windmill/docs/git-sync-pull-design.md

Design: Automatic git → Windmill sync (pull-based)

Status: draft for review — exploration on branch explore-git-sync-improvements

1. Problem

Git sync is guided and automatic in one direction only. Windmill → repo is fully managed: every deploy enqueues a deploymentcallback job that runs the hub sync script and commits to the repo. The reverse direction (repo → Windmill) requires each customer to install a GitHub Action that runs wmill sync push with a long-lived Windmill token stored as a repo secret, against an instance URL that GitHub-hosted runners must be able to reach.

This breaks down because each customer runs their own instance:

Customer setup	GH runner → instance	GitHub webhook → instance	Instance → GitHub
Windmill cloud	✅	✅	✅
Self-hosted, public URL	✅	✅	✅
Self-hosted behind VPN/firewall	❌	❌	✅
GHES on the same private network	❌ (github.com runners)	✅	✅

Only instance → GitHub outbound works for everyone. The current GH Action design sits in the worst column; it also requires manual workflow-file installation, token provisioning, and ongoing maintenance per customer.

2. Current state (what already exists)

The building blocks are mostly shipped:

• Instance-side pull already works. PullWorkspaceModal.svelte runs the hub init script (hubPaths.gitInitRepo) with pull: true, dry_run preview, and use_promotion_overrides as a worker job. It clones the repo with the repo credentials and applies the diff to the workspace. It is manual-only today.
• Managed GitHub App. windmill-sync-helper (github.com / *.ghe.com) is installed by the customer; installation tokens are minted by the customer portal (windmill-customer-service, route /github_sync/token) against a JWT the instance stores per installation (workspace_settings.git_app_installations, token logic in backend/windmill-common/src/git_sync_ee.rs). The portal is stateless: it keeps no installation registry and receives no webhooks.
• Self-managed app for GHES. Customers create their own GitHub App; app id + private key live in instance settings (GhesAppSettings.svelte, get_self_managed_installation_token). The current setup checklist tells the customer to leave the app webhook inactive.
• Webhook machinery. The native GitHub trigger already creates/deletes repo webhooks via the REST API (windmill-native-triggers/src/github/external.rs) and GitHub HMAC (X-Hub-Signature-256) verification exists in windmill-trigger-http/src/http_trigger_auth.rs.
• Loop prevention convention. Windmill-authored commits carry a [WM] prefix so CI can ignore them.
• Promotion plumbing. The CLI implements --promotion <branch> resolving promotionOverrides from wmill.yaml; the pull job already accepts use_promotion_overrides. PR creation on wm_deploy/** branches is done by a documented GH Action (gh pr create), not by Windmill.

What is missing is only the trigger (push event → pull job), the routing (event ref → workspace), and PR creation moving instance-side for promotion/fork parity.

3. Goals / non-goals

Goals:

• Zero-CI automatic repo → Windmill deployment: install app, pick repo, done.
• Works for every connectivity profile, degrading gracefully from instant (webhook) to near-real-time (polling).
• Cover all documented setups: basic sync, multi-repo, promotion mode (single- and cross-instance), workspace forks, local-dev git entry.
• No new credentials handed to GitHub (no Windmill tokens as repo secrets).
• Coexist with customer CI: customers who keep the GH Action lose nothing.

Non-goals (this design):

• Replacing customer CI pipelines (tests, lint, custom gates).
• A central event-relay through the portal (delivering the managed app's webhook centrally and forwarding to instances). Considered and rejected for v1 in favor of programmatic repo webhooks; the portal stays a stateless token minter. See §16 for the comparison.
• GitLab/Bitbucket/Azure DevOps parity. The polling tier covers them credential-wise; their webhook tiers are follow-ups.

