github2gerrit

Mirror GitHub pull requests into Gerrit changes.

github2gerrit serves projects where Gerrit is the source of truth and GitHub hosts a read-only mirror. Automation tools such as Dependabot raise pull requests against the GitHub mirror; this action translates those pull requests into Gerrit changes, keeping the two systems in sync across the entire lifecycle: creation, updates/rebases, metadata edits, closure, and cleanup.

The implementation is a Python CLI tool (github2gerrit, published to PyPI) wrapped in a GitHub composite action, plus a reusable workflow for straightforward deployment in consuming repositories.

Goals and purpose

• Let Gerrit-based projects receive dependency updates (Dependabot) and other automated changes raised against a GitHub mirror.
• Keep GitHub PRs and Gerrit changes synchronized in both directions: PR updates become new patchsets, merged/abandoned changes close their source PRs, and closed PRs abandon their Gerrit changes.
• Avoid duplicate Gerrit changes through Change-Id reuse and reconciliation when automation rebases or re-raises PRs.

How it works

flowchart TD
A[PR event on GitHub mirror] --> B[github2gerrit action]
B --> C{Operation mode}
C -->|opened| D[Create Gerrit change]
C -->|synchronize| E[New patchset on existing change]
C -->|edited| F[Sync PR metadata to Gerrit]
C -->|closed| G[Abandon Gerrit change]
D --> H[Comment Gerrit URL on PR]
E --> H

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In more detail, a run:

1. Reads PR context and inputs; detects the operation mode (CREATE, UPDATE, EDIT, CLOSE) from the triggering event.
2. Reads .gitreview for the Gerrit host, port, and project (or uses explicit GERRIT_SERVER / GERRIT_PROJECT inputs).
3. Sets up git and SSH for Gerrit, derives missing credentials from the organization name where possible.
4. Prepares commits: squashed single commit (default), one-by-one cherry-picks (SUBMIT_SINGLE_COMMITS), or PR title/body as the commit message (USE_PR_AS_COMMIT). Reuses existing Change-Id trailers on updates so pushes create new patchsets, not new changes.
5. Pushes to refs/for/<branch> with a Gerrit topic derived from the project and PR number (prefix configurable via G2G_TOPIC_PREFIX, default GH), queries Gerrit for the resulting URL/number/SHA, and cross-links: a back-reference comment in Gerrit and the change URL(s) on the PR.

See docs/features.md for detailed feature documentation: PR update handling, comment commands, duplicate detection, reconciliation, cleanup, commit normalization, configuration precedence, and credential derivation.

Quick start

Prerequisites

• A Gerrit account for the automation user, with SSH access and permission to push to refs/for/* on the target project.
• The SSH private key stored as a repository or organization secret: GERRIT_SSH_PRIVKEY_G2G.
• A .gitreview file in the repository (recommended). Without it, pass GERRIT_SERVER, GERRIT_SERVER_PORT, and GERRIT_PROJECT explicitly.
• Optional repository/organization variables: GERRIT_KNOWN_HOSTS, GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G, GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G_EMAIL. The tool derives missing values from the organization name and populates known hosts automatically on first run.

Option A: reusable workflow (recommended)

Add a thin caller workflow to the consuming repository:

# .github/workflows/github2gerrit.yamlname: github2gerriton:
pull_request_target:
types: [opened, reopened, edited, synchronize, closed]# Re-runs when a maintainer approves a fork pull requestpull_request_review:
types: [submitted, dismissed]push:
branches: [main, master]workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
PR_NUMBER:
description: "PR number to process; 0 processes all open"required: falsedefault: "0"type: stringpermissions: {}jobs:
github2gerrit:
permissions:
contents: readpull-requests: writeissues: write# yamllint disable-line rule:line-lengthuses: lfreleng-actions/github2gerrit-action/.github/workflows/github2gerrit.yaml@mainwith:
GERRIT_KNOWN_HOSTS: ${{ vars.GERRIT_KNOWN_HOSTS }}GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G: ${{ vars.GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G }}GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G_EMAIL: ${{ vars.GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G_EMAIL }}PR_NUMBER: ${{ inputs.PR_NUMBER || '0' }}secrets:
GERRIT_SSH_PRIVKEY_G2G: ${{ secrets.GERRIT_SSH_PRIVKEY_G2G }}

The push trigger enables closing PRs whose Gerrit changes have merged; workflow_dispatch enables manual processing. Repositories using the Gerrit-side dispatch integration should also declare GERRIT_CHANGE_URL, GERRIT_EVENT_TYPE, and GERRIT_BRANCH as dispatch inputs and forward them the same way.

Pin @main to a release tag or commit SHA for production use.

