
RENOVATE_AUTODISCOVER_FILTER="/myapp/(readme\.md|src/.*)/"

Minimatch:

{
  "autodiscoverFilter": ["project/*"]
}

Regex:

All text inside the start and end / will be treated as a regular expression.

{
  "autodiscoverFilter": ["/project/.*/"]
}

You can negate the regex by putting a ! in front. Only use a single negation and don't mix with other filters because all filters are combined with or. If using negations, all repositories except those who match the regex are added to the result:

{
  "autodiscoverFilter": ["!/project/.*/"]
}

baseDir

The base directory for Renovate to store local files, including repository files and cache. If left empty, Renovate will create its own temporary directory to use.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--base-dir
env	RENOVATE_BASE_DIR
default	null

By default Renovate uses a temporary directory like /tmp/renovate to store its data. You can override this default with the baseDir option.

For example:

{
  "baseDir": "/my-own-different-temporary-folder"
}

binarySource

Controls how third-party tools like npm or Gradle are called: directly, via Docker sidecar containers, or via dynamic install.

Name	Value
type	string
allowedValues	global, docker, install, hermit
default	"install"
cli	--binary-source
env	RENOVATE_BINARY_SOURCE

Renovate often needs to use third-party binaries in its PRs, like npm to update package-lock.json or go to update go.sum. By default, Renovate uses a child process to run such tools, so they must be:

• installed before running Renovate
• available in the path

But you can tell Renovate to use "sidecar" containers for third-party tools by setting binarySource=docker. For this to work, docker needs to be installed and the Docker socket available to Renovate. Now Renovate uses docker run to create containers like Node.js or Python to run tools in as-needed.

Additionally, when Renovate is run inside a container built using containerbase, such as the official Renovate images on Docker Hub, then binarySource=install can be used. This mode means that Renovate will dynamically install the version of tools available, if supported.

Supported tools for dynamic install are:

• bundler
• cargo
• composer
• dotnet
• flux
• golang
• gradle-wrapper
• helm
• jb
• jsonnet-bundler
• lerna
• mix
• node
• npm
• pip_requirements
• pip-compile
• pipenv
• pnpm
• poetry
• python
• rust
• yarn

If all projects are managed by Hermit, you can tell Renovate to use the tooling versions specified in each project via Hermit by setting binarySource=hermit.

Tools not on this list fall back to binarySource=global.

cacheDir

The directory where Renovate stores its cache. If left empty, Renovate creates a subdirectory within the baseDir.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--cache-dir
env	RENOVATE_CACHE_DIR
default	null

By default Renovate stores cache data in a temporary directory like /tmp/renovate/cache. Use the cacheDir option to override this default.

The baseDir and cacheDir option may point to different directories. You can use one directory for the repo data, and another for the cache data.

For example:

{
  "baseDir": "/my-own-different-temporary-folder",
  "cacheDir": "/my-own-different-cache-folder"
}

cacheHardTtlMinutes

Maximum duration in minutes to keep datasource cache entries.

Name	Value
type	integer
default	0
cli	--cache-hard-ttl-minutes
env	RENOVATE_CACHE_HARD_TTL_MINUTES

This experimental feature is used to implement the concept of a "soft" cache expiry for datasources, starting with npm. It should be set to a non-zero value, recommended to be at least 60 (i.e. one hour).

When this value is set, the npm datasource will use the cacheHardTtlMinutes value for cache expiry, instead of its default expiry of 15 minutes, which becomes the "soft" expiry value. Results which are soft expired are reused in the following manner:

• The etag from the cached results will be reused, and may result in a 304 response, meaning cached results are revalidated
• If an error occurs when querying the npmjs registry, then soft expired results will be reused if they are present

This feature is flagged as experimental

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

containerbaseDir

The directory where Renovate stores its containerbase cache. If left empty, Renovate creates a subdirectory within the cacheDir.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--containerbase-dir
env	RENOVATE_CONTAINERBASE_DIR
default	null

This directory is used to cache downloads when binarySource=docker or binarySource=install.

Use this option if you need such downloads to be stored outside of Renovate's regular cache directory (cacheDir).

customEnvVariables

Custom environment variables for child processes and sidecar Docker containers.