4. Design overview

flowchart LR
  subgraph GitHub
    R[Repo] -- "push event" --> W[repo webhook<br/>created via API]
  end
  subgraph Instance
    W -- "HMAC-verified POST" --> E["/api/w/:ws/github_app/webhook"]
    P[poller<br/>git ls-remote / schedule] --> REC
    E --> REC[reconcile:<br/>ref match? sha moved?<br/>debounce]
    REC --> J[pull job<br/>existing hub script, pull:true]
    J --> WS[(workspace)]
  end

One principle drives the security model: webhooks and polls are hints, the pull is authoritative. A trigger never carries content; it only causes the instance to compare the remote HEAD against last_synced_sha using its own credentials and enqueue the existing pull job if the branch moved. A forged or replayed trigger can only cause a cheap no-op reconcile.

5. Trigger tier 1 — webhooks

5.1 Managed app (github.com, GHE Cloud orgs)

A GitHub App's own webhook URL is fixed app-wide (it points at the portal), so per-instance delivery uses repository webhooks created dynamically with the installation token (POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/hooks). Requires adding the Repository webhooks: read & write permission to windmill-sync-helper (see §9).

Flow when a repo is connected (or auto-pull is enabled on an existing repo):

1. Instance generates a per-repo secret, stored in the repo's git-sync settings.
2. Instance creates the webhook via API: events ["push"] (later "pull_request", §11), URL {base_url}/api/w/{workspace}/github_app/webhook (host-aware, so managed and self-managed/GHES apps use the same per-workspace receiver), secret set.
3. GitHub immediately delivers a ping event. If the ping is not received within ~10 s, the instance deletes the hook and falls back to polling, surfacing "instance not reachable from GitHub — using polling (interval Xm)" in the UI. This doubles as an automatic reachability test; no guessing about firewalls.
4. Incoming deliveries are verified with X-Hub-Signature-256 against the stored secret (reuse the HMAC code from http_trigger_auth.rs), then handed to the reconciler (§7).

Webhook lifecycle: deleted when the repo is disconnected or auto-pull disabled (reuse the delete pattern from workspace_integrations.rs); recreated on settings change; orphan hooks are detectable via GET /repos/.../hooks filtered by our URL prefix.

5.2 Self-managed app (GHES, *.ghe.com data residency)

The customer owns the app, so the app-level webhook can point directly at the instance — no repo hooks needed, one webhook covers all installed repos:

• GhesAppSettings gains a "Webhook secret" field; the setup checklist changes from "Uncheck Active under Webhook" to "set webhook URL to {base_url}/api/w/{workspace}/github_app/webhook (the per-workspace receiver), subscribe to Push events, paste this generated secret".
• That per-workspace endpoint verifies HMAC with the configured secret and routes by repo full name + installation to matching workspaces (the routing data is in workspace_settings).
• GHES typically shares a network with the instance, so this works air-gapped — the hardest github.com case is the easiest GHES case.

Polish (optional, recommended): replace the 8-step manual app-creation checklist with the GitHub App Manifest flow (supported on GHES), which pre-configures permissions, events, and webhook URL/secret in one click and eliminates checklist drift.

6. Trigger tier 2 — polling fallback

For private instances, plain token/SSH credentials (no app), and permission-not-yet-approved installs:

• Per auto-pull-enabled repo, on a configurable interval (default 60 s, surfaced in settings), run git ls-remote <repo> <tracked refs> and compare against last_synced_sha per ref. ls-remote is a single cheap round-trip; no clone.
• Implemented as an internal scheduled task keyed by repo settings id (not a user-visible schedule), running on workers like other background jobs.
• Polling is also the safety net under webhooks (missed deliveries, GitHub outages): when a webhook is active, the poll interval relaxes (e.g. 10 min) rather than turning off. This is the ArgoCD model: poll for correctness, webhook for latency.

