Eleventy: A GitHub Workflow to Check if an Automated Dependency Update Would Break Your Site
Published on April 22, 2025, filed under Development (RSS feed for all categories).
If you use Eleventy, GitHub, and automated dependency management (like Dependabot or Depfu), you might have run into the situation that an update would not work.
Personally, relying on few dependencies, I only experienced that with Node updates, but I ran into this a couple of times.
Here’s a simple GitHub workflow to run on changes to package.json, package-lock.json, and .nvmrc, to tell if Eleventy still builds successfully (gist):
name: "Tests"
on:
push:
paths:
- ".nvmrc"
- "package.json"
- "package-lock.json"
jobs:
build:
name: "Test changed package*.json and changed Node versions"
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: "Check out repository"
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: "Read .nvmrc"
id: nvmrc
run: echo "NODE_VERSION=$(cat .nvmrc)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
- name: "Set up Node.js"
uses: actions/setup-node@v4
with:
node-version: ${{ env.NODE_VERSION }}
- name: "Install dependencies"
run: npm ci
- name: "Run Eleventy"
run: npx @11ty/eleventy --incremental(Don’t mind the naming, for some reason all my workflows end up containing tests, which is why I call this all “tests.”)
Save this as tests.yml in your repo’s .github/workflows directory, and you should be good to go. (As it has been a while since I set this up, let me know if I missed some setting, but I do believe it’s just that.)
Also, of course, do with and change this as you please.
A final note: You may notice that this runs “npm ci”. That’s deliberate and, so I grew up, really what we should do in these environments. “ci” will do a clean install and consider what’s in package-lock.json (a file that’s sometimes not put, but should be under version control). In essence, “npm ci” is more precise and reliable than using “npm i”.
About Me
I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for small and large enterprises, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)
