Lisa Setup Github Repo

Setup GitHub Repository Governance

Apply the fleet-standard GitHub repository configuration to this project's repo. The settings, rulesets, and deploy key that used to be clicked together by hand for every new repo are applied here as one scripted flow.

What gets applied

1. Repository settings (scripts/lisa-github-repo-settings.sh)
   • Merge commits on; squash and rebase merging off (merge-only policy)
   • Merge commit title/message from the PR (MERGE_MESSAGE / PR_TITLE)
   • Auto-merge on — per-repo opt-out via .lisa.config.json:

     { "github": { "settings": { "allow_auto_merge": false } } }
     

     (any key under github.settings overrides the baseline)
   • Delete head branches after merge (environment branches survive — the rulesets' deletion rule means GitHub refuses to delete them)
   • "Always suggest updating pull request branches" on
   • Default branch set to the lowest-tier environment branch that exists (dev → staging → main); override with github.settings.default_branch
   • GitHub wiki tab off (Lisa projects use in-repo wiki/)
   • Secret scanning + push protection enabled where the plan supports it
2. Rulesets (scripts/lisa-github-rulesets.sh) — one generated from config, the rest from Lisa's <type>/github-rulesets/ templates matched by project type:
   • base — generated from .lisa.config.json, not shipped as a template. Deletion/force-push protection from policy.protect, the branch list from policy.ruleset.include_refs, bypass actors from policy.ruleset.bypass_actors, approvals from policy.review, merge methods from policy.merge, and required checks from whatever gates the project awaits. A project that declares nothing gets exactly the ruleset the retired all/github-rulesets/base.json described, minus its two vendor checks — those are now await declarations a project can choose not to make
   • quality checks — the stack's CI checks (TypeScript emoji names or Rails names)
   • prevent delete, protect tags (v*), plus stack overlays (cdk validation, staging-only playwright)
   • Repos without .github/workflows/ get only app-based required checks — an Actions check that can never report would block every PR forever
   • A template change never reaches an already-configured repo on its own — re-running this step is the migration. Each context the run newly makes blocking is printed as + now required: <context>, and a ruleset that already satisfies its template reports nothing to do and is not sent at all, so a second run is visibly a no-op
   • Declaring a ruleset's required list makes it declarative. By default a live-only required context is preserved, never dropped — including on the generated base, which gets no exemption: removing a protection by default, on a script invoked with --yes, is not something an operator ever opted into. Name a ruleset in github.rulesets.requiredChecks and the live list stops being unioned in, so removing an entry actually stops requiring it — printed as - no longer required: <context>. Dropping an await without that opt-in leaves the live context in place; lisa-reconcile-policy.mjs then reports it as EXTRA, and --prune is where the removal is asked for. The retired addRequiredChecks is still read and could only ever add
3. Deploy key (scripts/setup-deploy-key.sh --yes) — write-access deploy key + DEPLOY_KEY secret, skipped when already configured. The base ruleset's DeployKey: always bypass is what lets CI version-bump pushes through protected branches.
4. Deployment environments (scripts/lisa-github-environments.sh) — entirely optional; only runs when .lisa.config.json declares environments:

   {
     "github": {
       "environments": {
         "production": {
           "branch": "main",
           "require_approval": true,
           "reviewers": ["some-user", "some-org/some-team"],
           "prevent_self_review": false,
           "wait_timer": 0
         },
         "staging": { "branch": "staging" }
       }
     }
   }
   

