You can use the CLI to sync custom pieces. There is no need to rebuild the Docker image as they are loaded directly from npm.

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How It Works

Use the CLI to sync items from packages/pieces/custom/ to instances. In production, Activepieces acts as an npm registry, storing all piece versions. The CLI scans the directory for package.json files, checking the name and version of each piece. If a piece isn’t uploaded, it packages and uploads it via the API.

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Usage

To use the CLI, follow these steps:
  1. Generate an API Key from the Admin Interface. Go to Settings and generate the API Key.
  2. Install the CLI by cloning the repository.
  3. Run the following command, replacing API_KEY with your generated API Key and INSTANCE_URL with your instance URL:
AP_API_KEY=your_api_key_here npm run sync-pieces -- --apiUrl https://INSTANCE_URL/api

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Developer Workflow

  1. Developers create and modify the pieces offline.
  2. Increment the piece version in their corresponding package.json. For more information, refer to the piece versioning documentation.
  3. Open a pull request towards the main branch.
  4. Once the pull request is merged to the main branch, manually run the CLI or use a GitHub/GitLab Action to trigger the synchronization process.

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GitHub Action

name: Sync Custom Pieces

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  sync-pieces:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      # Step 1: Check out the repository code with full history
      - name: Check out repository code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      # Step 2: Cache Node.js dependencies
      - name: Cache Node.js dependencies
        uses: actions/cache@v3
        with:
          path: ~/.npm
          key: npm-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json') }}
          restore-keys: |
            npm-

      # Step 3: Set up Node.js
      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '20' # Use Node.js version 20
          cache: 'npm'

      # Step 4: Install dependencies using npm ci
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci --ignore-scripts

      # Step 6: Sync Custom Pieces
      - name: Sync Custom Pieces
        env:
          AP_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.AP_API_KEY }}
        run: npm run sync-pieces -- --apiUrl ${{ secrets.INSTANCE_URL }}/api