Name	Value
type	object
cli	--custom-env-variables
env	RENOVATE_CUSTOM_ENV_VARIABLES

This configuration will be applied after all other environment variables so you can use it to override defaults.

detectGlobalManagerConfig

If true, Renovate tries to detect global manager configuration from the file system.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--detect-global-manager-config
env	RENOVATE_DETECT_GLOBAL_MANAGER_CONFIG

The purpose of this config option is to allow you (as a bot admin) to configure manager-specific files such as a global .npmrc file, instead of configuring it in Renovate config.

This config option is disabled by default because it may prove surprising or undesirable for some users who don't expect Renovate to go into their home directory and import registry or credential information.

Currently this config option is supported for the npm manager only - specifically the ~/.npmrc file. If found, it will be imported into config.npmrc with config.npmrcMerge set to true.

detectHostRulesFromEnv

If true, Renovate tries to detect host rules from environment variables.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--detect-host-rules-from-env
env	RENOVATE_DETECT_HOST_RULES_FROM_ENV

The format of the environment variables must follow:

• Datasource name (e.g. NPM, PYPI)
• Underscore (_)
• matchHost
• Underscore (_)
• Field name (TOKEN, USERNAME, or PASSWORD)

Hyphens (-) in datasource or host name must be replaced with double underscores (__). Periods (.) in host names must be replaced with a single underscore (_).

Note

You can't use these prefixes with the detectHostRulesFromEnv config option: npm_config_, npm_lifecycle_, npm_package_.

npmjs registry token example

NPM_REGISTRY_NPMJS_ORG_TOKEN=abc123:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "hostType": "npm",
      "matchHost": "registry.npmjs.org",
      "token": "abc123"
    }
  ]
}

GitLab Tags username/password example

GITLAB__TAGS_CODE__HOST_COMPANY_COM_USERNAME=bot GITLAB__TAGS_CODE__HOST_COMPANY_COM_PASSWORD=botpass123:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "hostType": "gitlab-tags",
      "matchHost": "code-host.company.com",
      "username": "bot",
      "password": "botpass123"
    }
  ]
}

Datasource and credentials only

You can skip the host part, and use just the datasource and credentials.

DOCKER_USERNAME=bot DOCKER_PASSWORD=botpass123:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "hostType": "docker",
      "username": "bot",
      "password": "botpass123"
    }
  ]
}

dockerChildPrefix

Change this value to add a prefix to the Renovate Docker sidecar container names and labels.

Name	Value
type	string
default	"renovate_"
cli	--docker-child-prefix
env	RENOVATE_DOCKER_CHILD_PREFIX

Adds a custom prefix to the default Renovate sidecar Docker containers name and label.

For example, if you set dockerChildPrefix=myprefix_ then the final container created from the renovate/node is:

• called myprefix_node instead of renovate_node
• labeled myprefix_child instead of renovate_child

Note

Dangling containers are only removed when Renovate runs again with the same prefix.

dockerImagePrefix

Change this value to override the default Renovate Docker sidecar image name prefix.

Name	Value
type	string
default	"docker.io/renovate"
cli	--docker-image-prefix
env	RENOVATE_DOCKER_IMAGE_PREFIX

By default Renovate pulls the sidecar Docker containers from docker.io/renovate. You can use the dockerImagePrefix option to override this default.

Say you want to pull your images from ghcr.io/renovatebot. You would put this in your configuration file:

{
  "dockerImagePrefix": "ghcr.io/renovatebot"
}

If you pulled a new node image, the final image would be ghcr.io/renovatebot/node instead of docker.io/renovate/node.

dockerUser

Set the UID and GID for Docker-based binaries if you use binarySource=docker.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--docker-user
env	RENOVATE_DOCKER_USER
default	null

Override default user and group used by Docker-based binaries. The user-id (UID) and group-id (GID) must match the user that executes Renovate.

Read the Docker run reference for more information on user and group syntax. Set this to 1001:1002 to use UID 1001 and GID 1002. For example:

{
  "dockerUser": "1001:1002"
}

If you use binarySource=docker|install read the section below.

If you need to change the Docker user please make sure to use the root (0) group, otherwise you'll get in trouble with missing file and directory permissions. Like this:

> export RENOVATE_DOCKER_USER="$(id -u):0" # 500:0 (username:root)

dryRun

If enabled, perform a dry run by logging messages instead of creating/updating/deleting branches and PRs.

Name	Value
type	string
allowedValues	extract, lookup, full
cli	--dry-run
env	RENOVATE_DRY_RUN

Use dryRun to preview the behavior of Renovate in logs, without making any changes to the repository files.

