RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_CONFIG is not respected

[hiaik]

How are you running Renovate?

self-hosted

If you're self-hosting Renovate, tell us which platform (GitHub, GitLab, etc) and which version of Renovate.

GitLab (saas)

Please tell us more about your question or problem

I am running renovate of version 38.132.3 (image ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate:38.132.3).

I pass RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_CONFIG as env variable and it is not respected for onboarding MR. Incorrect value for config is still used.

Logs (if relevant)

In the env variable I have

`RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_CONFIG: '{"$$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json", "extends": ["gitlab><my project path>"] }'`

I use gitlab> as my project is on gitlab saas.

and in debug log I can see it is found:

DEBUG: CLI config
       "config": {}
DEBUG: Env config
       "config": {
         "hostRules": [
           {"hostType": "github", "matchHost": "github.com", "token": "***********"}
         ],
         "repositoryCache": "enabled",
...
         "onboardingConfig": {
           "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
           "extends": ["gitlab><my project path>"]
         },
         "optimizeForDisabled": true,
...
       }
DEBUG: Combined config
       "config": {
...
         "onboardingConfig": {
           "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
           "extends": ["gitlab><my project path>"]
         },
...

gitlab> matches here -> all good.

Later in log I can see:

...
DEBUG: Onboarding PR does not exist (repository=...)
DEBUG: Checking for a default Renovate preset which can be used. (repository=...)
DEBUG: Checking for preset: local><my project path> (repository=...)
DEBUG: Found preset local><my project path> - using it in onboarding config (repository=...)
DEBUG: onboarding config (repository=...)
       "config": {
         "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
         "extends": ["local><my project path>"]
       }

and it results in onborading MR with local> and not gitlab> as I expect.

Please clarify on what is wrong?

[RahulGautamSingh]

This is expected behavior if you have saved the preset in a repo named renovate-config.
What happens is that first we look for any default presets hosted by user or their org on the same platform as the onboarding repo
eg. if you are on github then we will check if you have any repo named renovate-config present. Incase it is we automatically include this preset in you onboarding config without you needing to add it in the RENOVATE_ONBOARDING_CONFIG env variable.

local is used instead of gitlab because we only add this preset in your config it is on the same platform. ¹

Footnotes

1. https://docs.renovatebot.com/config-presets/#grouporganization-level-presets ↩

[hiaik]

thanks @RahulGautamSingh

We do have https://gitlab.com/.../renovate-config/-/blob/develop/default.json?ref_type=heads

Thanks for docs link, it is missing that important part you explained

local is used instead of gitlab because we only add this preset in your config it is on the same platform

That said, it means in our case when onboarding repo and renovate-config (default.json) are on the same gitlab platform, local> is fine.

[rarkins]

You said you're using a mend-hosted app. There is no mend app for GitLab.com. Please correct your original description if you are in fact self-hosting.

[hiaik]

You said you're using a mend-hosted app. There is nonmetal for GitLab.com. Please correct your original description if you are in fact self-hosting.

@rarkins Done, apologies for the incorrect input