📖 WIP - Proposal: Automating Operator Maintenance: Driving Better Results with Less Overhead

[camilamacedo86]

Proposal: Automated Kubebuilder Project Update Action

This proposal aims to create a GitHub Action similar to Dependabot for Kubebuilder,
automating the process of regenerating scaffolds and preserving custom code when new
versions of Kubebuilder are released. This solution ensures that projects stay
updated with best practices, bug fixes, and features, ultimately improving
maintainability and adoption by reducing the complexity of manual updates.

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• ✅ login: camilamacedo86 / name: Camila Macedo (c9fab57, 075a4ee, 8f41e07, 9ebe858, 6784ba5, d8f8d21)

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[mateusoliveira43]

I would like to help in this one 😄

I am trying to use a similar approach in one of the projects I work on https://github.com/migtools/oadp-non-admin/blob/master/docs/CONTRIBUTING.md#upgrade-kubebuilder-version

But on other project, the upgrade process does not have any guidelines, and we are very outdated on current features. This would facilitate the project being up to date with lastest kubebuilder releases

[camilamacedo86]

Hi @mateusoliveira43

Regards: #4302 (comment)

That would be great.
We need to finish the Proposal.
But if you want share a POC to prove that works and how would work
OR a PR with a code implementation is excellent.

We also need to ensure that we have a test in place to ensure this solution

[vitorfloriano]

Hi @camilamacedo86, I'm aware this is still a WIP, and I don't know if I'm jumping the gun here, but I'm very interested in the KubeBuilder project for GSoC 2025 and wondering if there will be an official announcement for the proposals, like the ones in #3283 and #3309 .

[camilamacedo86]

Hi @vitorfloriano,

That sounds great!

Yes, we have added it to GSoC here: link.

However, we need to wait and see if the project gets accepted first. You can check the timeline here: GSoC Timeline.

Once it’s officially accepted, we can start promoting it, and interested students will be able to apply.

Let me know if you have any questions! Feel free to ping in the slack

[vitorfloriano]

@camilamacedo86 Thanks for the quick response! Yes, I thought it might be a little early to ask about the proposal, but I wanted to get a head start by looking at past proposals and resources. I'm currently diving into the skilling-up links from the FAQ in #3283 and doing my research on Git merge strategies. I'll let you know if I have any questions. Fingers crossed for GSoC!

[chethanm99]

Hi everyone my name is Chethan and I'm working on a GSoC proposal to automate operator maintenance in Kubebuilder using GitHub Actions , 3-way merge and AI-driven conflict resolution.
I want to make sure that my proposal addresses real challenges that maintainers face when updating Kubebuilder - based projects. From my research i found out that manual updates are time consuming, merge conflicts in scaffolded files are hard to resolve and security patches are delayed due to slow updates .
Are there any major points which I should consider and also do you currently handle any update-related merge conflict? I'd love to have any feedback so that I can refine my proposal to be useful to the community!

Thanks in advance!

[jaydee029]

Hey @camilamacedo86 very well written and thorough proposal, went through it multiple times. I'm looking forward to contributing to this as a part of GSOC.

[Copilot]

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR proposes a design for automating updated Kubebuilder scaffolds via a GitHub Action that performs a three-way merge and creates a pull request summarizing the update.

• Introduces an automated workflow to update the scaffold when a new Kubebuilder version is released.
• Provides detailed steps including version reading, scaffold generation, merging, and pull request creation.
• Includes Git configuration recommendations to improve the merge process.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR adds a comprehensive design proposal for automating Kubebuilder project updates via a GitHub Action and local CLI tool.

• Defines a workflow to detect new Kubebuilder releases, regenerate scaffolds, perform three-way merges, and open PRs.
• Provides GitHub Actions and local CLI usage examples, open questions, risks, and non-goals.
• Details implementation steps, configuration options, and proof-of-concept links.

[Copilot]

Grammar: change "branches allows" to "branches allow" to match plural subject.

[Copilot]

Grammar: insert "to" after "us" — "allows us to use".

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR introduces a comprehensive design document for automating Kubebuilder scaffold updates via a GitHub Action and local CLI tool, streamlining project maintenance with three-way merges.

• Adds a proposal outlining problem statement, solution architecture, workflows, and implementation details.
• Provides example GitHub Actions and local CLI usage scenarios.
• Defines open questions, risks, and mitigation strategies for the update process.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

designs/update_action.md:4

• The creation date for the second author is missing; please provide a date or remove the column if intentional.

| @vitorfloriano  |               | Implementable | - |

[Copilot]

The snippet uses HTML entities for <driver>; consider using raw angle brackets (merge.<driver>.name) for clarity in code blocks.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR adds a design document proposing an automated GitHub Action for updating Kubebuilder projects with minimal manual intervention.

• Introduces a detailed proposal for automating the update process, including a three-way merge to preserve custom code.
• Provides example workflows and configuration options for handling conflicts and Git settings.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (2)

designs/update_action.md:252

• [nitpick] The branch name 'merge' is quite generic; consider using a more descriptive name such as 'update-scaffold' to improve clarity.

git checkout merge

designs/update_action.md:225

• There is an inconsistency with the version field naming: the documentation refers to 'clientVersion' while the script extracts 'cliVersion'. Please standardize the version field naming.

CURRENT_VERSION=$(grep "cliVersion" PROJECT | awk '{print $2}' | tr -d '"')

[camilamacedo86]

/test pull-kubebuilder-e2e-k8s-1-33-0