Orchestrate releases

Fern Docs supports orchestrating documentation releases based on releases from other repositories. This is useful when documenting features that depend on releases in other repositories.

This requires two GitHub Actions: one in the feature repository and one in the documentation repository.

Set up release notification in the feature repository

Add this GitHub Action workflow to the repository where features are released. When a new release is created with the specified tag pattern, this workflow will send a notification to your documentation repository, triggering the auto-merge process.

Replace the following placeholders with your own values:

<GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN>: GitHub token with repo scope
<ORG>: Organization containing the docs repository
<DOCS_REPO>: Docs repository name
<PRODUCT_RELEASE_TAG>: Product release tag

.github/workflows/notify-docs-repo.yml

name: Notify Docs Repo
on:
  release:
    types: [created]
jobs:
  notify-docs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: startsWith(github.event.release.tag_name, '<PRODUCT_RELEASE_TAG>@')
    steps:
      - name: Trigger docs repo workflow
        run: |
          curl -f -X POST \
            -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
            -H "Authorization: token ${{ secrets.<GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN> }}" \
            https://api.github.com/repos/<ORG>/<DOCS_REPO>/dispatches \
            -d '{"event_type":"<PRODUCT_RELEASE_TAG>","client_payload":{"version":"${{ github.ref_name }}"}}'

Configure auto-merge in the documentation repository

Add this GitHub Action workflow to your documentation repository to auto-merge PRs when features are released. Replace <PRODUCT_RELEASE_TAG> with your product release tag.

.github/workflows/auto-merge-on-release.yml

name: Auto-merge on Docs Release
on:
  repository_dispatch:
    types: [<PRODUCT_RELEASE_TAG>]
jobs:
  merge-dependent-prs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Find and merge dependent PRs
        uses: actions/github-script@v7
        with:
          script: |
            const version = context.payload.client_payload.version;
            
            // Find PRs with matching labels
            const { data: prs } = await github.rest.pulls.list({
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              state: 'open'
            });
            
            for (const pr of prs) {
              const labels = pr.labels.map(l => l.name);
              const hasLatestLabel = labels.includes('depends-on: <PRODUCT_RELEASE_TAG>@latest');
              const hasVersionLabel = labels.includes(`depends-on: <PRODUCT_RELEASE_TAG>@${version}`);
              
              if (hasLatestLabel || hasVersionLabel) {
                // Check if PR is approved
                const { data: reviews } = await github.rest.pulls.listReviews({
                  owner: context.repo.owner,
                  repo: context.repo.repo,
                  pull_number: pr.number
                });
                
                const approved = reviews.some(r => r.state === 'APPROVED');
                
                if (approved) {
                  await github.rest.pulls.merge({
                    owner: context.repo.owner,
                    repo: context.repo.repo,
                    pull_number: pr.number,
                    merge_method: 'squash'
                  });
                  
                  console.log(`Merged PR #${pr.number}: ${pr.title}`);
                }
              }
            }