[RFC] Multiple (private) GAS targets: remotes

[HoldYourWaffle]

Currently there can be only one "canonical" scriptId for a codebase to push, pull, version and deploy to. This becomes problematic in non-trivial setups (#921, #987).

In preparation for improvements to the multi-developer workflow (#921 (comment)) I propose the introduction of multiple Apps Script targets within a project, analogous to git remotes.

Some of these 'remotes' can be shared and tracked by source control, like a staging or production environment, while others must stay private, such as an individual's testing setup.

Usecases

• Separate development, staging and production environments.
• Avoid "communal project" setup for shared (open source) projects, like clasp's own tests (#987)
• Multi-developer workflow (#921)

Prior art

• clasp-env
• multi-clasp & multi-clasp2
• Design based on git remote
• Feature Request - Commands to streamline management of multiple push targets. #625, which calls them "targets", doesn't propose private remotes and is more similar to git branches than remotes. In my humble opinion a mostly stateless remote-based mechanism would be more straightforward to use.

Configuration

A remote is described by a scriptId, projectId and parentId. These are currently configured at the root of .clasp.json.

I propose to move these properties to a remotes array of the following structure:

"remotes": [
	{
		"name": "development",
		"scriptId": "...",
		"projectId": "...",
		"parentId": "..."
	}
]

For backwards compatibility the old 'root keys' can be interpreted as a remote with the configured defaultRemoteName (see next section). This behavior could be deprecated and removed in the next major version. Combining the 'root keys' with the remotes option should throw an error.

Private remotes

Currently .clasp.json mixes shared "project structure" like rootDir and filePushOrder with possibly private "deployment target" configuration.
This means .clasp.json shouldn't be excluded from source control, but can't be shared either.

I propose adding the aforementioned remotes option to the private .clasprc.json as well. Remote names should be unique, a shared and private remote with the same cannot coexist. For simplicity a private remotes should be incompatible with the shared 'root keys' configuration.

This setup is analogous to package.json and .npmrc, where the first describes (shared) project structure and the latter (mostly) private configuration, including credentials.

I'd assume most remotes are intended to be private, so to avoid accidents most of the design is "private by default".

Supporting .clasprc.json settings

• defaultRemote: default remote for various commands, analogous to remote.pushDefault.
• defaultRemoteName: default name for remote created by create, clone and legacy root keys, analogous to clone.defaultRemoteName. Default value of "default".

New command: remote

Manually manipulating .clasp.json like cavemen isn't a great experience, so I propose to add a clasp remote command analogous to git remote.

This command should have the following subcommands:

• add <name> <scriptId>
• list
• show <name> [...<option>]
• rename <old> <new>
• update <name> [...<option> <value>]
• remove [...<name>]

A detailed proposal for each of these subcommands can be found here.

Adjustments to existing commands

The following commands get a new positional [remote] argument at the start:

• push and pull
• version and versions
• deploy, deployments and undeploy
• open, run, logs and apis

This new argument is required, unless:

• defaultRemote is configured.
• .clasp.json still uses a 'root keys' remote. This should show a deprecation warning.

Note that this argument is required even if remotes contains just one entry. This avoids accidentally messing with a shared (production) remote if a developer forgets to set up their own private one.

Some commands need other and/or extra adjustments, a detailed overview can be found here.

Other considerations

1. With this proposal .clasp.json explicitly only contains public information that should be tracked by version control. I'd propose to rename this file to clasp.json (with the necessary fallbacks to avoid a breaking change) to signal it's public nature, analogous to package.json, tsconfig.json, vite.config.js and similar shared configuration files.
2. The authentication settings currently in .clasprc.json are inherited from the home and parent directories. Should the same apply to remotes, defaultRemote and defaultRemoteName?

Update 15-11-23: Abandoned the ability for private remotes to override shared ones with the same name. This could lead to unintuitive behavior, (re)designing the commands in a way that avoids this proved too complicated.

[HoldYourWaffle]

Woops, I just found out that this is very similar to #625.

@DimuDesigns What do you think of this design?

[HoldYourWaffle]

I just noticed that the proposed remote remove --delete would fix/implement/cover/duplicate/supersede #799 and #892.

@elderfd and @fantonangeli, what do you think of this approach?

[elderfd]

I just noticed that the proposed remote remove --delete would fix/implement/cover/duplicate/supersede #799 and #892.

@elderfd and @fantonangeli, what do you think of this approach?

@HoldYourWaffle I'm no longer an active user of clasp, but I agree that #799 could be closed in favour of remote remove --delete

[fantonangeli]

@HoldYourWaffle @elderfd My #892 PR was to delete the project remotely but what you want to achieve here is a "git remote" behaviour, so IMO it's a different scope and both features can be useful for other users.

[HoldYourWaffle]

@fantonangeli I think there's a misunderstanding, allow me to clarify:

• clasp remote remove by itself would indeed behave like git remote remove.
• clasp remote remove --delete would delete the associated GAS project as well.

[fantonangeli]

@HoldYourWaffle I missed the --delete option, thanks for clarifying.
In this case if I can share my opinion, as a user, I would expect clasp delete as the opposite command of clasp create. Even git remote has no --delete command.
Please let me know what you think.

[VitalyKrenel]

Hey there! Any updates on this concept? Really would love to see ways to work on Google Sheets with different targets

[HoldYourWaffle]

I haven't been using GAS recently, so no updates on my end.
As far as I'm concerned, feel free to take a shot at it :)

[fantonangeli]

@VitalyKrenel I can only say I'm still maintaining multi-clasp2 which can help you for that, in the meantime