Goal

Backport is a GitHub App, based on Probot, to backport a pull request by simply adding a label to it. Try it!

Usage

1. 🔌 Install the publicly hosted Backport GitHub App on your repository.
2. 💬 Let's say you want to backport a pull request on a branch named production. Then label it with backport production. (See how to create labels.)
3. ✨ That's it! When the pull request gets merged, it will be backported to the production branch. If the pull request cannot be backported, a comment explaining why will automatically be posted.

Demo

This pull request has two commits and targets the development branch. After labeling it with backport production and merging it, Backport automatically creates a pull request on the production branch by cherry-picking these two commits.

How it Works

Backport relies on github-backport to perform all the required Git operations directly through the GitHub REST API instead of having to clone repositories on a server and executing Git CLI commands.

github-backport is the 🗝️ to being able to run Backport as a stateless, easy to maintain, and cheap to operate, GitHub App!

Which Permissions & Webhooks Is Backport Using?

Permissions

• Repository contents [read & write]: because the backporting process requires creating commits and manipulating branches.
• Issues [read & write]: to post comments when the backport process fails.
• Pull requests [read & write]: to create new pull requests.

Webhooks

• Pull requests: to detect when pull requests are merged or labeled.