fork-admin

This is a small orphan branch holding only this fork's automation. It shares no history with main.

It is the repository's default branch, which is what makes the setup work: GitHub runs schedule triggers only from the default branch, so the sync workflow has to live on whichever branch is default.

Why not keep the workflow on main?

So that main can be a pure mirror of llvm/llvm-project@main — zero fork-specific commits, identical commit SHAs.

That buys a few things:

• Clean upstream PRs. Branches cut from main contain nothing that isn't already upstream.
• No merge commits. Syncing is always a fast-forward, so main never grows Merge branch 'llvm:main' commits.
• No force-pushes. main's history is never rewritten, so local clones never need git reset --hard.
• git rebase main is exact. Your local main matches upstream commit for commit.
• Less CI noise. Upstream's own scheduled workflows live on main; since main is no longer the default branch, they stop firing in this fork.

Layout

.github/workflows/autosync.yml   fast-forwards main to upstream every 4h
README.md                        this file

Required secret

autosync.yml needs a repository secret named SYNC_TOKEN.

secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN cannot be used. Upstream commits routinely modify files under .github/workflows/, and moving a ref across such commits requires the workflow scope — which the automatic GITHUB_TOKEN never has, regardless of repository permission settings. That is what the original version of this workflow was failing on:

Upstream commits contain workflow changes, which require the `workflow`
scope or permission to merge.

Create a PAT at https://github.com/settings/tokens:

• Classic: repo + workflow
• Fine-grained (scoped to this repo): Contents: read/write, Workflows: read/write

Then:

gh secret set SYNC_TOKEN --repo saxlungs/llvm-project

Day-to-day

Nothing changes for normal work. git clone lands you on this branch, so:

git checkout main

Cut topic branches from main as usual.

Manual sync

gh workflow run autosync.yml --repo saxlungs/llvm-project

If the sync fails with "main is 'diverged'"

Something committed directly to main, which breaks the mirror invariant. Move the work to a topic branch, then reset:

git branch rescue main
git fetch upstream
git push --force origin upstream/main:main

Note on scheduled workflows in forks

GitHub disables schedule triggers in a fork after 60 days without repository activity. If syncs silently stop long from now, re-enable them from the Actions tab — that is the likely cause, not a bug in this workflow.