Proposal: Add optional workflow to sync upstream template changes

[Danathar]

I've been looking at my own repositories and thinking about the divergence that naturally occurs between this upstream template and the repos generated from it.

This came to mind specifically after @renner0e mentioned (https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/custom-image-question/11638/17) that updates to this template are currently pending the completion of GitHub's runner testing. Naturally, I want to ensure I can easily pull in those upstream improvements once they are released.

Has the team considered including a commented-out "sync" workflow in the template? For example, we could include a configured actions-template-sync workflow paired with a default .templatesyncignore file.

This would allow users to easily opt-in to keeping their build workflows up to date without risking their custom configuration files being overwritten. Ideally, it would work similarly to Dependabot, automatically triggering a PR in the user's repository whenever the upstream template is updated.

If this is something that people think is worth while, I could make them and submit a PR.

thanks!

[Danathar]

I’ve done a little “vibe coding” with Codex to see whether this could be done (I really wanted to see how good gpt5.3-codex was!). I put together a test template here: https://github.com/Danathar/image-template

It includes a Sync Template GitHub Action you can trigger manually. The workflow pulls changes from ublue-os/image-template and should open a PR in your repo (created from the template) when there are syncable changes.

This uses AndreasAugustin/actions-template-sync: https://github.com/AndreasAugustin/actions-template-sync

I’m holding off on opening an upstream PR until I finish more testing and review both the Andreas action and the workflow/files generated in my repo. In the meantime, feel free to template mine, run the action, and test it.