How to Run Renovate Self-Hosted in a Workflow

Running Renovate self-hosted means invoking the renovatebot/github-action on a cron schedule with a token, so no third-party app needs access to your repositories.

Add a scheduled workflow that runs renovatebot/github-action. Provide a token (a PAT or GitHub App token) with permission to open PRs. This replaces the hosted Renovate app and gives you full control over frequency and runners.

Steps

• Create a token with contents and pull-requests write access.
• Add a workflow on schedule that runs renovatebot/github-action.
• Pass the token via the token input.
• Keep your renovate.json in the repo as usual.

Self-hosted workflow

name: Renovate
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 2 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  renovate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: renovatebot/github-action@v40
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.RENOVATE_TOKEN }}
        env:
          RENOVATE_REPOSITORIES: my-org/my-repo

Gotchas

• The default GITHUB_TOKEN cannot open PRs that trigger other workflows; use a PAT or GitHub App token.
• Self-hosting means you own the runner minutes and upgrade cadence of the Renovate version.
• Pin the action to a version tag so a Renovate release does not silently change behavior mid-run.

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