7. Reconcile and pull semantics

Routing — an event/poll result is (repo, ref, head_sha, sender):

• Tracked branch (basic sync): ref equals the repo settings branch → pull into the owning workspace.
• Promotion target branch: ref equals a repo's promotion target → pull with use_promotion_overrides: true (resolves promotionOverrides from wmill.yaml, mirroring CLI --promotion).
• Fork branches wm-fork/<parent-branch>/<fork-name>: parse the branch name, route to the fork workspace if it exists; ignore (log) if not.
• Anything else: ignore.
• Matching keys on repo + workspace_id — never base_url (avoids the known internal-vs-public URL mismatch that breaks CLI workspace matching).
• One repo may match several workspaces (team partitioning with different path filters): fan out, each workspace pulls with its own filters; wmill.yaml in the repo stays authoritative for include/exclude.

Loop prevention (pull → deploys → deployment callback → commit → push event):

1. Skip events whose sender is the app bot (windmill-sync-helper[bot] / the GHES app's bot) or whose head commit message carries the [WM] prefix.
2. Compare head_sha to last_synced_sha before enqueuing; the pull job records the synced sha on success.
3. Deploys applied by the pull job are tagged so the deployment callback can skip the no-op commit (belt and braces — the diff should be empty anyway).

Concurrency and debounce:

• At most one pull job per (repo, workspace) at a time; rapid pushes coalesce (same pattern as the 5 s deploy-callback batching, keyed on repo).
• Pulls and in-flight Windmill → repo commits on the same branch serialize on the same key to avoid races.

Execution: reuse the existing pull path of the hub init script for v1. Two known fragilities to fix as part of making this an unattended automation:

• The hub script pins a windmill-cli version; pin lag has caused 422s against newer backends. The automated path must pin the CLI to the instance's own version (or the pull logic moves into the backend natively as a v2).
• Failures must be visible: pull jobs appear in the runs list like deployment callbacks today (/runs?job_kinds=deploymentcallbacks equivalent), plus a per-repo "last sync" status chip in git-sync settings and the workspace error handler firing on repeated failures.

8. Settings and schema

Per-repo (GitRepositorySettings, workspace_settings.git_sync):

auto_pull:           Option<AutoPullSettings>
  enabled:           bool
  mode:              "webhook" | "polling" | "auto"   (auto = try webhook, fall back)
  poll_interval_s:   Option<u32>                       (default 60; 600 when webhook active)
  webhook_id:        Option<i64>                       (GitHub hook id, managed app)
  webhook_secret:    Option<String>                    (encrypted; per-repo, managed app)
  last_synced_sha:   Option<map<ref, sha>>             (per tracked ref)
  last_pull_status:  Option<...>                       (sha, time, job id, error)

Instance-level (GHES app config): webhook_secret alongside app id/private key.

No new tables; everything extends existing JSONB settings. A migration is only needed if we decide last_synced_sha/status churn doesn't belong in workspace_settings (alternative: small git_sync_pull_state table keyed by workspace + repo path — decide at implementation review).

New instance endpoints (EE):

• POST /api/w/{workspace}/github_app/webhook — per-workspace hook receiver for managed and self-managed apps (host-aware), HMAC-verified, returns 202.
• Both are unauthenticated-but-verified endpoints; rate-limited; bodies are treated as hints only (§4).

9. GitHub App permission migration

New permissions needed, bundled into one update (each update re-prompts every existing installation's org admin):

Permission	Used for	Phase
Repository webhooks: write	dynamic repo hook create/delete	1
Pull requests: write	instance-side PR creation (promotion/forks)	2
Checks: write	PR diff preview checks	3

App-only features and their fallbacks: instant webhook sync (falls back to polling), in-app PR creation for deploy branches (fall back to the open-pr-on-commit / open-pr-on-fork-commit workflows; the toggles are hidden for token repos and a set-but-inert toggle logs a warning), and the PR diff comment/check + deploy status check (no fallback: they need the Checks API and pull_request webhook deliveries). Token/PAT repositories keep the full pull direction via polling.

