pwforge

Bidirectional synchronization bridge between mailing list patch workflows (via Patchwork) and code forge pull requests (GitHub, with more forges planned).

When a patch series is submitted on a mailing list and tracked by Patchwork, pwforge automatically creates a pull request on the configured forge. Replies to patches are mirrored as PR comments. Conversely, PR comments and reviews posted on the forge are sent back to the mailing list as properly threaded email replies.

Building

make

Configuration

Generate a default configuration file and edit it:

./pwforge --print-config > pwforge.toml
$EDITOR pwforge.toml

Configuration is loaded from (in order, later files override earlier):

1. /etc/pwforge.toml
2. pwforge.toml (current directory)
3. $PWFORGE_TOML (if set)

CLI flags take precedence over configuration files.

Running

./pwforge

The service exposes two webhook endpoints:

• POST /patchwork -- receives Patchwork event webhooks
• POST /forge -- receives forge (GitHub) event webhooks

Both endpoints verify HMAC-SHA256 signatures.

Testing

Start a full local testbed in a tmux session:

make local

This requires gh (GitHub CLI) to be authenticated, tmux to be installed, and patchwork-next to be checked out at ../patchwork-next (or set $PATCHWORK_NEXT_DIR). On first run it creates a GitHub repository (default: pwforge-testbed under your account) and reuses it on subsequent runs. Data is persisted in ./build/ so that successive runs pick up where everything was stopped.

The tmux session has the following windows:

Window	Content
0:testbed	The local testbed script output
1:patchwork-http	patchwork HTTP/API server (localhost:8888)
2:patchwork-ingress	patchwork SMTP ingress (localhost:2525)
3:pwforge	pwforge bridge (auto-restart on rebuild)
4:webhooks	gh webhook forward (GitHub -> local pwforge)
5:mail	mail client (aerc, neomutt or mutt)
6:git	local clone for preparing patch series

From the git window, create commits and send them to the testbed mailing list (git send-email is pre-configured):

git send-email origin/main

Patches will appear in patchwork and in the mail client. If pwforge receives a series-completed webhook from patchwork, it creates a PR on the GitHub test repo. Comments on the PR are forwarded back as emails via the webhook forwarding.

Environment variables:

• PATCHWORK_NEXT_DIR -- Path to patchwork-next checkout (default ../patchwork-next)
• PWFORGE_TESTBED_REPO -- Name of the GitHub repo to create/reuse (default pwforge-testbed)
• PWFORGE_WEBHOOK_SECRET -- Shared secret for GitHub webhook signature verification (default testbed-webhook-secret)

License

Apache-2.0