You can choose from the following behaviors for the dryRun config option:

• null: Default behavior - Performs a regular Renovate run including creating/updating/deleting branches and PRs
• "extract": Performs a very quick package file scan to identify the extracted dependencies
• "lookup": Performs a package file scan to identify the extracted dependencies and updates available
• "full": Performs a dry run by logging messages instead of creating/updating/deleting branches and PRs

Information provided mainly in debug log level.

endpoint

Custom endpoint to use.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--endpoint
env	RENOVATE_ENDPOINT

executionTimeout

Default execution timeout in minutes for child processes Renovate creates.

Name	Value
type	integer
default	15
cli	--execution-timeout
env	RENOVATE_EXECUTION_TIMEOUT

Default execution timeout in minutes for child processes Renovate creates. If this option is not set, Renovate will fallback to 15 minutes.

exposeAllEnv

Set this to true to allow passing of all environment variables to package managers.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--expose-all-env
env	RENOVATE_EXPOSE_ALL_ENV

To keep you safe, Renovate only passes a limited set of environment variables to package managers. If you must expose all environment variables to package managers, you can set this option to true.

Warning

Always consider the security implications of using exposeAllEnv! Secrets and other confidential information stored in environment variables could be leaked by a malicious script, that enumerates all environment variables.

Set exposeAllEnv to true only if you have reviewed, and trust, the repositories which Renovate bot runs against. Alternatively, you can use the customEnvVariables config option to handpick a set of variables you need to expose.

Setting this to true also allows for variable substitution in .npmrc files.

force

Any configuration set in this object will force override existing settings.

Name	Value
type	object
env	RENOVATE_FORCE

This object is used as a "force override" when you need to make sure certain configuration overrides whatever is configured in the repository. For example, forcing a null (no) schedule to make sure Renovate raises PRs on a run even if the repository itself or its preset defines a schedule that's currently inactive.

In practice, it is implemented by converting the force configuration into a packageRule that matches all packages.

forceCli

Decides if CLI configuration options are moved to the force config section.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	true
cli	--force-cli
env	RENOVATE_FORCE_CLI

This is set to true by default, meaning that any settings (such as schedule) take maximum priority even against custom settings existing inside individual repositories. It will also override any settings in packageRules.

forkToken

Set a personal access token here to enable "fork mode".

Name	Value
type	string
supportedPlatforms	github
cli	--fork-token
env	RENOVATE_FORK_TOKEN
default	null

You probably don't need this option - it is an experimental setting developed for the Forking Renovate hosted GitHub App.

If this value is configured then Renovate:

• forks the target repository into the account that owns the PAT
• keep this fork's default branch up-to-date with the target

Renovate will then create branches on the fork and opens Pull Requests on the parent repository.

This feature is flagged as experimental

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

gitNoVerify

Which Git commands will be run with the --no-verify option.

Name	Value
type	array
subType	string
allowedValues	commit, push
default	["commit", "push"]
cli	--git-no-verify
env	RENOVATE_GIT_NO_VERIFY

Controls when Renovate passes the --no-verify flag to git. The flag can be passed to git commit and/or git push. Read the documentation for git commit --no-verify and git push --no-verify to learn exactly what each flag does. To learn more about Git hooks, read the Pro Git 2 book, section on Git Hooks.

gitPrivateKey

PGP key to use for signing Git commits.

Name	Value
type	string
env	RENOVATE_GIT_PRIVATE_KEY
default	null

This should be an armored private key, so the type you get from running gpg --export-secret-keys --armor 92066A17F0D1707B4E96863955FEF5171C45FAE5 > private.key. Replace the newlines with \n before adding the resulting single-line value to your bot's config.

Note

The private key can't be protected with a passphrase if running in a headless environment. Renovate will not be able to handle entering the passphrase.

It will be loaded lazily. Before the first commit in a repository, Renovate will:

1. Run gpg import (if you haven't before)
2. Run git config user.signingkey and git config commit.gpgsign true

The git commands are run locally in the cloned repo instead of globally. This reduces the chance of unintended consequences with global Git configs on shared systems.

gitTimeout

Configure the timeout with a number of milliseconds to wait for a Git task.

