GitHub Actions to enforce proper branch names & PR merging

In our project we want:

all git branches made against our dev branch to match this regex
```
^(bug|feature|code-cleanup)\/JIRA-\d+-.+$
```
examples: bug/JIRA-123-fix-login-issue or code-cleanup/JIRA-4567-enable-code-linting
all branches made against our qa branch to match this regex
```
^kickback\/JIRA-\d+-.+$
```
example: kickback/JIRA-123-fix-login-issue-again
enforce that if a branch name begins with kickback/ then a PR can only be made against the qa branch.

I have found some GitHub Actions like nicklegan/github-repo-branch-naming-policy-action and deepakputhraya/action-branch-name which allows a global branch name regex pattern enforcement, but it doesn't seem like there is a way to specify different rule for different branch bases. If there was this would take care of the first two bullet point above, but not the 3rd one.

How can I enforce these checks for validating branch names are correct and PRs are made against the correct base branch?

Solution

I created repo here which demonstrates one of many ways to do it. HERE

Copy code to your workflow and customize it for your needs
Go to your repo Settings -> rules -> ruleset
Create new rulset -> new branch rulesets
Set target branchas to all.
Set Require status checks to pass -> name it whatever -> chose github actions
Save and enjoy.

But essentially it's this code:

name: Check Pull Request
on: pull_request

jobs:
  check_pr:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Check if PR target branch is ok
        run: |
          branch_name=${GITHUB_HEAD_REF}
          echo "pr branch name: $branch_name"
          
          target_branch=${GITHUB_BASE_REF}
          echo "target branch: $target_branch"
          dev_regex="^(bug|feature|code-cleanup)/JIRA-[0-9]+.*$"
          qa_regex="^kickback/JIRA-[0-9]+.*$"
          
          if [[ "$branch_name" =~ $dev_regex ]]; then
            echo "Branch name matches the first regex pattern."
            if [[ "$target_branch" != "dev" ]]; then
              echo "but doesn't match target branch"
              exit 1
            fi
          elif [[ "$branch_name" =~ $qa_regex ]]; then
            echo "Branch name matches the second regex pattern."
            if [[ "$target_branch" != "qa" ]]; then
              echo "but doesn't match target branch"
              exit 1
            fi
          else
            echo "Branch name does not match any regex. Exiting..."
            exit 1
          fi
        shell: bash

It did took me a while, so I could make some mistakes - if so, please share I'll fix them :)