Rollout behavior: until an org approves, webhook creation fails with a distinguishable error → the instance shows "approval pending" and stays on polling. Nothing breaks; latency is the only cost. The self-managed (GHES) checklist/manifest gains the same permissions — no central approval involved.

10. Setup UX

The git-sync wizard (DetectionFlow / repo card) gains a third guided direction after the existing "test connection" and "initialize repo" steps:

• Toggle: "Automatically deploy changes from Git" (per repo).
• On enable: try webhook (ping self-test) → show resulting mode and latency ("instant via webhook" / "polling every 60s — instance not reachable from GitHub"), with a re-test button.
• The success modal's current "set up GitHub Actions" doc link becomes the advanced/CI path, not the default instruction.
• Promotion-mode repos additionally show "PRs will be opened by Windmill" once §11 lands.

11. Promotion & forks parity: PR creation moves instance-side

Both PR-producing branches are pushed by Windmill's own deploys — wm_deploy/** (promotion) and wm-fork/** (fork deploys) — so opening the PR moves into the deploy pipeline itself, per repo toggle: the push job carries a __git_sync_open_pr marker and its completion hook opens (or reopens) the PR via the installation token once the push has landed. Outbound-only, so it works for every connectivity profile — no webhook required.

• Promotion: promotion_open_prs on the promotion repo ("Open a pull request for each deploy branch").
• Forks: fork_open_prs on the parent's sync repo ("Open a pull request when a fork deploys"), read by the fork's deploy callback — parent-owned like sync_forks, zero fork-side setup.

Both default on for newly configured repos and off in storage (upgrades don't change behavior). ensure_pull_request treats an existing PR as success, so the documented open-pr-on-commit / open-pr-on-fork-commit Actions can stay installed for custom titles/CI without duplicate PRs. The merge side is already covered by §7 routing (push event on the target branch).

12. Later: PR diff preview checks

With pull_request events (webhook tier) and checks: write: on PR opened/synchronized, run the existing dry_run: true pull and post the diff summary as a check run. This replicates the CI dry-run preview with zero customer CI and completes the "Cloudflare Pages" experience: install app → merges deploy, PRs show a Windmill diff. The commit-level "Deploying… → Deployed" status (the other half of the Cloudflare feel) is Phase 6.

13. Coverage vs documented setups

Documented setup	Covered by
Basic git sync (workspace ↔ branch)	§5/§6 trigger + existing pull job
Multi-repo primary/secondary	per-repo toggle; secondaries stay push-only
Promotion mode, single instance	§7 promotion routing + §11 PR creation
Promotion mode, cross-instance	each instance triggers independently — strictly better than CI (no cross-instance tokens/URLs)
Workspace forks (wm-fork/**)	§7 fork routing + Phase 5 (parent-level sync_forks)
PR dry-run preview	§12 (optional follow-up)
Local dev, git as entry point	ordinary push events; nothing special
Customers with real CI gates	unchanged; pull triggers are idempotent and coexist

14. Migration of existing users

The defining advantage of the repo-webhook approach: existing git-sync users already have the managed app installed. Migration is "grant one incremental permission," not "reconnect." The windmill → repo direction uses the app's Contents: write grant, which the new Repository webhooks: write permission does not touch — so nothing existing breaks whether or not a user migrates.

Existing installs are enumerable from workspace_settings.git_app_installations (each GitInstallation carries installation_id, account_id, and github_base_url: None = managed github.com app, Some = self-managed/GHES). That split is the migration cohort boundary.

Cohort A — managed app, already installed (the majority). Only gap is the Repository webhooks: write grant. GitHub keeps the old grants working while the new permission sits pending approval, so migration is lazy and never-blocking:

1. Ship the app permission update + auto_pull settings defaulting off. Zero observable change until a user opts in.
2. Each managed-app repo gets an "Automatically deploy changes from Git" toggle in the existing settings UI.
3. On enable, the instance attempts webhook creation:
   • 403 (approval pending) → surface a deep link to the org's app installation page to approve the new permission, and start polling immediately so auto-pull works right now. The user is never blocked on a GitHub org admin.
   • Success → ping self-test → webhook mode (or polling if unreachable).
4. The instance does not need to hear the approval. The installation / new_permissions_accepted event goes to the app webhook (the portal), not the instance — irrelevant here. The instance just retries webhook creation on its next poll cycle and silently upgrades polling → webhook once the grant lands. No portal state, no callback plumbing.