Name	Value
type	integer
default	0
cli	--git-timeout
env	RENOVATE_GIT_TIMEOUT

To handle the case where the underlying Git processes appear to hang, configure the timeout with the number of milliseconds to wait after last received content on either stdOut or stdErr streams before sending a SIGINT kill message.

gitUrl

Overrides the default resolution for Git remote, e.g. to switch GitLab from HTTPS to SSH-based.

Name	Value
type	string
supportedPlatforms	gitlab, bitbucket-server
allowedValues	default, ssh, endpoint
default	"default"
cli	--git-url
env	RENOVATE_GIT_URL

Override the default resolution for Git remote, e.g. to switch GitLab from HTTPS to SSH-based. Currently works for Bitbucket Server and GitLab only.

Possible values:

• default: use HTTPS URLs provided by the platform for Git
• ssh: use SSH URLs provided by the platform for Git
• endpoint: ignore URLs provided by the platform and use the configured endpoint directly

githubTokenWarn

Display warnings about GitHub token not being set.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	true
cli	--github-token-warn
env	RENOVATE_GITHUB_TOKEN_WARN

By default, Renovate logs and displays a warning when the GITHUB_COM_TOKEN is not set. By setting githubTokenWarn to false, Renovate suppresses these warnings on Pull Requests, etc. Disabling the warning is helpful for self-hosted environments that can't access the github.com domain, because the warning is useless in these environments.

globalExtends

Configuration presets to use or extend for a self-hosted config.

Name	Value
type	array
subType	string
cli	--global-extends
env	RENOVATE_GLOBAL_EXTENDS

Unlike the extends field, which is passed through unresolved to be part of repository config, any presets in globalExtends are resolved immediately as part of global config. Use the globalExtends field if your preset has any global-only configuration options, such as the list of repositories to run against.

Use the extends field instead of this if, for example, you need the ability for a repository config (e.g. renovate.json) to be able to use ignorePresets for any preset defined in global config.

logContext

Add a global or per-repo log context to each log entry.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--log-context
env	RENOVATE_LOG_CONTEXT

logContext is included with each log entry only if logFormat="json" - it is not included in the pretty log output. If left as default (null), a random short ID will be selected.

logFile

Log file path.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--log-file
env	RENOVATE_LOG_FILE
default	null

logFileLevel

Set the log file log level.

Name	Value
type	string
default	"debug"
cli	--log-file-level
env	RENOVATE_LOG_FILE_LEVEL

migratePresets

Define presets here which have been removed or renamed and should be migrated automatically.

Name	Value
type	object
additionalProperties	[object Object]
cli	--migrate-presets
env	RENOVATE_MIGRATE_PRESETS

Use this if you have repositories that extend from a particular preset, which has now been renamed or removed. This is handy if you have a large number of repositories that all extend from a particular preset which you want to rename, without the hassle of manually updating every repository individually. Use an empty string to indicate that the preset should be ignored rather than replaced.

Example:

modules.exports = {
  migratePresets: {
    '@company': 'local>org/renovate-config',
  },
};

In the above example any reference to the @company preset will be replaced with local>org/renovate-config.

Tip

Combine migratePresets with configMigration if you'd like your config migrated by PR.

onboarding

Require a Configuration PR first.

Name	Value
type	boolean
cli	--onboarding
env	RENOVATE_ONBOARDING
default	true

Only set this to false if all three statements are true:

• You've configured Renovate entirely on the bot side (e.g. empty renovate.json in repositories)
• You want to run Renovate on every repository the bot has access to
• You want to skip all onboarding PRs

onboardingBranch

Change this value to override the default onboarding branch name.

Name	Value
type	string
default	"renovate/configure"
env	RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_BRANCH

Note

This setting is independent of branchPrefix.

For example, if you configure branchPrefix to be renovate- then you'd still have the onboarding PR created with branch renovate/configure until you configure onboardingBranch=renovate-configure or similar. If you have an existing Renovate installation and you change onboardingBranch then it's possible that you'll get onboarding PRs for repositories that had previously closed the onboarding PR unmerged.

onboardingCommitMessage

Change this value to override the default onboarding commit message.

Name	Value
type	string
env	RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_COMMIT_MESSAGE

If commitMessagePrefix or semanticCommits values are set then they will be prepended to the commit message using the same logic that is used for adding them to non-onboarding commit messages.

onboardingConfig

Configuration to use for onboarding PRs.

Name	Value
type	object
default	{"$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json"}
mergeable	true
cli	--onboarding-config
env	RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_CONFIG

onboardingConfigFileName

Change this value to override the default onboarding config file name.

