📄 README.md

GitHub Package Visibility Automation

Automate changing GitHub package visibility from private to public using Playwright and Bun.

Features

✅ Automatically collects all private packages
✅ Handles pagination/infinite scroll
✅ Extracts and uses confirmation strings dynamically
✅ Skips packages already public
✅ Retry logic for transient failures
✅ Detailed progress logging
✅ Final summary with performance metrics
✅ Uses persistent browser context (no repeated login)
✅ Optional parallel processing for faster bulk operations

Prerequisites

Bun 1.0+ installed (install guide)
Playwright installed
Authenticated browser session saved locally

Installation

1. Install Bun (if not already installed)

# macOS, Linux, WSL
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

# Or using Homebrew
brew install oven-sh/bun/bun

2. Install dependencies

bun install

3. Install Playwright browsers

bunx playwright install chromium
# Or install all browsers: bunx playwright install

4. Set up authenticated browser context (one-time setup)

bun run setup

This will open a browser where you can log into GitHub. The session cookies will be saved in ./browser-data/ for future use.

Usage

Run the automation script:

bun start

Quick Reference

bun install                      # Install dependencies
bunx playwright install chromium # Install browser (one-time)
bun run setup                    # Set up authentication (one-time)
bun start                        # Run the automation

Configuration

Edit the CONFIG object in make-packages-public.mjs:

const CONFIG = {
  username: 'chenrui333',              // Your GitHub username
  packagesUrl: '...',                  // URL to your private packages
  userDataDir: './browser-data',       // Persistent auth storage
  headless: false,                     // Set true for background execution
  timeout: 30000,                      // Operation timeout (ms)
  retryAttempts: 1,                    // Retry count for failures
  retryDelay: 2000,                    // Delay between retries (ms)

  // Package filtering (set to null or '' to process all packages)
  packageFilter: 'tap/',               // Only process packages matching this prefix

  // Optional parallel processing (experimental)
  parallelProcessing: false,           // Enable to process multiple packages at once
  maxParallel: 3,                      // Max concurrent operations when parallel mode enabled
};

How It Works

Collect Packages: Visits your private packages page and collects all package URLs with pagination handling

For Each Package:

Navigate to settings page

Check if already public (skip if yes)

Click "Change visibility"

Select "Public" option

Extract required confirmation string from dialog

Type confirmation string

Click final confirmation button

Error Handling:

Retries transient failures once

Continues to next package on failure

Logs all errors for review

Summary: Prints final report with success/failure counts

Output Example

ℹ️  GitHub Package Visibility Automation Script
======================================================================

ℹ️  Collecting package links from private packages page...
ℹ️  Found 15 packages so far...
✅ Collected 15 total package(s)

ℹ️  Starting visibility change for 15 package(s)...

📦 Progress: 1/15
ℹ️  Processing package: my-package
ℹ️  Confirmation string required: "my-package"
✅ Successfully changed my-package to public (3.2s)

📦 Progress: 2/15
ℹ️  Processing package: another-pkg
⚠️  Package another-pkg is already public, skipping

...

======================================================================
ℹ️  SUMMARY
======================================================================
Total packages found:     15
Successfully changed:     12
Already public (skipped): 2
Failed:                   1
======================================================================

⚡ Performance Metrics:
   Total time:           48.5s
   Avg per package:      3.4s
   Fastest:              2.1s
   Slowest:              5.8s
======================================================================

Troubleshooting

"Change visibility button not found"

Cause: GitHub UI changed or selector needs updating.

Fix: Inspect the settings page and update the selector in changePackageVisibility().

"Confirmation input not found"

Cause: Modal didn't load or selector mismatch.

Fix: Increase delay after clicking "Change visibility" button or update selector.

Authentication issues

Cause: Browser context expired or cookies invalid.

Fix: Re-run bun run setup to refresh authentication.

Rate limiting

Cause: Processing packages too quickly.

Fix: Increase delay between packages in main loop (currently 1000ms).

Security Notes

No API keys required: Uses browser automation only
Local authentication: Cookies stored locally in ./browser-data/
No hardcoded credentials: Manual login preserved between runs
Read-only except visibility: Script only modifies package visibility settings

Limitations

Only works for packages where you have admin access
Requires packages to be in container registry format
GitHub must not have CAPTCHA or 2FA challenges during automation
Browser must remain visible if headless: false (recommended for monitoring)
Parallel mode may trigger rate limits with many packages (use cautiously)

Contributing

Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests if you encounter GitHub UI changes or want to add features.

License

MIT

Disclaimer: This tool automates browser interactions with GitHub's UI. Use responsibly and in accordance with GitHub's Terms of Service. Automated actions should not violate rate limits or abuse GitHub's services