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name: debug-renovate description: Use renovate-dryrun to test Renovate configuration locally. Use this skill when debugging or validating renovate.json5 changes.

Debug Renovate Configuration

Test Renovate configuration changes locally with the renovate-dryrun command. This wrapper script runs Renovate in dry-run mode against the current repository and displays a formatted summary of proposed updates.

Usage

Copy# Basic usage
renovate-dryrun --token $GH_TOKEN > .z/renovate-dryrun.log

# Test specific branch (defaults to current branch)
renovate-dryrun --token $GH_TOKEN --branch feature/update-deps > .z/renovate-dryrun.log

# Debug mode with raw Renovate output
renovate-dryrun --token $GH_TOKEN --raw > .z/renovate-debug.log

The output displays proposed updates in this format:

Copy[renovate/aws-5.x] chore(deps): update terraform aws to v5.68.0 (automerge: true)
  depName: aws
  version: 5.49.0 -> 5.68.0
  datasource: terraform-provider
  packageFile: terraform/tfaction/main.tf

Important Notes

• You MUST validate renovate.json5 configuration file in the current directory. To validate:

  Copy# Validate renovate.json5 in current directory
  npx --package renovate -c 'renovate-config-validator renovate.json5'
  

• You SHOULD save output to .z/ since the command takes time and produces extensive output:
• You MUST specify --token $GH_TOKEN. Use the $GH_TOKEN environment variable, not $GITHUB_TOKEN.