Name	Value
type	string
default	"renovate.json"
env	RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_CONFIG_FILE_NAME

If set to one of the valid config file names, the onboarding PR will create a configuration file with the provided name instead of renovate.json. Falls back to renovate.json if the name provided is not valid.

onboardingNoDeps

Onboard the repository even if no dependencies are found.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--onboarding-no-deps
env	RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_NO_DEPS

Set this to true if you want Renovate to create an onboarding PR even if no dependencies are found. Otherwise, Renovate skips onboarding a repository if it finds no dependencies in it.

onboardingPrTitle

Change this value to override the default onboarding PR title.

Name	Value
type	string
default	"Configure Renovate"
env	RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_PR_TITLE

Similarly to onboardingBranch, if you have an existing Renovate installation and you change onboardingPrTitle then it's possible that you'll get onboarding PRs for repositories that had previously closed the onboarding PR unmerged.

onboardingRebaseCheckbox

Set to enable rebase/retry markdown checkbox for onboarding PRs.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
supportedPlatforms	gitea, github, gitlab
cli	--onboarding-rebase-checkbox
env	RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_REBASE_CHECKBOX

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 #17633.

optimizeForDisabled

Set to true to perform a check for disabled config prior to cloning.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--optimize-for-disabled
env	RENOVATE_OPTIMIZE_FOR_DISABLED

When this option is true, Renovate will do the following during repository initialization:

• Attempt to fetch the default config file (renovate.json)
• Check if the file contains "enabled": false

If the file exists and the config is disabled, Renovate will skip the repo without cloning it. Otherwise, it will continue as normal.

This option is only useful where the ratio of disabled repos is quite high. It costs one extra API call per repo but has the benefit of skipping cloning of those which are disabled.

password

Password for authentication.

Name	Value
type	string
supportedPlatforms	azure, bitbucket, bitbucket-server
cli	--password
env	RENOVATE_PASSWORD
default	null

persistRepoData

If set to true: keep repository data between runs instead of deleting the data.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	false
cli	--persist-repo-data
env	RENOVATE_PERSIST_REPO_DATA

Set this to true if you want Renovate to persist repo data between runs. The intention is that this allows Renovate to do a faster git fetch between runs rather than git clone. It also may mean that ignored directories like node_modules can be preserved and save time on operations like npm install.

platform

Platform type of repository.

Name	Value
type	string
allowedValues	azure, bitbucket, bitbucket-server, codecommit, gitea, github, gitlab
default	"github"
cli	--platform
env	RENOVATE_PLATFORM

prCommitsPerRunLimit

Set the maximum number of commits per Renovate run. By default there is no limit.

Name	Value
type	integer
default	0
cli	--pr-commits-per-run-limit
env	RENOVATE_PR_COMMITS_PER_RUN_LIMIT

Parameter to reduce CI load. CI jobs are usually triggered by these events: pull-request creation, pull-request update, automerge events. Set as an integer. Default is no limit.

privateKey

Server-side private key.

Name	Value
type	string
replaceLineReturns	true
cli	--private-key
env	RENOVATE_PRIVATE_KEY
default	null

This private key is used to decrypt config files.

The corresponding public key can be used to create encrypted values for config files. If you want a simple UI to encrypt values you can put the public key in a HTML page similar to https://app.renovatebot.com/encrypt.

To create the key pair with GPG use the following commands:

• gpg --full-generate-key and follow the prompts to generate a key. Name and email are not important to Renovate, and do not configure a passphrase. Use a 4096bit key.

key generation log

❯ gpg --full-generate-key
gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.24; Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Please select what kind of key you want:
   (1) RSA and RSA (default)
   (2) DSA and Elgamal
   (3) DSA (sign only)
   (4) RSA (sign only)
  (14) Existing key from card
Your selection? 1
RSA keys may be between 1024 and 4096 bits long.
What keysize do you want? (3072) 4096
Requested keysize is 4096 bits
Please specify how long the key should be valid.
         0 = key does not expire
      <n>  = key expires in n days
      <n>w = key expires in n weeks
      <n>m = key expires in n months
      <n>y = key expires in n years
Key is valid for? (0)
Key does not expire at all
Is this correct? (y/N) y

GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key.

