Use Pipelines-as-Code with GitHub Webhook #

If you are not able to create a GitHub application you can use Pipelines-as-Code with GitHub Webhook on your repository.

Using Pipelines-as-Code through GitHub webhook does not give you access to the GitHub CheckRun API, therefore the status of the tasks will be added as a Comment on the PullRequest and not through the Checks Tab.

gitops comment (ie: /retest /ok-to-test) with GitHub webhook is not supported. If you need to restart the CI you will need to generate a new commit. You can make it quick with this command line snippet (adjust branchname to the name of the branch) :

git commit --amend -a --no-edit && git push --force-with-lease origin branchname

Create GitHub Personal Access Token #

After Pipelines-as-Code installation, you will need to create a GitHub personal access token for Pipelines-as-Code GitHub API operations.

Follow this guide to create a personal token:

https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/creating-a-personal-access-token

Fine grained token #

If you want to generate a fine grained token (which is more secure), you can scope your token to the repository you want tested.

The permissions needed are :

Name	Access
Administration	Read Only
Metadata	Read Only
Content	Read Only
Commit statuses	Read and Write
Pull request	Read and Write
Webhooks	Read and Write

Classic Tokens #

Depending on the Repository access scope, the token will need different permissions. For public repositories the scope are:

public_repo scope

For private repositories the scope are:

The whole repo scope

You can click directly on this link to prefill the permissions needed https://github.com/settings/tokens/new?description=pipelines-as-code-token&scopes=repo

You will have to note the generated token somewhere, or otherwise you will have to recreate it.

For best security practice you will probably want to have a short token expiration (like the default 30 days). GitHub will send you a notification email if your token expires. Follow Update Token to replace expired token with a new one.

NOTE: If you are going to configure webhook through CLI, you must also add a scope admin:repo_hook

Create a `Repository` and configure webhook #

There are two ways to create the Repository and configure the webhook:

Create a `Repository` and configure webhook using the `tkn pac` tool #

Use the tkn pac create repo command to configure a webhook and create the Repository CR.
You need to have a personal access token created with admin:repo_hook scope. tkn pac will use this token to configure the webhook, and add it in a secret in the cluster which will be used by Pipelines-As-Code controller for accessing the Repository. After configuring the webhook, you will be able to update the token in the secret with just the scopes mentioned here.

Below is the sample format for tkn pac create repo

$ tkn pac create repo

? Enter the Git repository url (default: https://github.com/owner/repo):
? Please enter the namespace where the pipeline should run (default: repo-pipelines):
! Namespace repo-pipelines is not found
? Would you like me to create the namespace repo-pipelines? Yes
✓ Repository owner-repo has been created in repo-pipelines namespace
✓ Setting up GitHub Webhook for Repository https://github.com/owner/repo
👀 I have detected a controller url: https://pipelines-as-code-controller-openshift-pipelines.apps.awscl2.aws.ospqa.com
? Do you want me to use it? Yes
? Please enter the secret to configure the webhook for payload validation (default: sJNwdmTifHTs):  sJNwdmTifHTs
ℹ ️You now need to create a GitHub personal access token, please checkout the docs at https://is.gd/KJ1dDH for the required scopes
? Please enter the GitHub access token:  ****************************************
✓ Webhook has been created on repository owner/repo
🔑 Webhook Secret owner-repo has been created in the repo-pipelines namespace.
🔑 Repository CR owner-repo has been updated with webhook secret in the repo-pipelines namespace
ℹ Directory .tekton has been created.
✓ We have detected your repository using the programming language Go.
✓ A basic template has been created in /home/Go/src/github.com/owner/repo/.tekton/pipelinerun.yaml, feel free to customize it.
ℹ You can test your pipeline by pushing the generated template to your git repository

