Configure qube

To prevent frequent prompts for information, which rarely or never changes at all such as the full name, email or Github name of the user qube uses a configuration file. Moreover, the personal access token associated with the Github username is stored encrypted to increase the security even if malicious attackers already have access to your personal computer. The creation of projects with qube requires a configuration file. A personal access token is not required, if Github support is not used. The configuration file is saved operating system dependent in the usual config file locations (~/.config/qube on Unix, C:UsersUsernameAppDataLocalqubeqube).

Invoke qube config via

$ qube config <all/general/pat>

qube config all

If qube config all is called, the options general and afterwards pat are called.

qube config general

qube config general prompts for the full name, email address and Github username of the user. If you are not using Github simply keep the default value. These attributes are shared by all templates and therefore should only be set once. If you need to update these attributes naturally rerun the command.

qube config pat

qube’s Github support requires access to your Github repositories to create repositories, add issues labels and set branch protection rules. Github manages these access rights through Personal Access Tokens (PAT). If you are using qube’s Github support for the first time qube config pat will be run and you will be prompted for your Github PAT. Please refer to the official documentation on how to create one. qube only requires repo access, so you only need to tick this box. However, if you want to use qube’s sync feature on organisation repositories, you also need to tick admin:org. This ensures that your PAT would not even allow for the deletion of repositories. qube then encrypts the Personal Access Token, adds the encrypted token to the qube_conf.cfg file (OS dependent stored) and saves the key locally in a hidden place. This is safer than Github’s official way, which recommends the usage of environment variables or Github Credentials, which both save the token in plaintext. It is still strongly adviced to secure your personal computer and not allow any foe to get access. If you create a second project using qube at a later stage, you will not be prompted again for your Github username, nor your Personal Access Token.

Updating a personal access token

If you for any reason need to regenerate your PAT rerun qube config pat. Ensure that your Github username still matches. If not you should also update your Github username via qube config general. Additionally, any of your already created projects may still feature your old PAT and you may therefore run into issues when attempting to push. Hence, you must also update your remote URL for those projects!

Viewing the current configuration

If you want to see your current configuration (in case of an update for example), you can use qube config --view. This will output your current qube configuration. Note that this will only inform you whether your personal access token (PAT) is set or not. It won’t actually print its (encrypted) value.