Technology is ever-changing, which means your repository’s dependencies are, too. Maintaining and updating dependencies is crucial for the security and functionality of your app. Unfortunately, it is a laborious chore that takes away from time that could be spent working on your next project. Dependabot is a tool that can take care of all of this for you.
What is Dependabot?
Dependabot is a GitHub-native tool that can monitor your repository’s dependencies, and even update them. This is done automatically at an interval of your choosing: daily, weekly, or monthly. When the tool identifies a dependency that needs to be updated, it raises a pull request. These pull requests can be for version or security updates. This tool can update versions of dependencies automatically, but security updates must have human intervation.
Integrate with Azure DevOps
It is really easy to integrate Dependabot and Azure DevOps using the free Dependabot extension in the Visual Studio Marketplace. This extension is full of features and easy to configure. All you have to do is run a YAML file. In this file, you can specify your task parameters, such as target branch and package manager. This file is also where you would specify the schedule on which you’d like it to run. Then, give it access to your repository’s Project Collection Build Service and allow it to do things like contribute to pull requests and create branches. Now you’re ready to start having Dependabot do work for you!
To learn more or to get started today, contact our team of experts here at PRAKTIK.