Handling CLAs and DCOs via GitHub Action

Streamline your workflow and let this GitHub Action (a lite version of CLA Assistant) handle the legal side of contributions to a repository for you. CLA assistant GitHub action enables contributors to sign CLAs from within a pull request. With this GitHub Action we could get rid of the need for a centrally managed database by storing the contributor's signature data in a decentralized way - in the same repository's file system or in a remote repository which can be even a private repository.

Features

1. decentralized data storage
2. fully integrated within github environment
3. no User Interface is required
4. contributors can sign the CLA or DCO by just posting a Pull Request comment
5. signatures will be stored in a file inside the repository or in a remote repository
6. signatures can also be stored inside a private repository
7. versioning of signatures

Configure Contributor License Agreement within two minutes

1. Add the following Workflow File to your repository in this path.github/workflows/cla.yml

name: "CLA Assistant"
on:
  issue_comment:
    types: [created]
  pull_request_target:
    types: [opened,closed,synchronize]

# explicitly configure permissions, in case your GITHUB_TOKEN workflow permissions are set to read-only in repository settings
permissions:
  actions: write
  contents: write # this can be 'read' if the signatures are in remote repository
  pull-requests: write
  statuses: write

jobs:
  CLAAssistant:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: "CLA Assistant"
        if: (github.event.comment.body == 'recheck' || github.event.comment.body == 'I have read the CLA Document and I hereby sign the CLA') || github.event_name == 'pull_request_target'
        uses: contributor-assistant/github-action@v2.6.1
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          # the below token should have repo scope and must be manually added by you in the repository's secret
          # This token is required only if you have configured to store the signatures in a remote repository/organization
          # PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
        with:
          path-to-signatures: 'signatures/version1/cla.json'
          path-to-document: 'https://github.com/cla-assistant/github-action/blob/master/SAPCLA.md' # e.g. a CLA or a DCO document
          # branch should not be protected
          branch: 'main'
          allowlist: user1,bot*

         # the followings are the optional inputs - If the optional inputs are not given, then default values will be taken
          #remote-organization-name: enter the remote organization name where the signatures should be stored (Default is storing the signatures in the same repository)
          #remote-repository-name: enter the  remote repository name where the signatures should be stored (Default is storing the signatures in the same repository)
          #create-file-commit-message: 'For example: Creating file for storing CLA Signatures'
          #signed-commit-message: 'For example: $contributorName has signed the CLA in $owner/$repo#$pullRequestNo'
          #custom-notsigned-prcomment: 'pull request comment with Introductory message to ask new contributors to sign'
          #custom-pr-sign-comment: 'The signature to be committed in order to sign the CLA'
          #custom-allsigned-prcomment: 'pull request comment when all contributors has signed, defaults to **CLA Assistant Lite bot** All Contributors have signed the CLA.'
          #lock-pullrequest-aftermerge: false - if you don't want this bot to automatically lock the pull request after merging (default - true)
          #use-dco-flag: true - If you are using DCO instead of CLA

Demo for step 1

2. Pull Request event triggers CLA Workflow

CLA action workflow will be triggered on all Pull Request opened, synchronize, closed. This workflow will always run in the base repository and that's why we are making use of the pull_request_target event.
When the CLA workflow is triggered on pull request closed event, it will lock the Pull Request conversation after the Pull Request merge so that the contributors cannot modify or delete the signatures (Pull Request comment) later. This feature is optional.

3. Signing the CLA

CLA workflow creates a comment on Pull Request asking contributors who have not signed CLA to sign and also fails the pull request status check with a failure. The contributors are requested to sign the CLA within the pull request by copy and pasting "I have read the CLA Document and I hereby sign the CLA" as a Pull Request comment like below. If the contributor has already signed the CLA, then the PR status will pass with success.

Demo for step 2 and 3

4. Signatures stored in a JSON file

After the contributor signed a CLA, the contributor's signature with metadata will be stored in a JSON file inside the repository and you can specify the custom path to this file with path-to-signatures input in the workflow.
The default path is path-to-signatures: 'signatures/version1/cla.json'.

The signature can be also stored in a remote repository which can be done by enabling the optional inputs remote-organization-name: <your org name> and remote-repository-name: <your repo name> in your CLA workflow file.

NOTE: You do not need to create this file manually. Our workflow will create the signature file if it does not already exist. Manually creating this file will cause the workflow to fail.

Demo for step 4

5. Users and bots in allowlist

If a GitHub username is included in the allowlist, they will not be required to sign a CLA. You can make use of this feature If you don't want your colleagues working in the same team/organisation to sign a CLA. And also, since there's no way for bot users (such as Dependabot or Greenkeeper) to sign a CLA, you may want to add them in allowlist. You can do so by adding their names in a comma separated string to the allowlist input in the CLA workflow file(in this case dependabot[bot],greenkeeper[bot]). You can also use wildcard symbol in case you want to allow all bot users something like bot*.

Demo for step 5

6. Adding Personal Access Token as a Secret

You have to create a Repository Secret with the name PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN. This PAT should have repo scope and is only required if you have configured to store the signatures in a remote repository/organization.

Demo for step 6

Environmental Variables:

Inputs Description:

Contributors

Mateusz Boś	Michael Spengler	Akshay Iyyadurai Balasundaram	Anand Chowdhary	Rick M	Filip Moroz
Mikhail	Peter Schmalfeldt	Matt Rosno	Or Geva	Robert Pająk	Scott Brenner
Silvio	Azzam S.A	Alexis Lothoré	Andrew Lohr	Charlie Fish	Darrell Warde
Jan Holthuis	Nathan Walters	Rokas Kupstys	Shun Kakinoki	Simon Meggle	Tate Berenbaum
Timo Tijhof	Andrew Gable	Knanao	Peter	Self Not Found	Woyaoshunlibiye
Yahav Itzhak

License

Contributor License Agreement assistant

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.