A series of presets for Renovate dependency updates bot
Warning
This is currently a work in progress
Angular and Angular CLI need some dependencies to operate (apart from their own internal @angular(-devkit)/* ones). Specifically Node.js, TypeScript, RxJS and zone.js
Nowadays Renovate doesn't check if upgrades satisfy peer dependencies. Hence, it may suggest some dependency upgrades that would not be compatible with Angular.
Each minor Angular version may introduce support for newer versions of those dependencies. And each Angular major version may also drop support for some older versions. Angular maintains a list of compatible dependencies for each minor version of Angular out there.
In order to configure Renovate to update dependencies within the compatible range with your current Angular version, you can use one of the following Angular presets.
You can restrict Renovate into update dependencies whose versions are compatible with a specific Angular minor version. For instance, for Angular 20.0.x, add the following to your Renovate config:
{
"extends": ["github>davidlj95/renovate-config:angular/v20.0.x"]
}Tip
Remember to change that preset every time you upgrade your Angular minor version in order to leverage newer versions support.
If you forget to update it, you may miss updates if the new Angular minor you're using supports an updated range of dependency versions. But existing dependency versions will keep working though as dropping support for a version is only done in major Angular releases. That's why this is the safest option
You can configure Renovate to update dependencies whose versions are compatible with latest version of a given Angular major version. For instance, to allow upgrading to dependency versions that are compatible with the latest version of Angular v19, add the following to your Renovate config:
{
"extends": ["github>davidlj95/renovate-config:angular/v20-lts"]
}Warning
This requires a bit of manual good practice by your side. You should first update Angular to latest minor version, then update their dependencies. Otherwise, you may update a dependency whose version is not supported for the Angular minor version you're using.
Most of the time nothing will happen as no breaking changes should be introduced in a minor version. But who knows 🎱 The good bit: no need to update the preset config until upgrading to a major version 🎉
Note
The v20-lts format is actually the same npm tag format Angular uses to label the latest package release of a major version release
Checkout the Angular presets file for all the available presets.
For more information about where version compatibility data was extracted from, check Angular versions compatibility sources
Renovate allows scheduling dependency updates. However, specifying a period when Renovate can perform dependency updates is not so easy:
- Renovate Mend App: if not self-hosting Renovate, the cloud app will run from time to time and see if it's the right moment to do dependency updates based on the configuration. So the schedule you define must take this into account.
- Schedule syntax: at the moment of writing specified via a
cronor via a string to be parsed with@breejs/laterlibrary.cronlines are not very straight-forward to parse as humans. With the latter, despite more human, can be prone to error. Library may fail to parse it, and Renovate will reject it if it fails to parse it. Also specifying it in this more human-friendly syntax will be deprecated
Therefore, sharing here some presets that may be useful. They are tested to ensure they behave as expected.
This will schedule your updates for the first weekend of every month. Saturday and Sunday. Will skip dependency updates at night so you can have sweet dreams. To use it:
{
"extends": [
"github>davidlj95/renovate-config:schedule/first-weekend-month-day"
]
}By default, Renovate detects the commit style of the repo to commit in the same way as previous commits.
If Semantic Commit messages are used, the defaults are:
Unless you use the recommended config preset config:recommended (or any other config that uses it, like js-app|lib or best-practices). In that case, the :semanticPrefixFixDepsChoreOthers preset is enabled and therefore:
- Type:
fixfor deps.chorefor others
Those may not be of your taste. So offering more options in here.
Important
If using config:recommended (or any config that uses it), add any commit config preset after it. Otherwise, the configuration will be overwritten by the recommended config preset.
I like how Dependabot creates the commit messages. Documentation is not very specific about how they are created. However, from pragmatic experience, commit messages use:
- Type:
build - Scope:
depsordev-deps
If you prefer this kind of dependabot-like commit messages, you can use them with this preset:
{
"extends": ["github>davidlj95/renovate-config:commit/dependabot"]
}The recommended Renovate config groups some dependency updates. This way there's less noise, packages from the same monorepository are updated all at once, ...
However, you may want to further reduce the noise by updating dependencies in even bigger groups. For instance, by functional purpose of those packages.
For that reason, the following presets exist:
-
Packages. With subjective groups of packages associated by programming language and functional purpose. Similar to Renovate's packages presets in
packages.ts -
Group. Use the packages grouping in the previous file to group dependency updates. Essentially assigns a name to groups of dependencies to be updated together. Similar to Renovate's group presets in
group.ts
If you like that kind of grouping, you can use those groups to group your dependency updates.
{
"extends": ["github>davidlj95/renovate-config:group/release"]
}Or if you want to use all groups defined at once:
{
"extends": ["github>davidlj95/renovate-config:group/all"]
}Important
Those groups are experimental and may change at some point in time Use a git ref when referencing those to avoid breaking changes See the personal section for more info on how to do that
A list of personal and opinionated configurations. Those are very subjective to change and may change at any time.
If you find some useful and still want to use them, specify a Git reference (like short commit id) to avoid breaking changes.
{
"extends": ["github>davidlj95/renovate-config:personal/automerge#d73d806"]
}Warning
I have never used this, so not sure that it will work either. Example configs never use a ref, just tags. However, another example about preset templates suggests it is a valid use case.