Ryan Hughes
537c377fa5
Every pull request now builds the package directories it touches on ephemeral DigitalOcean droplets, and every merge to master publishes the resulting artifacts into the channels each package belongs to. The repository host's timers become the fallback rather than the pipeline. Build (.github/workflows/build-pr.yml) One job per package per architecture, always against edge. The artifact is labelled with the package directory's git tree hash. Tooling (bin/, helpers/, build/) is checked out from the base branch; the PR supplies only pkgbuilds/, so a PR can change what is built, never how. Builds run only for trusted authors: collaborators, .github/VOUCHED.td, or a PR carrying the build-approved label. A single required check, result, aggregates the matrix. Publish (.github/workflows/publish.yml, bin/publish-artifact) One job per merge. It collects the PR artifacts for the merged tree, builds anything that has none, then walks each channel/architecture slot once: pull that database, repo-add every package that belongs in it, upload packages, signatures, then the database. A published filename is immutable; identical bytes under an existing name only gain a database entry, different bytes are refused. Fast-ring packages reach edge, rc and stable in the same run from the same file. Matrix (bin/build-matrix) Package x architecture, with the channels the artifact ships to, decided by package_builds_for_mirror so CI and the host agree. arch=any packages build once and land in every architecture database. Builder (build/build.sh, bin/build, build/Dockerfile) With no local published tree, plan against and resolve from the public channel over HTTPS. PACKAGER is set to Omarchy. rclone is in the image. Runners (ci/) A controller droplet polls GitHub with curl and creates one g5 droplet per queued job from cloud-init, deleting them when off or over-age. Builders carry QEMU with credential support for aarch64. Operator SSH keys come from GitHub. tests/controller.sh and tests/publish-artifact.sh cover the decisions against fixtures and real makepkg output. Tests run on pull requests only; branch protection requires result, self-tests and build-isolation with up-to-date branches.
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CI spike: build PRs on ephemeral DigitalOcean droplets
Status: spike. Nothing here publishes. The repository host keeps building and signing on merge exactly as before.
Pieces
.github/workflows/build-pr.yml— on a PR touchingpkgbuilds/**, one job per changed package on runners labelledomarchy-builder. Uploads the unsigned.pkg.tar.zstas a workflow artifact (7 days).runner-cloud-init.yaml— Ubuntu 24.04 user-data: docker + buildx, the GitHub runner registered--ephemeral, runs one job, powers off.controller.sh— systemd timer every minute on a small always-on droplet. Polls for queued jobs with our label, creates one g5-32vcpu-64gb-50gb droplet (ric1) per job up toMAX_DROPLETS, deletes droplets that are powered off or older thanMAX_AGE_MINUTES. No inbound endpoint. Plain curl against both APIs, no doctl and no gh: a token in the environment cannot pick the wrong account the way a saved doctl context can. Needs curl and jq.tests/controller.shexercises every decision against canned responses.controller-box/— the always-on droplet: unit, timer, env template, cloud-init, andcreate.shto stand it up with one API call.
Standing up the controller box
DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN=<omarchy account> GITHUB_TOKEN=<fine-grained PAT> \
REPO=omacom/omarchy-pkgs ci/controller-box/create.sh <branch>
The GitHub PAT is fine-grained, scoped to the one repo: Actions read,
Administration read+write (registration tokens). The DO token is baked into
the box's env file, so it is the account that pays for builder droplets.
Watch it with journalctl -u omarchy-controller -f on the box.
What the spike proved (2026-09-17, fork ryanrhughes/omarchy-pkgs)
bin/buildworks from a bare clone: with no local published tree it plans against and resolves fromhttps://pkgs.omarchy.org/<mirror>/<arch>.- Droplet create → runner registered: ~70 s. omarchy-fish PR job: 2 min including the builder image build. Droplet powers off after the job.
- linux-omarchy on a c-32 droplet: 30 min wall clock for the build job (23:39 → 00:09), 254 MB artifact. Cold start ~90 s before the job began.
- A PR whose PKGBUILD fails to build turns the required check red and GitHub
refuses the merge (
mergeStateStatus=BLOCKED,gh pr mergerefuses without--admin). - Controller: one queued job + one busy droplet ⇒ creates exactly one more; reaps powered-off droplets on the next tick.
Not done (required before this touches the real repo)
- Tooling from base: check out master's
bin/ helpers/ build/and overlay only the PR'spkgbuilds/<name>; today a PR can edit the build script and it runs on the droplet. The vouch gate limits who can do that, not what they can do. - DigitalOcean cloud firewall on the
omarchy-buildertag: no inbound, no egress to private ranges or the metadata address. - A fine-grained GitHub token for the real repository (the one on the controller box is scoped to the fork), and the publish environment's secrets set there.
- Disable the host's auto-release timers for any channel CI publishes to, so two writers never touch one database.
Done since the spike README was first written
- Controller as a systemd timer on its own droplet, plain curl, self-test.
- Build once against edge; one artifact per package per architecture, published into every channel it belongs to (fast ring: all three at once). arch=any builds once for every architecture database.
- Publish is incremental and immutable: pull the channel db, refuse different bytes under an existing name, accept identical bytes, upload packages then signatures then the db.
- aarch64 under QEMU with credential-preserving binfmt.
- Vouch gate: collaborators,
.github/VOUCHED.td, or thebuild-approvedlabel; denounced authors cannot be overridden by the label. - Tests run on PRs only;
result,self-tests,build-isolationare the required checks with strict up-to-date branches.
Cleanup
doctl compute droplet list --tag-name omarchy-builder
doctl compute droplet delete -f <id>