Git repositories in cloud apps

Prior reading: Command-line interface overview

Purpose: This document provides summary examples of commands that may be used alone or in combination when using Git repositories in notebook apps.

Introduction

Verily Workbench supports a referenced resource for Git repositories. You can add relevant repositories to a given workspace. Then, when you create a cloud app in that workspace, the referenced repositories are automatically cloned to the app. You can then use the Git extensions on the app to commit and push your changes as described in Git integrations with cloud apps. On your local machine, you can use wb git clone --all to clone all the Git repository references corresponding to a particular workspace to your preferred directory.

Prerequisites

These instructions assume that you have already installed the Workbench CLI (command-line interface) or are working in a cloud app where it has been installed, and that you have logged in and set the workspace you want to work with as described in Use an existing workspace.

Set up your SSH key (optional)

If you want to access private Git repositories, then you'll first need to associate your Workbench SSH public key with your GitHub account as described in Set up an SSH key.

Add a Git repository to a workspace

Use the wb resource add-ref git-repo command to create Git repository references. Note how the format of the --repo-url values differs for public and private repositories.

# Public Git repository
wb resource add-ref git-repo \
   --id="repo_1" \
   --repo-url=https://github.com/MyGithubOrg/my-public-project.git

# Private Git repository
wb resource add-ref git-repo \
   --id="repo_2" \
   --repo-url=git@github.com:MyGithubOrg/my-private-project.git

Create a Compute Engine app pre-loaded with the repositories

Create an app

Use the wb app create command to create a new Compute Engine app. Make sure to replace <config_name> and <my_cloud_app> with the app config and instance name you want to use, respectively.

wb app create gcp \
   --app-config=<config_name> \
   --id=<my_cloud_app>

Get the app proxy URL and connect to the JupyterLab server

The wb resource describe command prints out descriptive information about the given app. It includes the proxy URL, which is the link to access the app's JupyterLab server.

wb resource describe –-name=<my_cloud_app>

For any repo references that you added prior to creating an app, the Git repository will be automatically cloned to the JupyterLab server's file system, under the ~/repos directory.

Clone Git repositories after app creation

If you add additional Git repo resources to a workspace and want to clone them into an app that you have already created, run the wb git clone command in your app.

wb git clone --all