Cohort B — no app (plain git_repository resource, token/SSH). Nothing to approve; flipping the toggle goes straight to polling with existing credentials. Optional upsell: "install the Windmill GitHub App for instant sync."

Cohort C — self-managed / GHES (github_base_url: Some). Customer owns the app, so there is no central approval. App-level webhooks need no extra permission — migration is one documented step: paste the instance webhook URL + generated secret into their app settings (the GhesAppSettings checklist flips "leave webhook inactive" → "set this URL + secret"). Usually works air-gapped.

Cross-cutting:

• Opt-in, not auto-flipped. Do not silently enable pull on existing repos: some are backup/secondary push-only targets, or hold content the owner does not want deployed back. Surface a prominent "New: deploy automatically from Git" prompt instead.
• Existing CI coexists. A user already running wmill sync push via GH Action keeps it; sha-idempotent triggers make double-firing harmless. Optional cleanup: detect the workflow file via the Contents API and offer one-click removal once webhook pull is confirmed.
• The unavoidable cost. The permission bump nags every managed-app installation (even users who never enable auto-pull) with a "requesting updated permissions" prompt until approved or dismissed. No way around it for a single shared app. Mitigation is clear permission-purpose copy; the nag is cosmetic and does not break existing sync.
• Capability gating precedent. GitRepositorySettings::is_script_meets_min_version already gates behavior on the pinned hub-script version — a "this install's app grant supports webhooks" capability flag fits the same pattern.

15. Implementation plan

Staged so each phase is independently shippable and reviewable. Phase 1 alone delivers automatic pull for every customer; webhooks are a latency upgrade.

Phase 1 — polling + reconcile + settings + UX (no app/permission changes)

Backend (EE):

• GitRepositorySettings (backend/windmill-common/src/workspaces.rs): add auto_pull: Option<AutoPullSettings> (§8). Non-breaking JSONB addition.
• Reconcile + enqueue: new function mirroring push_git_sync_job (windmill-git-sync/src/git_sync_ee.rs:896) — given (repo, ref, head_sha), resolve matching workspace(s), compare against last_synced_sha, and enqueue the pull job with the same 5 s debounce machinery. The pull job for v1 is the existing gitInitRepo hub script run with pull: true (mirror the payload PullWorkspaceModal.svelte already sends); record the synced sha on success.
• Poller: register a periodic task in backend/src/monitor.rs (alongside the other tokio::time::interval loops) that, per auto-pull-enabled repo, runs git ls-remote for the tracked refs and feeds changes into the reconciler.
• Pin the hub-script CLI to the instance version for the unattended path (UI git-sync runs a version-pinned windmill-cli; pin lag has caused 422s against newer backends).

Frontend:

• GitSyncRepositoryCard.svelte: per-repo "Automatically deploy changes from Git" toggle + last-sync status chip; polling interval input.
• Demote the GitSyncSuccessModal.svelte "set up GitHub Actions" link to an advanced/CI option.

Validation: pull jobs visible in the runs list; error handler fires on repeated failure. Tests: reconcile routing + sha-compare + loop-prevention (sender/[WM]).

Phase 2 — webhooks (managed app + GHES)

Ops (precedes code): update windmill-sync-helper to request Repository webhooks: write (bundle Pull requests: write + Checks: write now too, to avoid a second nag for phases 3–4). Update permission-purpose copy.

