How to configure Dependabot on GitHub in only 3 steps
Tags: webdev, programming, dependabot, github
Published: 2024-06-02 10:55:32

🚀 In modern software development, managing dependencies is crucial for maintaining the security and stability of your projects. GitHub offers a powerful tool called `Dependabot` that <u>automates</u> the process of updating dependencies, helping you stay up-to-date with the latest releases and security patches 🌟 

In this article, we'll walk through the steps to configure Dependabot for your GitHub repositories 🛠️

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## Step 1: Navigate to your repository page 🌐

Once you're on the repository page, click on the "Settings" tab located at the top-right corner of the page.

![GitHub settings of repository](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/1xxh0xu4wz4xgwoyr43c.png)

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## Step 2: Enable Dependabot 🔓

In the repository settings, scroll down to the "Security & analysis" section. Here, you'll find the option to enable Dependabot under the "Dependabot alerts" heading. Click on the "Enable Dependabot alerts" button to activate Dependabot for your repository.


![Security GitHub repository settings](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/2olg83k03358bhnfpapv.png)

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## Step 3: Configure Dependabot ⚙️

After enabling Dependabot, you can further configure its settings to suit your preferences. 

Click on the `Dependabot version updates` to access the Dependabot configuration page. 

Here, you can specify which types of dependencies you want Dependabot to monitor (e.g., npm, composer, Maven), frequency of checks, and version ranges for updates 🔄

For this case, I used `composer` as a package manager and set schedule interval to `daily` which means Dependabot will check daily our dependencies.

```
version: 2
updates:
  - package-ecosystem: "composer" 
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      interval: "daily"

```

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### Reviewing Dependabot Pull Requests 🕵️

Once Dependabot is configured, it will start monitoring your project's dependencies for any updates. 

When a new version is available, Dependabot will <u>automatically</u> create a pull request with the necessary changes. You'll receive a notification on GitHub, and you can review the pull request to ensure the updates are compatible with your project 👀

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### Merging Dependabot Pull Requests ✨

After reviewing the Dependabot pull request and ensuring everything looks good, you can merge it into your main branch. This will apply the dependency updates to your project, keeping it secure and up-to-date 🚢

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### Example of Dependabot Pull Requests 🚀

This is an example of Pull Requests that were opened by Dependabot. Concretely, this was for a Laravel project. As you can see, it updates versions of our dependencies ensuring to always have the latest version of our dependencies which means a more secure and stable project. 🛡️

[![image.png](https://i.postimg.cc/Jnxh0nKY/image.png)](https://postimg.cc/JDy8dRfj)

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### Conclusion 🎯

Configuring Dependabot on GitHub is a simple yet powerful way to automate dependency management for your projects. By enabling Dependabot and configuring its settings, you can ensure that your dependencies are regularly updated with the latest releases and security patches, helping you maintain a healthy and secure codebase 🌱

Follow me on [GitHub](https://github.com/perisicnikola37) 🚀