   • Environment names are friendly names (production), mapped to branches. Branch resolution order: explicit branch → deploy.branches[<name>] → the name itself.
   • require_approval: true provisions required reviewers (usernames or org/team-slug, max 6) — GitHub pauses any workflow job bound to the environment until a listed reviewer approves it in the Actions UI. Reviewers are mandatory when require_approval is true; the script refuses a gate nobody can approve.
   • Every declared environment also gets a deployment branch policy pinned to its branch, so only that branch can deploy to it.
   • Provisioning matters: GitHub silently auto-creates an environment without protection rules the first time a workflow references it, so an unprovisioned approval gate gates on nothing.
   • The stack deploy.yml templates read this same config at runtime and pass require_approval/approval_environment to release.yml, whose release_approval job is where the run pauses. Requires a public repo or a paid plan for private repos (the script skips gracefully otherwise).
5. Policy reconciliation (scripts/lisa-reconcile-policy.mjs, also npm run policy:reconcile) — compares the DECLARED gates and policy block against what GitHub actually has, and converges it when policy.on_drift is repair. It runs here rather than only from a skill file, because a declaration nothing applies is not governance.
   • The installed scripts/lisa-reconcile-policy.mjs is preferred; the shipped template is the fallback; finding neither is a hard failure, not a skip.
   • Exit 2 is UNPROVEN — gh refused, is missing, or answered something unparseable. A private repository on a plan without rulesets answers 403. Setup warns and continues: failing for a plan limitation punishes a repository that has done nothing wrong. The warning names the state, because a blind gate that says nothing is indistinguishable from a clean one.

Workflow

Step 1 — Locate the scripts

In the Lisa repo itself, use scripts/ directly. In a downstream project, use the installed package:

LISA_SCRIPTS=$(ls -d node_modules/@codyswann/lisa/scripts 2>/dev/null || echo scripts)

Step 2 — Dry-run and show the plan

bash "$LISA_SCRIPTS/lisa-github-repo-setup.sh" --dry-run .

Present what would change. If the repo already matches the baseline, say so and stop.

Step 3 — Apply

bash "$LISA_SCRIPTS/lisa-github-repo-setup.sh" .

Requires gh authenticated with admin permission on the repo. A 403 on rulesets means the plan doesn't support them (private repo on a free personal plan) — settings and deploy key still apply; the script skips rulesets gracefully.

Step 4 — Wire the approval gate into an existing deploy.yml (guided edit)

Only when .lisa.config.json has a github.environments entry with require_approval: true AND .github/workflows/deploy.yml exists but does not reference approval_environment:

[ -f .github/workflows/deploy.yml ] \
  && jq -e '[.github.environments // {} | .[] | select(.require_approval == true)] | length > 0' .lisa.config.json > /dev/null 2>&1 \
  && ! grep -q 'approval_environment' .github/workflows/deploy.yml \
  && echo "deploy.yml needs approval wiring"

A grep hit is only a first pass — before skipping the edit, read the release job's with: block and confirm it actually passes both require_approval and approval_environment from the determine_environment outputs (a commented-out or unrelated occurrence doesn't count as wired).

deploy.yml is create-only — the project owns it, so Lisa never patches it automatically. Show the user the two changes from the current stack template (<stack>/create-only/.github/workflows/deploy.yml in the Lisa repo) and offer to apply them via Edit:

1. In determine_environment, add a checkout step plus the 🚦 Resolve approval gate from .lisa.config.json step, and expose the approval_environment / require_approval outputs.
2. In the release job's with: block, replace require_approval: false with:

   require_approval: ${{ needs.determine_environment.outputs.require_approval == 'true' }}
   approval_environment: ${{ needs.determine_environment.outputs.approval_environment }}
   

Skip this step (and say why) if the project's deploy.yml doesn't call Lisa's release.yml (rails uses release-rails.yml and harper-fabric has no release call — approval gating for those stacks is not wired yet).

Step 5 — Verify

gh api "repos/$(gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q .nameWithOwner)" \
  --jq '{allow_squash_merge, allow_auto_merge, delete_branch_on_merge, allow_update_branch}'
gh api "repos/$(gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q .nameWithOwner)/rulesets" --jq '[.[].name]'

When environments were configured, also confirm each one carries its protection rules and branch policy:

gh api "repos/$(gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q .nameWithOwner)/environments" \
  --jq '.environments[] | {name, protection_rules, deployment_branch_policy}'

For every environment declared in github.environments, treat a missing deployment_branch_policy — or, when require_approval is true, an empty protection_rules — as a failure: the environment exists but is unprotected, so an approval gate bound to it would block nothing.

Report the applied settings, ruleset names, and environments. If any step failed, surface the error — do not mark the setup complete.