Backend (EE):

• Receiver endpoint (§8): POST /api/w/{workspace}/github_app/webhook (per-workspace, managed and self-managed), HMAC-verified — reuse X-Hub-Signature-256 validation from windmill-trigger-http/src/http_trigger_auth.rs; routes added to git_sync_ee.rs workspaced_service / global_service.
• Webhook create/delete via installation token — reuse the REST pattern from windmill-native-triggers/src/github/external.rs and the delete pattern from workspace_integrations.rs. Ping self-test with reachability fallback (§5.1).
• Lazy approval retry + 403 detection feeding the migration UX (§14 cohort A).

Frontend:

• Toggle now reports resulting mode/latency + re-test button; approval-pending deep link.
• GhesAppSettings.svelte: webhook-secret field + updated checklist (and, optional, the App Manifest one-click flow, §5.2).

Phase 3 — PR creation instance-side (promotion + forks, toggled)

• The deploy's push job carries a __git_sync_open_pr marker when the repo opted in (promotion_open_prs on the promotion repo; parent-level fork_open_prs for fork deploys); the job-completion hook (maybe_open_git_sync_deploy_pr in result_processor.rs) derives the pushed branch (fork branch wins, else the wm_deploy/** formula) and calls ensure_pull_request. Outbound with the installation token, so no webhook reachability is needed; app-backed repos only.
• No-op pushes skip PR creation: the push script reports pushed: false when nothing was committed (e.g. the deploy was itself caused by an auto-pull, so the workspace already matches the repo), and the hook returns early — a PR the user closed isn't recreated by the sync loop. Results without the flag (older script pins) keep ensuring the PR.
• Fork-branch routing edge cases (§7) hardened here.

Phase 4 — PR diff preview checks (optional)

• Subscribe pull_request events; on open/synchronize run the existing dry_run: true pull and post the diff as a check run (checks: write).
• The same completion hook maintains ONE managed comment on the PR (Cloudflare deploy-preview style: workspace, status, commit, collapsible change list), upserted per synchronize via a hidden <!-- windmill-diff --> marker so reviewers see the current diff without opening the Checks tab.

Phase 5 — fork sync, configured at the parent (replaces the push-on-merge-to-forks GitHub Action) — implemented

Scope rule: Windmill absorbs automation for events it originates or consumes; Actions remain for custom CI. Of the documented CI/CD workflows: push-on-merge (repo → prod workspace) is phases 1–2 auto-pull; push-on-merge-to-forks (fork branch → fork workspace) is this phase; and the PR-opening workflows (open-pr-on-commit for wm_deploy/**, open-pr-on-fork-commit for wm-fork/**) react to branches Windmill itself pushes, so they move into the deploy pipeline as per-repo toggles (§11 / Phase 3) and the Actions become optional alternatives. (A fork_pull_sync "fan the tracked branch out to every fork" draft was dropped: a fork syncs its own wm-fork/** branch, never main directly, and blind fan-out would clobber a dev workspace's local work.)

The premise. create_workspace_fork copies the parent's resources (so the git_repository resource lands in the fork) and, via clone_workspace_data → update_workspace_settings, the parent's git_app_installations and git_sync (keeping the first sync-mode repo — WIN-1559). So a fork already pushes to its wm-fork/<tracked>/<id> branch on deploy. What it must not inherit is the auto_pull block: it carries the parent's webhook_id/webhook_secret (the repo webhook is parent-owned), so update_workspace_settings strips it. The server also rejects parent-only settings on a fork workspace (enabled auto_pull, promotion mode, fork_open_prs) — a fork's deploys always target its wm-fork/** branch, so none of them could take effect there, and fork sync is exclusively parent-managed.

Design: one parent-level toggle, auto_pull.sync_forks (default on when auto-pull is enabled). Matches the Action model (configured once at the repo, fires for every wm-fork/** branch) and needs zero per-fork setup — no fork webhook, resource, or config; applies to current and future forks.