Option B: composite action

Call the action directly for full control over all inputs:

name: github2gerriton:
pull_request_target:
types: [opened, reopened, edited, synchronize, closed]# Re-runs when a maintainer approves a fork pull requestpull_request_review:
types: [submitted, dismissed]workflow_dispatch:
permissions:
contents: readpull-requests: writeissues: writejobs:
submit-to-gerrit:
runs-on: ubuntu-lateststeps:
- name: Submit PR to Gerritid: g2guses: lfreleng-actions/github2gerrit-action@mainwith:
GERRIT_KNOWN_HOSTS: ${{ vars.GERRIT_KNOWN_HOSTS }}GERRIT_SSH_PRIVKEY_G2G: ${{ secrets.GERRIT_SSH_PRIVKEY_G2G }}GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G: ${{ vars.GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G }}GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G_EMAIL: ${{ vars.GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G_EMAIL }}

Option C: command-line tool

The underlying Python CLI supports local and ad-hoc use (for example, processing a single PR URL or bulk-processing a repository). This is a secondary use case; see docs/cli.md.

uvx github2gerrit https://github.com/onap/portal-ng-bff/pull/33

Action inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
GERRIT_SSH_PRIVKEY_G2G	Yes	—	SSH private key content used to authenticate to Gerrit
GERRIT_KNOWN_HOSTS	No	—	Known hosts entries for Gerrit SSH (auto-populated when empty)
GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G	No	""	Gerrit SSH username; derived when not supplied
GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G_EMAIL	No	""	Gerrit user email address; derived when not supplied
GERRIT_SERVER	No	""	Gerrit server hostname; .gitreview preferred
GERRIT_SERVER_PORT	No	"29418"	Gerrit SSH port
GERRIT_PROJECT	No	""	Gerrit project name; .gitreview preferred
GERRIT_HTTP_BASE_PATH	No	""	HTTP base path for Gerrit REST API (e.g. /r)
GERRIT_HTTP_USER	No	""	Gerrit HTTP user for REST queries
GERRIT_HTTP_PASSWORD	No	""	Gerrit HTTP password/token for REST queries
ORGANIZATION	No	repository owner	GitHub organization/owner used for credential derivation
PR_NUMBER	No	"0"	PR number to process; 0 processes all open PRs (dispatch)
FETCH_DEPTH	No	"10"	Git history depth: PR fetch, push checkout, reconciliation
SUBMIT_SINGLE_COMMITS	No	"false"	Submit one commit at a time to Gerrit
USE_PR_AS_COMMIT	No	"false"	Use PR title and body as the commit message
PRESERVE_GITHUB_PRS	No	"true"	Do not close GitHub PRs after pushing to Gerrit
CLOSE_MERGED_PRS	No	"true"	Close GitHub PRs when their Gerrit change merges
CLEANUP_ABANDONED	No	"true"	Close GitHub PRs for abandoned Gerrit changes
CLEANUP_GERRIT	No	"true"	Abandon Gerrit changes when their GitHub PR closes
CREATE_MISSING	No	"false"	Create a new change when UPDATE finds no existing change
ALLOW_DUPLICATES	No	"true"	Allow submitting duplicate changes without error
DUPLICATE_TYPES	No	"open"	Comma-separated Gerrit states checked for duplicates
AUTOMATION_ONLY	No	"true"	Accept PRs from known automation tools only
NORMALISE_COMMIT	No	"false"	Normalize commit messages to conventional commit format
COMMIT_RULES_JSON	No	""	JSON commit message validation rules (see docs)
ISSUE_ID	No	""	Issue ID trailer to include (e.g. ABC-123)
ISSUE_ID_LOOKUP_JSON	No	"[]"	JSON array mapping GitHub actors to Issue IDs
REVIEWERS_EMAIL	No	""	Comma-separated reviewer emails
DRY_RUN	No	"false"	Check settings and PR metadata; do not write to Gerrit
FORCE	No	"false"	Force PR closure regardless of Gerrit change status
G2G_USE_SSH_AGENT	No	"true"	Use SSH agent instead of file-based keys
G2G_NO_GERRIT	No	"false"	Run the pipeline without contacting Gerrit (forces dry-run)
G2G_DISABLED	No	""	Kill switch: skip all processing when true
ALLOW_GHE_URLS	No	"false"	Allow GitHub Enterprise URLs in direct URL mode
VERBOSE	No	"false"	Verbose output (sets log level to DEBUG)
CI_TESTING	No	"false"	CI testing mode; overrides .gitreview
USE_LOCAL_ACTION	No	"false"	Use local repository code instead of the PyPI package

Every input maps to an environment variable of the same name (VERBOSE maps to G2G_VERBOSE), and most have matching CLI flags. Reconciliation tuning (SIMILARITY_SUBJECT, SIMILARITY_UPDATE_FACTOR, SIMILARITY_FILES, REUSE_STRATEGY) is available through environment variables and CLI flags only; set these via env: on the action step when needed. See docs/cli.md for the full option reference and docs/features.md for feature-specific settings.

Action outputs

Output	Description
gerrit_change_request_url	Gerrit change URL(s), newline-separated
gerrit_change_request_num	Gerrit change number(s), newline-separated
gerrit_commit_sha	Patch set commit SHA(s), newline-separated

Access outputs in later steps with ${{ steps.<step-id>.outputs.<output-name> }}. The reusable workflow re-exports all three outputs to callers.

