How to Use GitHub Releases/Latest with ESPHome External Components?

ESPHome
1

I would like to reference the releases/latest source from GitHub in the external_component section of ESPHome. Until now, I believe I had been using the configuration below without issues, but recently it no longer seems to work. I’m not sure if I had been using it incorrectly all along, or if something has changed recently. Could you help clarify this?

external_components:
  - source: github://eigger/espcomponents/@latest
    components: [ uartex ]
    refresh: always

or

external_components:
  - source: github://eigger/espcomponents/releases/latest
    components: [ uartex ]
    refresh: always
2

From the docs:

HTTP git repositories in general are supported with this configuration:

external_components:
  source:
    type: git
    url: http://repository_url/
    ref: branch_or_tag
  source:
    type: git
    url: file:///Users/user/path_to_repo
    ref: branch_or_tag

This means, by default you get the what is checked in the “main” branch. You can specify a tag or branch to get different results. What you need to put in there will depend on the process each component uses. Not everyone uses the same tagging and branching strategy.

3

Thank you for your response. That’s right. specific tags and branches work as expected. However, what I want is the latest release. I’m not sure if I was using an unsupported feature incorrectly or if there’s another way to achieve this.

4

what doesn’t work?
how did you know it ever worked?

5

Previously, it seemed like the release code was being applied, but now, no matter how I configure it, the code from the main branch is being used. I’m not sure if I was mistaken all along in thinking the release code was applied.

6

Since this appears to be your repo, it might be better to describe what problem you are trying to solve with using the latest release. Perhaps creating and updating a release branch would work. Or perhaps having a tag for latest would be better.

1 Like
7

Thanks for the good suggestion. I’ll think about which approach works best for me.

8

I see why you want it now. Yes, you need to think about your branching, tagging, releasing strategy. There are quite a few models in common use.

You probably want something simple like trunk.

This way you can isolate your work in progress from the thing you expect others to download.

1 Like