How a fork branch change reaches the fork workspace (both delivery paths):

• Webhook: the push to a fork branch (wm-fork/<base>/<suffix>, or a dev workspace's label branch) lands on the parent's webhook. handle_github_git_sync_event requires a [WM]-less head commit (a fork's own deploy must not pull itself back) and auto_pull.enabled && sync_forks, then calls reconcile_fork_branch_pull; branches that resolve to no live child no-op.
• Polling: the parent's poll tick also lists every wm-fork/<tracked>/* head plus its dev-workspace children's label branches in one extra call — a git ls-remote pattern (+ explicit refs) for token repos, git/matching-refs (+ per-label head lookups) for app-backed — and reconciles each (poll_git_fork_branches in monitor.rs).

Dev workspaces sync with their environment-label branch. A dev workspace's branch is its label verbatim (dev/staging — the classic env-branch layout, matching the documented push-on-merge-staging Action), not the namespaced wm-fork/** form. The label is set at create/attach time and immutable afterwards (the branch is keyed on it; the old set-label endpoint was removed), defaulting to dev. The backend passes it with every deploy job (dev_workspace_label arg → hub script → CLI --dev-workspace-label), the PR completion hook derives the same branch, and the CLI refuses to deploy when the label branch equals the checked-out tracked branch (which would otherwise commit fork content straight to it).

reconcile_fork_branch_pull (windmill-git-sync EE) is the shared routing core: resolve the branch to a live descendant of this workspace (recursive parent_workspace_id walk + NOT deleted, so a crafted branch name can't route a pull into an unrelated workspace) — the wm-fork/<base>/<suffix> form via parse_fork_branch (windmill-common), or an environment-label branch via a dev-workspace label lookup — then load the fork's own repo entry and run the shared reconcile_and_enqueue_pull with the fork's per-ref dedup state and a clone_ref override so the pull job clones the fork branch instead of the resource's tracked branch. Descendants (not just direct children) because forks of a dev workspace also sync through the root's webhook/poller — only the root can hold auto-pull config. A fork-of-dev roots its wm-fork/** branch on the dev's label branch and its PR merges back into it (the backend passes parent_dev_workspace_label with the deploy; fork_open_prs is resolved at the root ancestor).

State lives with the fork: its repo entry carries a server-written status-only auto_pull blob (last_synced_sha keyed by the fork branch, last_pull_status; enabled stays false). persist_auto_pull_state creates that blob when missing. The fork's repo card shows a read-only "managed in the parent workspace" line with the fork branch name plus the last pull status; the enable/disable control exists only on the parent's card.

Perms: the toggle is parent-workspace admin (whoever edits the parent's git_sync) — the same bar as "who set up the repo secret + workflow." No per-fork authorization; matches the Action ergonomics.

Non-goals for v1: per-fork opt-out on the parent (default is all forks; add an exclusion list later if asked); per-fork include/exclude filters (the pull applies the repo's wmill.yaml like any pull).

Phase 6 — live deploy status check on the commit (Cloudflare-style) — implemented

Replicate the Cloudflare Pages deploy status: a check run that appears in the commit/PR checks strip, starting in_progress ("Deploying…") and flipping to completed/success ("Deployed"). This is not a GitHub Action — it's posted via the Checks API, so it reuses the Phase 4 machinery (create_check_run/update_check_run) and the checks: write grant already requested. No new permission, no customer CI. The check lands on the head commit of the tracked branch — exactly where Cloudflare's "Deployed to production" sits.

Today the deploy path posts nothing back: create_check_run ("status": "in_progress") and update_check_run ("status": "completed" + conclusion + output) already exist and are used for the PR dry-run diff, but the real deploy pull (tracked-branch push/merge) doesn't create one. Phase 6 runs that same two-step on the deploy path.

