Date: 2025 07-July 07

Clayton 0

what is a normal strategy for managing the github workflows file?

Chat GPT 0

Great question. Managing the .github/workflows/ directory is an important part of modern DevOps for Python/CLI projects — especially with automation like CI, testing, linting, PyPI deploys, etc.

Here’s how most teams handle it, and what might make sense for you with mulch.

🧱 Normal Strategy for Managing .github/workflows

✅ 1. Track It in Git and Push It to GitHub

This is the most common approach.

• Workflows live in the repo at .github/workflows/*.yml

• Changes are tracked with Git like any other file

• Commits to workflows are reviewed just like code

• GitHub automatically picks them up on push to main, dev, etc.

🔁 Common Workflow:

• Create a new workflow .yml file

• Test on a dev branch

• Merge to main

• GitHub runs it automatically

Example files:

.github/workflows/
├── ci.yml              # tests, linters, coverage
├── release.yml         # builds, tags, deploys
└── docs.yml            # optional GH Pages build

⚠️ 2. Avoid Tracking Workflows (Uncommon)

You're currently doing something unusual: holding .github/workflows/ locally without tracking it in Git. This is fine for personal experimentation or if workflows are managed elsewhere (e.g. through a shared corporate template system or secrets policy), but:

• It breaks GitHub Actions integration unless files are actually in the repo

• Teammates (or automation) won’t see them

• Risk of inconsistency and drift

• Requires extra Git config (like --assume-unchanged or .gitignore hacks)

👎 This is generally discouraged unless you have a very specific reason to do it.

✅ Recommended Strategy for You

Since mulch is a CLI tool under active development, and you're managing releases with care:

✔️ Track .github/workflows/ in Git

1. Create a simple CI pipeline, e.g. .github/workflows/ci.yml:

name: CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [main, dev]
  pull_request:

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
      - name: Install Poetry
        run: pip install poetry
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: poetry install
      - name: Run tests
        run: poetry run pytest

2. Track it normally in Git:

git add .github/workflows/ci.yml
git commit -m "Add CI workflow"
git push

3. Optionally:

   • Add release.yml to automate publishing to PyPI on tag or push

   • Add test.yml for multi-platform builds or linting

🧪 Optional: Use a Template/Scaffold Tool

If you want to avoid copy-pasting workflow files across projects, use:

• cookiecutter for project bootstrapping

• Or include your workflows in mulch scaffolding:

  {
    ".github/workflows/ci.yml": "template content here"
  }
  

You could even build a mulch init --github-actions flag that installs your standard GitHub Actions suite automatically.

🔑 Summary

Let me know if you want help writing a ci.yml for poetry, or automating PyPI releases using GitHub Actions.