Real name: Renovate Bot
Email address: renovate@whitesourcesoftware.com
Comment:
You selected this USER-ID:
    "Renovate Bot <renovate@whitesourcesoftware.com>"

Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? O

gpg: key 0649CC3899F22A66 marked as ultimately trusted
gpg: revocation certificate stored as '/Users/rhys/.gnupg/openpgp-revocs.d/794B820F34B34A8DF32AADB20649CC3899F22A66.rev'
public and secret key created and signed.

pub   rsa4096 2021-09-10 [SC]
      794B820F34B34A8DF32AADB20649CEXAMPLEONLY
uid                      Renovate Bot <renovate@whitesourcesoftware.com>
sub   rsa4096 2021-09-10 [E]

• Copy the key ID from the output (794B820F34B34A8DF32AADB20649CEXAMPLEONLY in the above example) or run gpg --list-secret-keys if you forgot to take a copy
• Run gpg --armor --export-secret-keys YOUR_NEW_KEY_ID > renovate-private-key.asc to generate an armored (text-based) private key file
• Run gpg --armor --export YOUR_NEW_KEY_ID > renovate-public-key.asc to generate an armored (text-based) public key file

The private key should then be added to your Renovate Bot global config (either using privateKeyPath or exporting it to the RENOVATE_PRIVATE_KEY environment variable). The public key can be used to replace the existing key in https://app.renovatebot.com/encrypt for your own use.

Any encrypted secrets using GPG must have a mandatory organization/group scope, and optionally can be scoped for a single repository only. The reason for this is to avoid "replay" attacks where someone could learn your encrypted secret and then reuse it in their own Renovate repositories. Instead, with scoped secrets it means that Renovate ensures that the organization and optionally repository values encrypted with the secret match against the running repository.

Note

Simple public key encryption was previously used to encrypt secrets, but this approach has been deprecated and is no longer documented.

privateKeyOld

Secondary or old private key to try.

Name	Value
type	string
replaceLineReturns	true
cli	--private-key-old
env	RENOVATE_PRIVATE_KEY_OLD
default	null

Use this field if you need to perform a "key rotation" and support more than one keypair at a time. Decryption with this key will be tried after privateKey.

If you are migrating from the legacy public key encryption approach to use GPG, then move your legacy private key from privateKey to privateKeyOld and then put your new GPG private key in privateKey. Doing so will mean that Renovate will first try to decrypt using the GPG key but fall back to the legacy key and try that next.

You can remove the privateKeyOld config option once all the old encrypted values have been migrated, or if you no longer want to support the old key and let the processing of repositories fail.

privateKeyPath

Path to the Server-side private key.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--private-key-path
env	RENOVATE_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH
default	null

Used as an alternative to privateKey, if you want the key to be read from disk instead.

privateKeyPathOld

Path to the Server-side old private key.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--private-key-path-old
env	RENOVATE_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH_OLD
default	null

Used as an alternative to privateKeyOld, if you want the key to be read from disk instead.

productLinks

Links which are used in PRs, issues and comments.

Name	Value
type	object
mergeable	true
default	{ "documentation": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/", "help": "https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate/discussions", "homepage": "https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate" }
additionalProperties	[object Object]
cli	--product-links
env	RENOVATE_PRODUCT_LINKS

Override this object if you want to change the URLs that Renovate links to, e.g. if you have an internal forum for asking for help.

redisUrl

If set, this Redis URL will be used for caching instead of the file system.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--redis-url
env	RENOVATE_REDIS_URL
default	null

If this value is set then Renovate will use Redis for its global cache instead of the local file system. The global cache is used to store lookup results (e.g. dependency versions and release notes) between repositories and runs. Example URL structure: redis://[[username]:[password]]@localhost:6379/0.

repositories

List of Repositories.

Name	Value
type	array
env	RENOVATE_REPOSITORIES

Elements in the repositories array can be an object if you wish to define additional settings:

{
  repositories: [{ repository: 'g/r1', bumpVersion: true }, 'g/r2'];
}

repositoryCache

This option decides if Renovate uses a JSON cache to speed up extractions.

Name	Value
type	string
allowedValues	disabled, enabled, reset
default	"disabled"
cli	--repository-cache
env	RENOVATE_REPOSITORY_CACHE

Set this to "enabled" to have Renovate maintain a JSON file cache per-repository to speed up extractions. Set to "reset" if you ever need to bypass the cache and have it overwritten. JSON files will be stored inside the cacheDir beside the existing file-based package cache.

