selfhosting-renovate-demo/2-dockerfile-dry-run

Scenario 2: Dockerfile with Dry Run

Overview

This scenario demonstrates how Renovate detects outdated versions in a Dockerfile.

Take a look at the included Dockerfile.

Run Renovate with some defaults disabled

npx renovate \
    --platform=local \              # our directory has no git repo (yet)
    --token=<PAT> \                 # authorization against GitHub
    --dry-run \                     # do not take any actions (create Issues, Pull Requests, etc.)
    --onboarding=false \            # do not create an onboarding PR
    --require-config=ignored \      # do not require a config file
    --base-dir=.                    # limit discovery to this directory (would default to the entire repository)

The log below shows:

• Renovate detects the Dockerfile and one dependency (the base image)
• Renovate tries to look up the base image on Docker Hub, but fails with a 401 Unauthorized error due to no credentials
• Renovate tries to update a Dependency Dashboard: Renovate would create a GitHub Issue giving an overview of all dependencies

 WARN: cli config dryRun property has been changed to full
 INFO: Repository started (repository=local)
       "renovateVersion": "37.440.7"
 INFO: Dependency extraction complete (repository=local)
       "stats": {
         "managers": {"dockerfile": {"fileCount": 1, "depCount": 1}},
         "total": {"fileCount": 1, "depCount": 1}
       }
 INFO: Docker Hub lookup failure (repository=local)
       "err": {
         "name": "HTTPError",
         "code": "ERR_NON_2XX_3XX_RESPONSE",
         "timings": {
           "start": 1775591574057,
           "socket": 1775591574057,
           "lookup": 1775591574057,
           "connect": 1775591574057,
           "secureConnect": 1775591574057,
           "upload": 1775591574057,
           "response": 1775591574166,
           "end": 1775591574167,
           "phases": {
             "wait": 0,
             "dns": 0,
             "tcp": 0,
             "tls": 0,
             "request": 0,
             "firstByte": 109,
             "download": 1,
             "total": 110
           }
         },
         "message": "Response code 401 (Unauthorized)",
         "stack": "HTTPError: Response code 401 (Unauthorized)\n    at Request.<anonymous> (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/got/dist/source/as-promise/index.js:118:42)\n    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5)",
         "options": {
           "headers": {
             "user-agent": "RenovateBot/37.440.7 (https://github.com/renovatebot/renovate)",
             "accept": "application/json",
             "authorization": "***********",
             "accept-encoding": "gzip, deflate, br"
           },
           "url": "https://index.docker.io/v2/paperlessngx/paperless/tags/list?n=10000",
           "hostType": "docker",
           "username": "",
           "password": "",
           "method": "GET",
           "http2": false
         },
         "response": {
           "statusCode": 401,
           "statusMessage": "Unauthorized",
           "body": {
             "errors": [
               {
                 "code": "UNAUTHORIZED",
                 "message": "authentication required",
                 "detail": [
                   {
                     "Type": "repository",
                     "Class": "",
                     "Name": "paperlessngx/paperless",
                     "Action": "pull"
                   }
                 ]
               }
             ]
           },
           "headers": {
             "date": "Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:52:54 GMT",
             "content-type": "application/json",
             "content-length": "165",
             "connection": "keep-alive",
             "docker-distribution-api-version": "registry/2.0",
             "www-authenticate": "Bearer realm=\"https://auth.docker.io/token\",service=\"registry.docker.io\",scope=\"repository:paperlessngx/paperless:pull\",error=\"insufficient_scope\"",
             "strict-transport-security": "max-age=31536000"
           },
           "httpVersion": "1.1",
           "retryCount": 0
         }
       }
 INFO: DRY-RUN: Would close Dependency Dashboard (repository=local)
       "title": "Dependency Dashboard"
ERROR: Repository has unknown error (repository=local)
       "err": {
         "message": "Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'renovate/reconfigure')",
         "stack": "TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'renovate/reconfigure')\n    at getBranchCommit (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/util/git/index.ts:504:30)\n    at validateReconfigureBranch (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/workers/repository/reconfigure/index.ts:61:36)\n    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5)\n    at finalizeRepo (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/workers/repository/finalize/index.ts:20:3)\n    at Object.renovateRepository (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/workers/repository/index.ts:105:7)\n    at attributes.repository (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/workers/global/index.ts:218:11)\n    at start (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/workers/global/index.ts:203:7)\n    at /Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/renovate.ts:18:22"
       }
 INFO: Repository finished (repository=local)
       "cloned": undefined,
       "durationMs": 806
 INFO: Renovate was run at log level "info". Set LOG_LEVEL=debug in environment variables to see extended debug logs.
 INFO: Renovate is exiting with a non-zero code due to the following logged errors
       "loggerErrors": [
         {
           "name": "renovate",
           "level": 50,
           "logContext": "zpmkFh2liN0xgt7FoPX1h",
           "repository": "local",
           "err": {
             "message": "Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'renovate/reconfigure')",
             "stack": "TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'renovate/reconfigure')\n    at getBranchCommit (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/util/git/index.ts:504:30)\n    at validateReconfigureBranch (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/workers/repository/reconfigure/index.ts:61:36)\n    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5)\n    at finalizeRepo (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/workers/repository/finalize/index.ts:20:3)\n    at Object.renovateRepository (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/workers/repository/index.ts:105:7)\n    at attributes.repository (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/workers/global/index.ts:218:11)\n    at start (/Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/workers/global/index.ts:203:7)\n    at /Users/vincent.mahnke/.npm/_npx/05eeecd92f4e18e0/node_modules/renovate/lib/renovate.ts:18:22"
           },
           "msg": "Repository has unknown error"
         }
       ]

Running on GitHub, Renovate only needs a token to work.
Self-hosting Renovate, please read the security implications.