Background

I have a public repo on GitHub that stores the latest updates of my project.

┌───────────────┐        ┌───────────────┐           ┌────────────────┐
│               │        │               │           │                │
│    GitHub     │ Public │    GitHub     │  Private  │    GitLab      │
│               │ contrib│               │  contrib  │                │
│  Public fork  ◄────────►  Public repo  │x─────────x│ Private mirror │
│               │ Create │               │  Cannot   │                │
│  Downstream   │   PR   │   Upstream    │ create PR │   Downstream   │
│               │        │               │ (push/pull│                │
└───────────────┘        └───────────────┘  via local└────────────────┘
                                            machine)                   

The contributions are done publicly and privately:

• Public contributions are trivial – just create a PR on GitHub.
• Private contributions are needed for some changes whose review or work-in-progress details shouldn’t be revealed. For such changes, there is a private mirror on GitLab. I periodically sync the GitLab mirror with the public repo and work on MRs there.

As I said, I have a GitLab mirror. It means that I do not make any changes to the main branch there, I only pull the changes from upstream. I know that there are things like bidirectional mirror which can probably be used in my case but is usually advised against doing for CAP theorem as so on.

As a result, the workflow for private contributions (pushing the changes from the private mirror on GitLab to the public repo on GitHub) is as follows:

1. In the private mirror on GitLab:

   • a. Sync the main branch with upstream
   • b. Create a new branch, make changes, and create an MR
   • c. Have the changes in the MR reviewed and approved

2. Once the work on the MR is finished, I do the following:

   • a. Close the MR on GitLab
   • b. Pull the branch with changes on my local machine
   • c. Push the branch upstream to my public repo on GitHub via the local machine
   • d. Create and merge the PR on my public repo on GitHub

My questions

There are the following things that I don’t like about my workflow:

1. The MRs on GitLab are closed. I cannot merge them, because the GitLab repo is a mirror (I explained the reasons earlier). Can MRs be dealt with in a better or cleaner way?
2. The step 2c (“Push the branch upstream to my public repo on GitHub via the local machine”) is done manually. Can and should I automate this process? If yes, how can I do it?