AI / RenovateBot Interview Questions
How do you debug Renovate when it is not creating expected PRs?
When Renovate appears to have missed an update, most issues fall into a handful of root causes: schedule restrictions, rate limits, config rules filtering the update out, or the update being in an unexpected state.
| Check | How to investigate |
|---|---|
| Dependency Dashboard | Check which section the update is in (Rate-Limited, Awaiting Schedule, Pending Approval) |
| Log output | Set LOG_LEVEL=debug and re-run — grep for the package name |
| Schedule conflict | Ensure the runner cron and renovate.json schedule window overlap |
| prConcurrentLimit | If limit is reached, new PRs are held in Rate-Limited section |
| ignoreDeps / enabled:false | Check if a rule is explicitly disabling the package |
| Manager disabled | Verify enabledManagers includes the relevant manager |
| minimumReleaseAge | The version might not be old enough yet |
# Debug with verbose logging docker run --rm \ -e RENOVATE_TOKEN="${GITHUB_TOKEN}" \ -e LOG_LEVEL="debug" \ renovate/renovate:latest \ --token="${GITHUB_TOKEN}" \ myorg/myrepo 2>&1 | grep -i "lodash" # Dry run â shows what Renovate WOULD do without making changes npx renovate --token="${GITHUB_TOKEN}" --dry-run=full myorg/myrepo
What is the quickest way to check why a specific update is not appearing as a PR?
What does the --dry-run=full flag do when running Renovate?
More Related questions...
