How to automate upgrading dependencies

Renovate can auto-merge pull requests, and the pros and cons for that is well described on their official doc site.

This is how it can be enabled in a GitHub repository:

1. In renovate.json, add a package rule for matching documentation Docker images. For example, if all Docker images follow the naming practice of having a prefix -docs, this package rule would match all those packages:

   "packageRules": [
       {
       "matchPackagePatterns": ["-docs"],
       "automerge": true
       }
   ]
   

2. Install the renovate-approve GitHub app and give it permissions for the repository running Renovate - the app is needed for doing the actual PR approvals

3. Modify the settings of the repo to Allow auto-merge

The result is that Renovate would automatically merge pull requests if workflows have succeeded.