Create a `Repository` and configure webhook manually #

Go to your repository or organization Settings –> Webhooks and click on Add webhook button.
- Set the Payload URL to Pipelines-as-Code controller public URL. On OpenShift, you can get the public URL of the Pipelines-as-Code controller like this:
```
echo https://$(oc get route -n pipelines-as-code pipelines-as-code-controller -o jsonpath='{.spec.host}')
```
- Choose Content type as application/json
- Add a Webhook secret or generate a random one with this command (and note it, we will need it later):
```
head -c 30 /dev/random | base64
```
- Click “Let me select individual events” and select these events:
  - Commit comments
  - Issue comments
  - Pull request
  - Pushes
```
[Refer to this screenshot](/images/pac-direct-webhook-create.png) to verify you have properly configured the webhook.
```
- Click on Add webhook
You can now create a Repository CRD. It will have:
A reference to a Kubernetes Secret containing the Personal token as generated previously and another reference to a Kubernetes Secret to validate the webhook payload as set previously in your webhook configuration.

Create the Secret with the personal token and webhook secret in the target-namespace (where you are planning to run your pipeline CI):

kubectl -n target-namespace create secret generic github-webhook-config \
  --from-literal provider.token="TOKEN_AS_GENERATED_PREVIOUSLY" \
  --from-literal webhook.secret="SECRET_AS_SET_IN_WEBHOOK_CONFIGURATION"

Create Repository CRD referencing everything :

---
apiVersion: "pipelinesascode.tekton.dev/v1alpha1"
kind: Repository
metadata:
  name: my-repo
  namespace: target-namespace
spec:
  url: "https://github.com/owner/repo"
  git_provider:
    secret:
      name: "github-webhook-config"
      # Set this if you have a different key in your secret
      # key: "provider.token"
    webhook_secret:
      name: "github-webhook-config"
      # Set this if you have a different key for your secret
      # key: "webhook.secret"

GitHub webhook Notes #

Pipelines as code always assumes that the Secret is in the same namespace where the Repository has been created.

Add webhook secret #

For an existing Repository, if webhook secret has been deleted (or you want to add a new webhook to project settings) for GitHub, use tkn pac webhook add command to add a webhook to project repository settings, as well as update the webhook.secret key in the existing Secret object without updating Repository.

Below is the sample format for tkn pac webhook add

$ tkn pac webhook add -n repo-pipelines

✓ Setting up GitHub Webhook for Repository https://github.com/owner/repo
👀 I have detected a controller url: https://pipelines-as-code-controller-openshift-pipelines.apps.awscl2.aws.ospqa.com
? Do you want me to use it? Yes
? Please enter the secret to configure the webhook for payload validation (default: AeHdHTJVfAeH):  AeHdHTJVfAeH
✓ Webhook has been created on repository owner/repo
🔑 Secret owner-repo has been updated with webhook secret in the repo-pipelines namespace.

Note: If Repository exist in a namespace other than the default namespace, use tkn pac webhook add [-n namespace]. In the above example, Repository exist in the repo-pipelines namespace rather than the default namespace; therefore the webhook was added in the repo-pipelines namespace.

Update token #

There are two ways to update the provider token for the existing Repository:

Update using tkn pac cli #

Use the tkn pac webhook update-token command which will update provider token for the existing Repository CR.

Below is the sample format for tkn pac webhook update-token

$ tkn pac webhook update-token -n repo-pipelines

? Please enter your personal access token:  ****************************************
🔑 Secret owner-repo has been updated with new personal access token in the repo-pipelines namespace.

NOTE: If Repository exist in a namespace other than the default namespace, use tkn pac webhook update-token [-n namespace]. In the above example, Repository exist in the repo-pipelines namespace rather than the default namespace; therefore the webhook token updated in the repo-pipelines namespace.

Update by changing `Repository` YAML or using `kubectl patch` command #

When you have regenerated a new token, you must update it in the cluster. For example, you can replace $NEW_TOKEN and $target_namespace with their respective values:

You can find the secret name in the Repository CR.

spec:
  git_provider:
    secret:
      name: "github-webhook-config"

kubectl -n $target_namespace patch secret github-webhook-config -p "{\"data\": {\"provider.token\": \"$(echo -n $NEW_TOKEN|base64 -w0)\"}}"