Reads remote add-on repositories, determines versions and generates changelogs to update the add-on repository fully automated.

Mainly used by the Community Home Assistant Add-ons project.

Please note, this program cannot be used with the general documented Home Assistant add-on repository approach and only works in the setup where each add-on has its own GitHub repository.

Using pip, the Python package manager:

pip install repository-updater

The Repository Updater is a pretty simple, straightforward CLI tool.

Usage: repository-updater [OPTIONS]

  Community Home Assistant Add-ons Repository Updater.

Options:
  --token <TOKEN>                 GitHub access token
  --repository <orgname/reponame>
                                  The Home Assistant Addons repository to update
  --addon <TARGET>                Update a single/specific add-on
  --force                         Force an update of the add-on repository
  --version                       Show the version and exit.
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

To get a GitHub token, please see the GitHub article: Create a token

The Repository Updater has been packaged in a Docker container as well. This allows for easy and quick use, without the need for a Python setup. This can be quite useful when using this tool in a CI server like; Travis, CircleCI or GitLab CI.

docker run -it --rm hassioaddons/repository-updater:latest

All the usage information parameters from the previous chapter apply. For example, this shows the current version of the tool:

docker run -it --rm hassioaddons/repository-updater:latest --version

The Repository Updater is also available as a GitHub Action.

---
name: Repository Update

on:
  repository_dispatch:
    types: ["update"]

jobs:
  whatever:
    name: Running updater for ${{ github.event.client_payload.addon }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: 🚀 Run Repository Updater
        uses: hassio-addons/repository-updater@v1
        with:
          addon: ${{ github.event.client_payload.addon }}
          repository: ${{ github.repository }}
          token: ${{ secrets.UPDATER_TOKEN }}

Once that workflow is in place, from an add-on repository, you can trigger the above workflow to run. This can be done by dispatching a signal to the updater workflow:

publish:
  name: 📢 Publish Add-on
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - name: 🚀 Dispatch Repository Updater update signal
      uses: peter-evans/repository-dispatch@v1
      with:
        token: ${{ secrets.DISPATCH_TOKEN }}
        repository: hassio-addons/repository
        event-type: update
        client-payload: '{"addon": "my-addon"}'

In order for the Repository Updater to do its job, we need feed it some information. It needs to know which add-ons there are currently in the add-ons repository and where each add-on is located on GitHub.

Secondly, it needs to know the stability channel of the add-ons repository. There are 3 stability channel levels available:

• stable: Stable releases
• beta: Beta / test releases
• edge: Latest builds, usually build straight from development

Create a .addons.yml file in the root of the add-ons repository, which looks like this:

channel: edge
addons:
  example:
    repository: hassio-addons/addon-example
    target: example
    image: hassioaddons/example-{arch}
  another:
    repository: hassio-addons/addon-another
    target: homebridge
    image: ghcr.io/hassio-addons/test-{arch}
  demo:
    repository: hassio-addons/addon-demo
    target: src
    image: ghcr.io/hassio-addons/demo/{arch}

The target in the add-ons repository is specified as the key for each add-on, this will be the directory name inside the add-ons repository as well. This is different from the target key, in a way that that key specified the add-on target directory inside the git repository of the add-on itself.

In the above example, demo will be the name of the add-on directory inside the add-ons repository, while src is the directory in the add-on git repo that contains the actual add-on.

repository specified the location of the add-on on GitHub. This must be in organization/repository or username/repository format.

Finally, the image key defines the Docker container images on Docker Hub or the GitHub Container Registry for this add-on. {arch} can be used as a placeholder for the architecture and is automatically replaced internally by the Repository Updater.

It is nice to have an up to date README.md file in your add-ons repository, but maintaining one, can be quite time-consuming. The Repository updater is able to update the README.md file for you each run.

This is done using a Jinja2 template. Simply create a file called .README.j2 in the root of your add-ons repository. Most information is collected from the add-on config.json and GitHub repo.

The following variables are available in your templates and are passed into it upon rendering your template.

• addons: A list of add-ons in this add-ons repository
• channel: The channel type of this add-ons repository
• description: The GitHub add-ons repository description
• homepage: The GitHub add-ons repository specified homepage URL
• issues: The URL to the issues listing of the GitHub add-ons repository
• name: The full GitHub name, e.g., hassio-addons/repository
• repo: The full URL to the GitHub add-ons repository

In the above variables, a list of addons was specified. Each item in this list contains the following variables:

• name: Name of the add-on
• description: Description of the add-on
• url: URL of the add-on
• repo: URL to the add-on GitHub repo
• archs: List of supported architectures by this add-on
• slug: The add-on slug
• target: The target directory of the add-on inside the add-ons repository
• image: The (untouched) Docker Hub container image name
• images: Dictionary of images per architecture
  • aarch64: aarch64 DockerHub image (if arch is supported)
  • amd64: amd64 DockerHub image (if arch is supported)
  • armhf: armhf DockerHub image (if arch is supported)
  • i386: i386 DockerHub image (if arch is supported)
• version: The version of the add-on
• commit: Full SHA of the commit bound to the current version
• date: Date and time of the above commit/version

It is quite a complex setup to create an example for in this little document. Nevertheless, see the Community Home Assistant Addons Repository for an example of .README.j2 and .addons.yml files.

The community project also uses GitLab for building its add-ons. Each add-on runs this tool upon build, ensuring the repositories are always up to date. Be sure to check some of the add-ons out as well to learn more about the whole setup.

Let me start by saying, there is nothing wrong with the documented way of setting up a Home Assistant add-ons repository. If you are just starting out developing add-ons, please use the official documented way. You can always decide to change your workflow.

Nevertheless, there are some advantages using the alternative method:

• Each add-on has its own Git repository, which allows for a maximum separation of concerns. Each add-on has its own issue list, releases, and all other GitHub goodness.
• Release and versioning is based on GitHub Releases / Git tagging. Which does not need updating of configuration files and is done with a single click.
• Each add-on Git repository is downloadable and instantly buildable locally.
• Every single piece of manual labor around maintaining an add-ons repository is fully automated. Building, testing, quality control, publishing, changelogs and even the add-ons repository README are updated automatically. This level of automation allows us to focus completely on developing the actual add-on.
• Availability of Beta and Edge channels for everyone who's interested or willing to test.

• Any kind of testing and linting... is missing...

This repository keeps a change log using GitHub's releases functionality.

Releases are based on Semantic Versioning, and use the format of MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. In a nutshell, the version will be incremented based on the following:

• MAJOR: Incompatible or major changes.
• MINOR: Backwards-compatible new features and enhancements.
• PATCH: Backwards-compatible bugfixes and package updates.

Got questions?

You have several options to get them answered:

• The Home Assistant Community Forum.
• The Home Assistant Discord Chat Server for general Home Assistant discussions and questions.
• Join the Reddit subreddit in /r/homeassistant

You could also open an issue here GitHub.

This is an active open-source project. We are always open to people who want to use the code or contribute to it.

We have set up a separate document containing our contribution guidelines.

Thank you for being involved! 😍

The original setup of this repository is by Franck Nijhof.

For a full list of all authors and contributors, check the contributor's page.

Want some more functionality to your Home Assistant instance?

We have created multiple add-ons for Home Assistant. For a full list, check out our GitHub Repository.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2018-2024 Franck Nijhof

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.