Flow:

1. On a tracked-branch push/poll that triggers a deploy pull, create_check_run on the head sha: name "Windmill" (vs "Windmill diff" for PR checks), in_progress, title "Deploying…", with a details_url to the Windmill run / workspace. Keep the returned check_run_id.
2. Thread check_run_id + repo_url into the pull job — same marker channel as the PR dry-run (add a __git_sync_deploy_check marker distinct from the PR-check marker so the completion hook knows which kind).
3. On completion (generalize maybe_post_git_sync_pr_check in result_processor.rs), update_check_run → completed, conclusion success ("Deployed N changes to <workspace>" / "In sync, no changes") or failure with the error summary.

Backend (EE) touch points:

• create_check_run: add a caller-supplied name + a details_url param (small signature change; PR path keeps "Windmill diff").
• Deploy trigger (tracked-branch case in handle_github_git_sync_event, plus the poller reconcile): best-effort create the in_progress check and carry the id into the job payload. App-backed only; never block the deploy on it.
• Completion hook: handle the deploy-check marker alongside the PR-check marker.

Implementation note. The in_progress check is created inside reconcile_and_enqueue_pull (one place covers both the webhook and poller paths), best-effort and app-backed-only, then threaded to the pull job as a __git_sync_deploy_check marker. create_check_run gained name + details_url + output_title (the PR path keeps "Windmill diff", no details/output). The completion hook maybe_post_git_sync_pr_check was generalized to maybe_post_git_sync_check, reading either marker. If the pull can't even be enqueued, the in-progress check is closed as failed so it doesn't hang.

Gating / edges: app-backed only (needs the installation token + checks: write; PAT/polling repos skip silently); skip self-caused/no-op pulls ([WM]/bot, sha unchanged) so it doesn't post a check for Windmill's own commits; one check per (repo, head_sha, workspace) — when several workspaces pull the same commit, name each with its workspace to disambiguate.

Optional richer variant — GitHub Deployments / Environments. Instead of (or alongside) the check run, create a Deployment (POST /repos/.../deployments) + status (POST /repos/.../deployments/{id}/statuses) so the deploy shows in the repo's Environments timeline ("Production → Deployed"). Needs deployments: write — a new grant and another approval nag — so keep it opt-in / later. The check-run version is the cheap default and matches the visual Cloudflare parity without a new permission.

16. Alternatives considered

Portal as webhook proxy (the rejected "option 2"). Subscribe the managed app to push events — delivered centrally to stats.windmill.dev — and forward them to instances. Its only genuine advantages are (a) zero-friction enablement for existing installs, since app-level events need no new permission (no per-org approval, unlike repo-webhook creation), and (b) central delivery observability. Against that: it does not improve reachability (the portal forwards to the same instance URL GitHub would hit, so private instances need polling either way); app-level events fire for every push to every installed repo, org-wide, so portal cost scales with customers' total push volume rather than synced repos; the portal becomes stateful (installation→instance registry) and availability-coupled, losing its current stateless-token-minter property; full push payloads (commit messages, author emails) transit Windmill infrastructure; and the instance cannot verify portal signatures, whereas repo webhooks get per-repo HMAC. The one advantage that stings — the permission-bump nag — is mitigated contextually (approval shown in settings on enable) and covered by polling until approved. A narrow portal variant (portal stores events; private instances poll /github_sync/events with their existing installation JWT) is the only thing that would lower latency for unreachable instances; parked unless demanded.

17. Open questions

• Does last_synced_sha/pull-status churn stay in workspace_settings JSONB or move to a dedicated table? (Write frequency vs settings-blob contention.)
• Exact debounce window for pull coalescing (reuse 5 s like deploy callbacks, or longer since clones are heavier?).
• Should phase 1 polling default to on for newly connected repos, or strictly opt-in? (Opt-in proposed; revisit after adoption data.)
• GHE Cloud orgs with IP allowlists: confirm hook deliveries to customer instances aren't filtered; the ping self-test catches it operationally either way.
• v2: move pull execution from the hub script into the backend natively (removes CLI pinning and hub round-trip entirely)?