Reusable workflow interface

The reusable workflow (.github/workflows/github2gerrit.yaml) wraps the composite action for workflow_call, supporting caller triggers pull_request_target, push (close PRs for merged Gerrit changes), and workflow_dispatch (manual runs and Gerrit-event dispatches). Input defaults match the composite action defaults.

Input	Type	Default	Description
GERRIT_KNOWN_HOSTS	string	""	Known hosts entries for Gerrit SSH
GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G	string	""	Gerrit SSH username
GERRIT_SSH_USER_G2G_EMAIL	string	""	Gerrit user email address
GERRIT_SERVER	string	""	Gerrit server hostname
GERRIT_SERVER_PORT	string	"29418"	Gerrit SSH port
GERRIT_PROJECT	string	""	Gerrit project name
GERRIT_HTTP_BASE_PATH	string	""	HTTP base path for Gerrit REST
GERRIT_HTTP_USER	string	""	Gerrit HTTP user for REST queries
GERRIT_HTTP_PASSWORD	string	""	Gerrit HTTP password/token for REST queries
G2G_USE_SSH_AGENT	boolean	true	Use SSH agent instead of file-based keys
ORGANIZATION	string	repository owner	GitHub organization/owner
PR_NUMBER	string	"0"	PR to process on dispatch; 0 processes all
FETCH_DEPTH	string	"10"	Git depth: PR, push, reconciliation
SUBMIT_SINGLE_COMMITS	boolean	false	Submit one commit at a time
USE_PR_AS_COMMIT	boolean	false	Use PR title and body as the commit message
PRESERVE_GITHUB_PRS	boolean	true	Do not close GitHub PRs after pushing
CLOSE_MERGED_PRS	boolean	true	Close GitHub PRs when their Gerrit change merges
CLEANUP_ABANDONED	boolean	true	Close GitHub PRs for abandoned Gerrit changes
CLEANUP_GERRIT	boolean	true	Abandon Gerrit changes when their PR closes
CREATE_MISSING	boolean	false	Create a change when UPDATE finds none
AUTOMATION_ONLY	boolean	true	Accept PRs from known automation tools only
NORMALISE_COMMIT	boolean	false	Normalize commit messages
COMMIT_RULES_JSON	string	""	JSON commit message validation rules
ALLOW_DUPLICATES	boolean	true	Allow submitting duplicate changes
DUPLICATE_TYPES	string	"open"	Gerrit states checked for duplicates
FORCE	boolean	false	Force PR closure regardless of change status
VERBOSE	boolean	false	Verbose output (DEBUG log level)
ALLOW_GHE_URLS	boolean	false	Allow GitHub Enterprise URLs
DRY_RUN	boolean	false	Check only; do not write to Gerrit
ISSUE_ID	string	""	Issue ID trailer to include
ISSUE_ID_LOOKUP_JSON	string	"[]"	JSON array mapping GitHub actors to Issue IDs
REVIEWERS_EMAIL	string	""	Comma-separated reviewer emails
GERRIT_CHANGE_URL	string	""	Gerrit change URL from a Gerrit event dispatch¹
GERRIT_EVENT_TYPE	string	""	Gerrit event type (e.g. change-merged)¹
GERRIT_BRANCH	string	""	Target branch override (Gerrit event dispatch)¹

Secret	Required	Description
GERRIT_SSH_PRIVKEY_G2G	Yes	SSH private key for the Gerrit automation user

Output	Description
gerrit_change_request_url	Gerrit change URL(s), newline-separated
gerrit_change_request_num	Gerrit change number(s), newline-separated
gerrit_commit_sha	Patch set commit SHA(s), newline-separated

¹ Gerrit → GitHub reverse flow: when Gerrit-side automation dispatches the caller workflow to report a merged or abandoned change, forward these dispatch inputs and the tool closes the source GitHub PR instead of processing pull requests.

Repository variables provide operational kill switches: set G2G_NO_GERRIT to true to skip Gerrit interaction, or G2G_DISABLED to true to exit immediately without processing. Test-only settings (CI_TESTING, USE_LOCAL_ACTION) remain composite-action-only by design.

Documentation

Document	Contents
docs/features.md	Feature reference: PR updates, comment commands, cleanup, duplicate detection, reconciliation, normalization, configuration
docs/cli.md	CLI installation, options, environment variables, exit codes, debugging
docs/COMMIT_RULES.md	Commit message validation rules and COMMIT_RULES_JSON format
docs/development.md	Contributor guide: local setup, testing, composite action test suite

Security notes

• Do not hardcode secrets or keys. Provide the private key through workflow secrets and known hosts through repository or organization variables.
• SSH handling is non-invasive: the tool creates temporary SSH files in the workspace without modifying user SSH configuration or keys, and cleans them up after execution.
• SSH connections use IdentitiesOnly=yes to avoid unintended key usage (e.g. signing keys requiring biometric authentication).

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.