Reforge Documentation

Reforge is a Rust-native automated dependency updater for Helm charts and Dockerfiles, designed as a drop-in replacement for Renovate targeting self-managed GitLab.

Contents

Guide	Description
Getting Started	Install reforge and run your first scan
Configuration Reference	Complete reforge.toml reference
Managers	Helm, Docker, and custom Regex managers
Merge Requests	MR creation, grouping, and automerge policies
Advanced Features	Scheduling, vulnerability awareness, changelogs, replacements, lock files
Running in GitLab CI	Scheduled pipeline setup
Local Mode	Scanning a local git checkout without the GitLab API

What Reforge Does

1. Scans your GitLab projects for Chart.yaml, values.yaml, Dockerfile, and docker-compose.yml files.
2. Resolves current dependency versions against Docker Hub, OCI registries, and Helm repos.
3. Proposes updates by opening GitLab merge requests — one per dependency by default.
4. Maintains a Dependency Dashboard issue summarising all open and pending updates.

Renovate Compatibility

Reforge accepts RENOVATE_TOKEN and RENOVATE_GITLAB_URL environment variables as fallbacks, making migration from Renovate straightforward.