Unable to Prevent Auto-Generated Azure SWA Workflow in publish Branch by retypeapp/action-github-pages

[JoelMTaylor]

Description:

I'm using Retype to automate building and deploying my site via GitHub Actions. Specifically, I am using the retypeapp/action-github-pages@latest step in my retype-build.yml file. However, I'm encountering an issue where the azure-SWA-HASH.yml workflow is automatically being generated and committed to the publish branch.

Disclaimer

I am an amateur in this topic, and all comments should be taken with caution. I have done my best to get informed (through the Retype Docs and ChatGPT), but there may still be mistakes. I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies.

Issues Faced:

1. Auto-Created Azure SWA Workflow:

   • The Retype build action (retypeapp/action-github-pages@latest) always deploys a workflow named azure-SWA-HASH.yml to the .github/workflows/ directory of the publish branch.
   • The workflow was automatically created by Azure SWA and was at one time added to the repo.

2. Unable to Modify or Replace Workflow:

   • I have attempted to modify the contents of the azure-SWA-HASH.yml file, but it either does not get updated or it gets overwritten with the original version on subsequent builds.
   • I also tried adding other workflows manually to the publish branch, but they do not persist—I'm always left with only the automatically generated azure-SWA-HASH.yml file after the build completes.

3. GitIgnore Does Not Prevent Deployment:

   • I added .github/workflows/azure-publish.yml and .github/workflows/azure-SWA-HASH.yml to my .gitignore file in the main branch, but these files still get created in the publish branch by the Retype GitHub Pages Action.

Build Logs Snippet:

In the build logs of the for the step that has retypeapp/action-build@latest, I noticed the following:

Deploying resources:          ".github/workflows"
Deploying file:                    ".github/workflows/azure-SWA-HASH.yml"
Resources deployed:          ".github/workflows"

This suggests that Retype is explicitly deploying this workflow, despite my attempts to change/ignore it.

My Question:

• Is it possible that the Retype action is automatically creating or updating the azure-SWA-HASH.yml workflow in the publish branch? If so, how can I prevent or change this?
• Alternatively, is there a way to control or configure the generated workflow so that it doesn't overwrite my changes or automatically get deployed?

Any guidance on how to stop this automatic workflow generation or to have better control over the deployment configuration would be greatly appreciated.

---

Context and Code

I have added this section to provide some code snippets that might be relevant.

retype-build.yml

Note: the Retype action pushes to a custom branch publish not the default retype. This seems to work perfectly (specifically the retype build action) and successfully pushes the website to the publish branch.

name: Build and Push Website to Publish Branch

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:
    branches:
      - main  # Trigger on changes to the main branch

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build and Deploy to Publish Branch
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    permissions:
      contents: write  # Required to push changes to the `publish` branch

    steps:
      # Step 1: Check out the main branch
      - name: Checkout Main Branch
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: main  # Explicitly check out the main branch

      # Step 2: Set up .NET for Retype
      - name: Setup .NET
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
        with:
          dotnet-version: 7.0.x

      # Step 3: Build the website using Retype
      - name: Build Website
        uses: retypeapp/action-build@latest
        with:
          license: ${{ secrets.RETYPE_SECRET }}

      # Step 4: Deploy built website to the `publish` branch
      - name: Deploy to Publish Branch
        uses: retypeapp/action-github-pages@latest
        with:
          branch: publish  # Specify `publish` as the target branch
          update-branch: true

azure-build.yml

This is the action that is supposed to publish the Azure SWA after Retype builds the site and pushes it to the publish branch. This file is located in the main branch. However, it is not being pushed to the publish branch. Instead, the azure-SWA-HASH.yml is being pushed.

name: Deploy to Azure Static Web Apps

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - publish  # Trigger on changes to the publish branch
  workflow_dispatch: # Allow manual runs

jobs:
  deploy:
    name: Deploy to Azure Static Web Apps
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      # Step 1: Check out the publish branch
      - name: Checkout Publish Branch
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      # Step 2: Deploy to Azure
      - name: Deploy to Azure Static Web Apps
        uses: Azure/static-web-apps-deploy@v1
        with:
          azure_static_web_apps_api_token: ${{ secrets.AZURE_SWA_SECRET }}
          repo_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          action: "upload"
          app_location: "/" # Root directory contains the built content
          api_location: "" # No API
          output_location: "" # No additional build step

azure-SWA-HASH.yml

This file was automatically generated by Azure when the SWA was being setup (in Azure). This is not used, but was kept just in case.

name: Deploy to Azure Static Web Apps

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - publish  # Trigger on changes to the publish branch
  workflow_dispatch: # Allow manual runs

jobs:
  deploy:
    name: Deploy to Azure Static Web Apps
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      # Step 1: Check out the publish branch
      - name: Checkout Publish Branch
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      # Step 2: Deploy to Azure
      - name: Deploy to Azure Static Web Apps
        uses: Azure/static-web-apps-deploy@v1
        with:
          azure_static_web_apps_api_token: ${{ secrets.AZURE_SWA_SECRET }}
          repo_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          action: "upload"
          app_location: "/" # Root directory contains the built content
          api_location: "" # No API
          output_location: "" # No additional build step

.gitignore

Initially, the asure-publish.yml file was not in the ignore (nor azure-SWA-HASH.yml). Both were added for testing purposes. Setting or changing this did nothing.

/.github/workflows/azure-publish.yml
/.github/workflows/azure-SWA-HASH.yml

[JoelMTaylor]

I don't know if this qualifies for an issue, so I will leave it here.

@geoffreymcgill do you have any initial thoughts on why the action passes through the Retype build, etc.?

[geoffreymcgill]

Is your repo publicly accessibly on GitHub. That would give me a chance to look through the configuration files to see what's happening and try to reproduce?

Is it possible that the Retype action is automatically creating or updating the azure-SWA-HASH.yml workflow in the publish branch? If so, how can I prevent or change this?

This does seem strange to me:

Deploying resources:          ".github/workflows"
Deploying file:                    ".github/workflows/azure-SWA-HASH.yml"
Resources deployed:          ".github/workflows"

By default, the publish branch should only contain the files that are generated by the Retype build process. If you manually run the retype build command locally, the exact same files will also be generated and copied to the publish branch when your retype-build.yml action is triggered. None of the Github workflow .yml files would be copied to publish branch... by default.

Now it is certainly possible to configure Retype or another process to also explicitly copy azure-SWA-HASH.yml into the publish branch, although if Retype was doing this, you should see that configured in your projects main retype.yml file.

I will run some tests and try to reproduce your scenario with the multiple workflow .yml files.

Hope this helps.

[JoelMTaylor]

You have access to our repo: https://github.com/ccmltd/docs-corportatesystems.

I will test what you have mentioned.

[JoelMTaylor]

I have had a look in the ./retype.yml file as suggested. The problem seems to be:

include:
  - "*.json"
  - ".github/workflows/azure-SWA-*.yml"

I will make some changes to test the result and update this reply.

[geoffreymcgill]

Yes, with the include configuration you are explicitly instructing Retype to copy all files that match the ".github/workflows/azure-SWA-*.yml" pattern to the output folder. That configuration is the reason the file keeps being re-added on every build. Remove (or comment out) that one file pattern and Retype will not copy the file again.

[JoelMTaylor]

I have changed it and now the correct file is being passed through to the publish (retype) branch.

I need to investigate why the Azure SWA action isn't occurring when the main branch pushes to the publish branch - but that is a 'me' problem.

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction.