Determine approach for multiple repositories

[mchelen-gov]

Background

Projects such as va.gov involve multiple repositories for development. For example list see https://department-of-veterans-affairs.github.io/veteran-facing-services-tools/getting-started/

Goal

Make it as easy as possible to work on projects using multiple repositories, and also projects that involve only 1 repository

Proposed solutions

Config-per-repo

• Each code repo (vets-website, vets-api, etc) has its own Codespace .devcontainer config
• The repo's config automatically clones direct dependencies and nothing else
• For example vets-website directly requires the content repo, so this is automatically cloned
• Other repositories such as vets-api which are not directly required by vets-website would not automatically be cloned, and would be up to the user to install as needed

Centralized config

• All Codespaces .devcontainer config is placed in a single central repo
• Each code repo (vets-website, vets-api, etc) does not contain any Codespaces config
• The central config automatically clones and configures all code repositories (vets-website, vets-api, etc)

Config inheritance?

• Common config is placed in a central location
• Each code repo inherits and extends this config with repo-specific customizations
• Codespaces does not currently support this https://github.community/t/codespaces-by-organization-not-repository/137072

[mchelen-gov]

@Chuxel does this look like an approximate summary of options for projects with multiple repositories? I haven't dug into the pros/cons for each yet.

[Chuxel]

@mchelen-gov Yep! If needed, you could also have scenario based central config. e.g. a separate "bootstrap" repo for each type or style of development.