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Customizing pull requests for Dependabot security updates

Learn how to customize Dependabot pull requests for security updates to align with your project's security priorities and workflows.

Who can use this feature?

Users with write access

In this article

About customizing pull requests for security updates

You can customize how Dependabot raises pull requests for security updates, so that they best fit your project's security priorities and processes. For example:

  • Optimize Dependabot pull requests to prioritize meaningful updates by grouping multiple updates into a single pull request.
  • Applying custom labels to integrate Dependabot's pull requests into your existing workflows.

Similar to version updates, customization options for security updates are defined in the dependabot.yml file. If you have already customized the dependabot.yml for version updates, then many of the configuration options that you have defined could automatically apply to security updates, too. However, there's a couple of important points to note:

  • Dependabot security updates are always triggered by a security advisory, rather than running according to the schedule you have set in the dependabot.yml for version updates.
  • Dependabot raises pull requests for security updates against the default branch only. If your configuration sets a value for target-branch, then the customization for that package ecosystem will only apply to version updates by default.

If you haven't yet configured a dependabot.yml file for your repository and you want to customize pull requests for security updates, you must first:

  • Check in a dependabot.yml file into the .github directory of your repository. For more information, see Configuring Dependabot version updates.
  • Set all the required keys. For more information, see Required keys.
  • If you want the customization for a package ecosystem to only apply to security updates (and exclude version updates), set the open-pull-requests-limit key to 0.

You can then consider what your needs and priorities are for security updates, and apply a combination of the customization options outlined below.

Automatically adding reviewers and assignees

To ensure your project's security updates get addressed promptly by the appropriate team, use reviewers and assignees to automatically add individuals or teams as reviewers or assignees to pull requests.

For detailed guidance, see Automatically adding reviewers and assignees.

Labeling pull requests with custom labels

To prioritize specific pull requests, or integrate them into CI/CD pipelines, use labels to apply your own custom labels to each pull request.

For detailed guidance, see Labeling pull requests with custom labels.

Adding a prefix to commit messages

To integrate with automations that process commit messages or pull requests titles, use commit-message to specify the prefix that you want for commit messages and pull request titles.

For detailed guidance, see Adding a prefix to commit messages.

Associating pull requests with a milestone

To track progress towards a project goal or release, use milestone to associate Dependabot's pull requests with a milestone.

For detailed guidance, see Associating pull requests with a milestone.

Changing the separator in the pull request branch name

To ensure your branch names align with your team's existing conventions, use pull-request-branch-name.separator to specify the separator you want Dependabot to use for branch names.

For detailed guidance, see Changing the separator in the pull request branch name.

Example 1: configuration for security updates only

In this example, the dependabot.yml file:

  • Uses a private registry for updates to npm dependencies.
  • Disables version updates for dependencies, so that any customizations apply to security updates only.
  • Is customized so that Dependabot applies custom labels to the pull requests and automatically adds reviewers and assignees.
YAML
# Example configuration file that:
#  - Uses a private registry for npm updates
#  - Ignores lodash dependency
#  - Disables version-updates
#  - Applies custom labels
#  - Adds reviewers and assignees

version: 2
registries:
  # Define a private npm registry with the name `example`
  example:
    type: npm-registry
    url: https://example.com
    token: ${{secrets.NPM_TOKEN}}
updates:
  - package-ecosystem: "npm"
    directory: "/src/npm-project"
    schedule:
      interval: "daily"
    # For Lodash, ignore all updates
    ignore:
      - dependency-name: "lodash"
    # Disable version updates for npm dependencies
    open-pull-requests-limit: 0
    registries:
      # Ask Dependabot to use the private registry for npm
      - example
    # Raise all npm pull requests for security updates with custom labels
    labels:
      - "npm dependencies"
      - "triage-board"
    # Raise all npm pull requests for security updates with reviewers
    reviewers:
      - "my-org/team-name"
      - "octocat"
    # Raise all npm pull requests for security updates with assignees
    assignees:
      - "user-name"

Example 2: configuration for version updates and security updates

In this example, the dependabot.yml file:

  • Is customized so that Dependabot adds reviewers and custom labels to both version updates and security updates.
YAML
version: 2
updates:
  # Keep npm dependencies up to date
  - package-ecosystem: "npm"
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      interval: "weekly"
# Raise all npm pull requests for security and version updates with custom labels
    labels:
      - "npm dependencies"
      - "triage-board"
    # Raise all npm pull requests for security and version updates with reviewers
    reviewers:
      - "my-org/team-name"
      - "octocat"

Further reading