Renovate onboarding PR (Mend) stuck in CI

By Daniel Zoghalchali·Latchkey

Renovate (and the hosted Mend app) opens a "Configure Renovate" onboarding PR on first run. Until that PR is merged or a config file is committed, Renovate does not open dependency PRs. A stuck onboarding usually means the PR was never merged or onboardingConfig/requireConfig blocks it.

What this error means

A "Configure Renovate" PR sits open indefinitely and no dependency update PRs appear, or Renovate logs that it is waiting for onboarding to complete.

INFO: Repository has an onboarding PR open
  onboarding: true
  Dependency PRs are paused until onboarding is merged.

Common causes

The onboarding PR was never merged

Renovate pauses dependency PRs while onboarding is pending; leaving the onboarding PR open keeps the repo in that paused state.

requireConfig blocks running without a config

With requireConfig set to required, Renovate will not manage a repo that has no committed config, so onboarding cannot complete implicitly.

How to fix it

Merge onboarding or commit a config

1. Review and merge the "Configure Renovate" PR.
2. Or commit a renovate.json directly to the default branch.
3. Re-run Renovate to start dependency PRs.

{
  "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
  "extends": ["config:recommended"]
}

Relax requireConfig if intended

If you want Renovate to run without a committed config, set requireConfig to optional; otherwise keep it required and merge the onboarding PR.

How to prevent it

• Merge the onboarding PR (or commit a config) to activate Renovate.
• Decide requireConfig policy intentionally per org.
• Track open onboarding PRs so repos do not stay paused.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• GitHub Actions documentation