devcontainer-renovate-digest-pinning

name	devcontainer-renovate-digest-pinning
description	How to pin a devcontainer image to a digest and keep it automatically updated by Renovate — using mmalyska/renovate-config devcontainer preset and per-file automerge rule

Devcontainer Renovate Digest Pinning

When to Use

Use this skill when setting up automatic digest updates for a devcontainer image. It covers:

1. Writing the "image" field with a pinned digest
2. The Renovate preset that detects the digest
3. The automerge rule to merge digest updates without review

For the image build pipeline that publishes the image, see the ghcr-image-pipeline skill.

---

Step 1: Pin the Image to a Digest

In .devcontainer/devcontainer.json, write the "image" field as name:tag@sha256:digest:

{
  "image": "ghcr.io/owner/repo-devcontainer:main@sha256:190379025cb9f2537f50b0ac9dff75207e62c1a2d986b251eea4f1b8d0966b5a"
}

Why pin to a digest? Tags are mutable — main can point to a different image layer after a rebuild. Pinning to a digest guarantees reproducibility and lets Renovate detect exactly when a new image was published.

---

Step 2: Get the Current Digest

When first setting up or after a manual publish:

# Pull the image and show its digest
docker pull ghcr.io/owner/repo-devcontainer:main
docker inspect ghcr.io/owner/repo-devcontainer:main --format '{{index .RepoDigests 0}}'
# Output: ghcr.io/owner/repo-devcontainer@sha256:abc123...

# Or use crane (no pull required)
crane digest ghcr.io/owner/repo-devcontainer:main

Use the sha256:... portion as the digest in the image reference.

---

Step 3: Enable the Renovate Preset

Ensure your renovate.json5 (or renovate.json) includes the base preset or the devcontainer-specific preset:

{
  "extends": [
    "github>mmalyska/renovate-config"   // includes devcontainer-regex-manager
  ]
}

The devcontainer-regex-manager.json5 preset matches:

// Pattern it matches in devcontainer.json:
"image": "name:tag@sha256:digest"
// or (without digest):
"image": "name:tag"

---

Step 4: Add the Per-File Automerge Rule

Add a packageRule scoped to .devcontainer/devcontainer.json so digest updates merge automatically without requiring review:

// .github/renovate/autoMerge.json5 (or inline in renovate.json5)
{
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "description": "Auto merge devcontainer image digest updates",
      "matchDatasources": ["docker"],
      "automerge": true,
      "automergeType": "branch",
      "matchUpdateTypes": ["digest"],
      "matchFileNames": [".devcontainer/devcontainer.json"],
      "ignoreTests": true
    }
  ]
}

ignoreTests: true is appropriate here because:

• The update is a digest change (same tag, new build)
• The devcontainer image change doesn't affect CI test results
• The purpose is purely to stay current with the latest published image

---

Step 5: Trigger Renovate After Image Build

If using the ghcr-image-pipeline workflow, add a Renovate trigger job after the build:

renovate:
  name: Trigger Renovate
  needs: build
  if: github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
  uses: OWNER/REPO/.github/workflows/scheduled-renovate.yaml@main
  secrets: inherit

This immediately triggers Renovate to detect the new digest and open an update PR, rather than waiting for the next scheduled run.

---

How It Works End-to-End

1. Push to main (or merge a PR changing .github/.devcontainer/)
   ↓
2. devcontainer-publish.yaml runs
   ↓
3. New image published to ghcr.io/owner/repo:main (new digest)
   ↓
4. Renovate triggered by post-build job
   ↓
5. Renovate detects the digest changed in .devcontainer/devcontainer.json
   ↓
6. Renovate opens/updates a PR with new digest
   ↓
7. automergeType: "branch" merges it automatically
   ↓
8. .devcontainer/devcontainer.json now pinned to the new digest ✓