typesafegithub / typesafegithub/github-workflows-kt

Type-safe Gradle task accessors

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enhancement
Dominant language
Kotlin
Stars
664
Forks
30
Avg merge
4d 19h
Merged PRs (30d)
5

Description

Problem

Currently, the only way of calling a specific Gradle task is to give it as string, e.g.:
https://github.com/typesafegithub/github-workflows-kt/blob/7f4b41b5156d811a0d129ade49ebb64569d85ded/.github/workflows/release.main.kts#L48

It requires great attention to type them correctly. It's also risky to keep these as strings with regards to automatic dependency updates. E.g. see https://github.com/gradle-nexus/publish-plugin/releases/tag/v2.0.0:

Backward incompatible changes
  • closeAndReleaseStagingRepository has been renamed to closeAndReleaseStagingRepositories for consistency

In this particular example, we don't call the task that was renamed, but if we did, Renovate would allow merging such change. The worst thing is that it would be caught at the moment of running the release workflow, which currently e.g. for github-workflows-kt happens once a month.

Idea

In the spirit of https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/kotlin_dsl.html#type-safe-accessors.

Rough notes, nothing formal:

  • ./gradlew tasks --all returns a list of tasks in a format like [1], there's also Gradle tooling API. We could extract the task hierarchy from there, and generate Kotlin type-safe accessors, e.g. jit-binding-server:run would map to such Kotlin code: jitBindingServer.run
  • in the GitHub workflow using the Kotlin script, we would have a type-safe wrapper over Gradle that would allow passing only tasks defined in the previous step (+a way to refer to a task in an unsafe, string-based way), along with being able to pass extra arguments like --no-configuration-cache and other free-form arguments
  • sometimes we want to run the same task for several projects, e.g. when we loop across them (ref). Ideally the proposed feature would allow it, e.g. by understanding that if project1 and project2 expose a run task, both projects should probably implement a common interface where run in both cases is the same property in terms of API

Example

Before:

val librariesToPublish = listOf(
    ":shared-internal",
    ":github-workflows-kt",
    ":action-binding-generator",
)

librariesToPublish.forEach { library ->
    run(
        name = "Publish '$library' to Sonatype",
        command = "./gradlew $library:publishToSonatype closeAndReleaseSonatypeStagingRepository --no-configuration-cache",
    )
}

After (rough idea, subject to discussion):

val librariesToPublish = listOf(
    projects.sharedInternal,
    projects.githubWorkflowsKt,
    projects.actionBindingGenerator,
)

librariesToPublish.forEach { library ->
    runGradle(
        name = "Publish '$library' to Sonatype",
        tasks = listOf(
            library.publishToSonatype,
            tasks.closeAndReleaseSonatypeStagingRepository,
        ),
        flags = listOf(noConfigurationCache),
    )
}

[1]

> Task :tasks

------------------------------------------------------------
Tasks runnable from root project 'github-workflows-kt-monorepo'
------------------------------------------------------------

Application tasks
-----------------
automation:code-generator:run - Runs this project as a JVM application
jit-binding-server:run - Runs this project as a JVM application
jit-binding-server:runShadow - Runs this project as a JVM application using the shadow jar
jit-binding-server:startShadowScripts - Creates OS specific scripts to run the project as a JVM application using the shadow jar

Build tasks
-----------
assemble - Assembles the outputs of this project.
action-binding-generator:assemble - Assembles the outputs of this project.
automation:code-generator:assemble - Assembles the outputs of this project.
github-workflows-kt:assemble - Assembles the outputs of this project.
jit-binding-server:assemble - Assembles the outputs of this project.
maven-binding-builder:assemble - Assembles the outputs of this project.
...

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the referenced .github/workflows/release.main.kts lines 45-48 and inspect the output of ./gradlew tasks --all, then compare the Gradle tooling API. The issue names no implementation files or tests; done would require an agreed design for generated project and task accessors, unsafe task references, extra flags, and shared tasks across projects.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
github-actions, kotlin
Domain
build-system, ci-cd, devops
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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