This feature is flagged as experimental

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

repositoryCacheType

Set the type of renovate repository cache if repositoryCache is enabled.

Name	Value
type	string
default	"local"
cli	--repository-cache-type
env	RENOVATE_REPOSITORY_CACHE_TYPE

Set this to an S3 URI to enable S3 backed repository cache.

{
  repositoryCacheType: 's3://bucket-name';
}

Note

IAM is supported when running renovate within an EC2 instance in an ECS cluster. In this case, no additional environment variables are required. Otherwise, the following environment variables should be set for the S3 client to work.

    AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
    AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
    AWS_SESSION_TOKEN
    AWS_REGION

Tip

If you're storing the repository cache on Amazon S3 then you may set a folder hierarchy as part of repositoryCacheType. For example, repositoryCacheType: 's3://bucket-name/dir1/.../dirN/'.

This feature is flagged as experimental

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

requireConfig

Controls Renovate's behavior regarding repository config files such as renovate.json.

Name	Value
type	string
default	"required"
allowedValues	required, optional, ignored
cli	--require-config
env	RENOVATE_REQUIRE_CONFIG

By default, Renovate needs a Renovate config file in each repository where it runs before it will propose any dependency updates.

You can choose any of these settings:

• "required" (default): a repository config file must be present
• "optional": if a config file exists, Renovate will use it when it runs
• "ignored": config files in the repo will be ignored, and have no effect

This feature is closely related to the onboarding config option. The combinations of requireConfig and onboarding are:

	onboarding=true	onboarding=false
requireConfig=required	An onboarding PR will be created if no config file exists. If the onboarding PR is closed and there's no config file, then the repository is skipped.	Repository is skipped unless a config file is added manually.
requireConfig=optional	An onboarding PR will be created if no config file exists. If the onboarding PR is closed and there's no config file, the repository will be processed.	Repository is processed regardless of config file presence.
requireConfig=ignored	No onboarding PR will be created and repo will be processed while ignoring any config file present.	Repository is processed, any config file is ignored.

secrets

Object which holds secret name/value pairs.

Name	Value
type	object
mergeable	true
additionalProperties	[object Object]
cli	--secrets
env	RENOVATE_SECRETS

Secrets may be configured by a bot admin in config.js, which will then make them available for templating within repository configs. For example, to configure a GOOGLE_TOKEN to be accessible by all repositories:

module.exports = {
  secrets: {
    GOOGLE_TOKEN: 'abc123',
  },
};

They can also be configured per repository, e.g.

module.exports = {
  repositories: [
    {
      repository: 'abc/def',
      secrets: {
        GOOGLE_TOKEN: 'abc123',
      },
    },
  ],
};

It could then be used in a repository config or preset like so:

{
  "hostRules": [
    {
      "matchHost": "google.com",
      "token": "{{ secrets.GOOGLE_TOKEN }}"
    }
  ]
}

Secret names must start with an upper or lower case character and can have only characters, digits, or underscores.

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 and lerna/npm only, and only used in cases where bugs in npm result in incorrect lock files being updated.

token

Repository Auth Token.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--token
env	RENOVATE_TOKEN
default	null

unicodeEmoji

Enable or disable Unicode emoji.

Name	Value
type	boolean
default	true
cli	--unicode-emoji
env	RENOVATE_UNICODE_EMOJI

If enabled emoji shortcodes are replaced with their Unicode equivalents. For example: :warning: will be replaced with ⚠️.

username

Username for authentication.

Name	Value
type	string
supportedPlatforms	azure, bitbucket, bitbucket-server
cli	--username
env	RENOVATE_USERNAME
default	null

You may need to set a username if you:

• use the Bitbucket platform, or
• use the GitHub App with CLI (required)

If you're using a Personal Access Token (PAT) to authenticate then you should not set a username.

writeDiscoveredRepos

Writes discovered repositories to a JSON file and then exit.

Name	Value
type	string
cli	--write-discovered-repos
default	null

By default, Renovate processes each repository that it finds. You can use this optional parameter so Renovate writes the discovered repositories to a JSON file and exits.

Known use cases consist, among other things, of horizontal scaling setups. See Scaling Renovate Bot on self-hosted GitLab.

Usage: renovate --write-discovered-repos=/tmp/renovate-repos.json

["myOrg/myRepo", "myOrg/anotherRepo"]