GitHub Integration

Squawk works as a CLI tool but can also create comments on GitHub Pull Requests using the upload-to-github subcommand.

Here's a screenshot of an example comment created by squawk using the example.sql in the repo:

https://github.com/sbdchd/squawk/pull/14#issuecomment-647009446

squawk pr comment

This document provides instructions for using the Squawk GitHub Action and using Squawk as GitHub App.

If you're using GitHub Actions, we recommend using the squawk-action. If you're using Squawk outside of GitHub Actions, like on CircleCI for example, you should configure Squawk as a GitHub App.

Squawk GitHub Action#

This easiest way to integrate Squawk with GitHub is the Squawk GitHub Action.

# .github/workflows/lint-migrations.yml
name: Lint Migrations
on: pull_request
jobs:
lint_migrations:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
fetch-depth: 0
- name: Find modified migrations
run: |
modified_migrations=$(git diff --name-only origin/$GITHUB_BASE_REF...origin/$GITHUB_HEAD_REF 'migrations/*.sql')
echo "$modified_migrations"
echo "::set-output name=file_names::$modified_migrations"
id: modified-migrations
- uses: sbdchd/squawk-action@v1
with:
pattern: ${{ steps.modified-migrations.outputs.file_names }}

For more information, see the Squawk GitHub Action documentation.

Custom GitHub Action#

If you want to make your own GitHub Action, you can call Squawk using the following code:

SQUAWK_GITHUB_TOKEN=${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
SQUAWK_GITHUB_REPO_OWNER=$(echo $GITHUB_REPOSITORY | awk -F/ '{print $1}')
SQUAWK_GITHUB_REPO_NAME=$(echo $GITHUB_REPOSITORY | awk -F/ '{print $2}')
SQUAWK_GITHUB_PR_NUMBER=$(echo $GITHUB_REF | awk 'BEGIN { FS = "/" } ; { print $3 }')
squawk upload-to-github example.sql

Squawk as a GitHub App#

If you use Squawk outside of a GitHub Actions, we recommend configuring Squawk as a GitHub App.

To use Squawk as a GitHub App, Squawk needs a corresponding GitHub App so it can talk to GitHub.

  1. Create the app

  2. Head down the the bottom of the page under the "Private Keys" section and hit "Generate a private key"

    The key should automatically download after a couple seconds. Hold onto this key, we'll need it later.

    We now have an App ID and a Private Key, which is everything we neeed to install the GitHub App.

  3. Install the GitHub App & get the Install ID

    Head to https://github.com/settings/apps/$YOUR_APP_NAME/installations and click "Install"

    GitHub should have redirected you to the https://github.com/settings/installations/$INSTALL_ID page where $INSTALL_ID is some number.

    Save this ID for later.

    Now we have our SQUAWK_GITHUB_APP_ID, SQUAWK_GITHUB_PRIVATE_KEY, SQUAWK_GITHUB_INSTALL_ID.

    Squawk needs the pull request related values: SQUAWK_GITHUB_REPO_NAME, SQUAWK_GITHUB_REPO_OWNER, and SQUAWK_GITHUB_PR_NUMBER.

    Where to find these varies depending how you're running squawk, but for the next step I'm assuming you're running Squawk as a CircleCI job.

  4. Finding the Pull Request variables

    CircleCI#

    https://circleci.com/docs/2.0/env-vars/#built-in-environment-variables

    CIRCLE_PULL_REQUEST has the content we need

    example: https://github.com/recipeyak/recipeyak/pull/567

    Now we need to split this to get the repo name, repo owner, and pull requeset id.

    With a bit of help from

    # extract org, repo, pr number
    echo "https://github.com/recipeyak/recipeyak/pull/567" | awk -F/ '{print $4 " " $5 " " $7}'
    recipeyak recipeyak 567
    # store org, repo, and pr number in Squawk's variables.
    SQUAWK_GITHUB_REPO_OWNER=$(echo $CIRCLE_PULL_REQUEST | awk -F/ '{print $4}')
    SQUAWK_GITHUB_REPO_NAME=$(echo $CIRCLE_PULL_REQUEST | awk -F/ '{print $5}')
    SQUAWK_GITHUB_PR_NUMBER=$(echo $CIRCLE_PULL_REQUEST | awk -F/ '{print $7}')

  5. Conclusion

    Wrapping it all up we should have the following env vars:

    SQUAWK_GITHUB_APP_ID= # fill in with id found in step 5
    SQUAWK_GITHUB_INSTALL_ID= # fill in with id found in step 7
    # downloaded via step 6, your key will have a different name
    SQUAWK_GITHUB_PRIVATE_KEY=$(cat ./cool-bot-name.private-key.pem)
    # can also use the SQUAWK_GITHUB_PRIVATE_KEY_BASE64 instead ^
    SQUAWK_GITHUB_REPO_OWNER=$(echo $CIRCLE_PULL_REQUEST | awk -F/ '{print $4}')
    SQUAWK_GITHUB_REPO_NAME=$(echo $CIRCLE_PULL_REQUEST | awk -F/ '{print $5}')
    SQUAWK_GITHUB_PR_NUMBER=$(echo $CIRCLE_PULL_REQUEST | awk -F/ '{print $7}')

    We can pass this into the env before running squawk or we can translate them to the command line flag. Whatever's easiest for you.

    An example run will look like the following (assuming the env vars are set):

    squawk upload-to-github example.sql

    which creates a comment like the following:

    https://github.com/sbdchd/squawk/pull/14#issuecomment-647009446

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