Ingest Javascript packages into your catalog

Available Github Integrations

This guide includes steps that require integration with GitHub:

• GitHub (Ocean) - uses the Ocean framework. We strongly recommend this integration for new and migrated setups.
• GitHub (Sunset) - uses a GitHub app that is in sunset and will be fully deprecated on September 15, 2026.

The following example shows you how to create a package blueprint that ingests all third party dependencies and libraries in your package.json file using Port's GitHub file ingesting feature. You will then relate this blueprint to a service blueprint, allowing you to map all the packages used by a service.

To ingest the packages to Port, a port-app-config.yml file in the needed repository or organisation is used.

Prerequisites

This guide assumes you have a Port account.

GitHub (Ocean)

• You have installed the GitHub Ocean integration.

GitHub (Sunset)

• You have installed Port's GitHub app in your organisation or in repositories you are interested in.

GitHub configuration

To ingest GitHub objects, use one of the following methods:

Using Port's UI

To manage your GitHub integration configuration using Port:

1. Go to the data sources page of your portal.
2. Under Exporters, click on your desired GitHub organization.
3. A window will open containing the default YAML configuration of your GitHub integration.
4. Here you can modify the configuration to suit your needs, by adding/removing entries.
5. When finished, click resync to apply any changes.

Using this method applies the configuration to all repositories that the GitHub app has permissions to.

When configuring the integration using Port, the YAML configuration is global, allowing you to specify mappings for multiple Port blueprints.

Using GitHub

To manage your GitHub integration configuration using a config file in GitHub:

1. Go to the data sources page of your portal.
2. Under Exporters, click on your desired GitHub organization.
3. A window will open containing the default YAML configuration of your GitHub integration.
4. Scroll all the way down, and turn on the Manage this integration using the "port-app-config.yml" file toggle.

This will clear the configuration in Port's UI.

When configuring the integration using GitHub, you can choose either a global or granular configuration:

• Global configuration: create a .github-private repository in your organization and add the port-app-config.yml file to the repository.
  • Using this method applies the configuration to all repositories that the GitHub app has permissions to (unless it is overridden by a granular port-app-config.yml in a repository).
• Granular configuration: add the port-app-config.yml file to the .github directory of your desired repository.
  • Using this method applies the configuration only to the repository where the port-app-config.yml file exists.

When using global configuration using GitHub, the configuration specified in the port-app-config.yml file will only be applied if the file is in the default branch of the repository (usually main).

Important

When using Port's UI, the specified configuration will override any port-app-config.yml file in your GitHub repository/ies.

Setting up the blueprint and mapping configuration

Create the following blueprint definition and mapping configuration:

Service blueprint (Click to expand)

{
  "identifier": "service",
  "title": "Service",
  "icon": "Service",
  "schema": {
    "properties": {
      "description": {
        "title": "Description",
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "required": []
  },
  "mirrorProperties": {},
  "calculationProperties": {},
  "relations": {}
}

Package blueprint (Click to expand)

{
  "identifier": "package",
  "description": "This blueprint represents a software package file in our catalog",
  "title": "Package",
  "icon": "Package",
  "schema": {
    "properties": {
      "version": {
        "type": "string",
        "title": "Dependency Version"
      }
    },
    "required": []
  },
  "mirrorProperties": {},
  "calculationProperties": {},
  "relations": {
    "service": {
      "title": "Service",
      "target": "service",
      "required": false,
      "many": true
    }
  }
}

GitHub (Ocean)

Package mapping config (Click to expand)

resources:
  - kind: file
    selector:
      query: 'true'
      files:
        - path: '**/package.json'
          organization: my-org  # Optional if githubOrganization is set (required if not set)
          repos:
            - name: MyRepo
              branch: main
    port:
      itemsToParse: .content.dependencies | to_entries
      entity:
        mappings:
          # Since identifier cannot contain special characters, we are using jq to remove them
          identifier: >-
            .item.key + "_" + if (.item.value | startswith("^")) then
            .item.value[1:] else .item.value end
          title: .item.key + "@" + .item.value
          blueprint: '"package"'
          properties:
            package: .item.key
            version: .item.value
          relations: {}

Ocean differences

GitHub (Ocean) uses files with organization and repos structure to scope which repositories are scanned. Use .content instead of .file.content for file content. To link packages to their source repository, add a repository relation to the package blueprint and use .repository.name (or .__repository.name) in the mapping.

GitHub (Sunset)

Package mapping config (Click to expand)

resources:
  - kind: file
    selector:
      query: 'true'
      files:
        - path: '**/package.json'
    port:
      itemsToParse: .file.content.dependencies | to_entries
      entity:
        mappings:
          # Since identifier cannot contain special characters, we are using jq to remove them
          identifier: >-
            .item.key + "_" + if (.item.value | startswith("^")) then
            .item.value[1:] else .item.value end
          title: .item.key + "@" + .item.value
          blueprint: '"package"'
          properties:
            package: .item.key
            version: .item.value
          relations: {}

Then click on Resync and wait for the entities to be ingested in your Port environment

For an example showing how to integrate the above with your existing Gitlab CI pipelines, visit:

• Package.json example