Mike Zornek

GitHub Copilot and Unhonored Branch Protection

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 10:40:25 -0400

I was using the GitHub Copilot web chat experience yesterday for client work. I needed to migrate some issues from a third-party CSV export into GitHub Issues. (It mostly worked, but there was still a lot of data massaging after the fact, which the chat could not do.)

Early in the process, the chat took my command of make the issues to make markdown files in an issues folder on the main branch instead of making actual GitHub Issues.

This repo has branch protection rules that should disallow direct commits on main, but I guess because I am an organization admin, it just does it.

This series of events kicked off unwanted deploys and commits. It was a solid reminder about the dangers of putting these MCP chat servers anywhere near production systems.

I’m starting to get marketing from Render as to the availability of its own MCP services, and I’m very hesitant to use them.

How to Use a Modern Version of Hugo on Render's Static Site Service

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 11:03:15 -0400

I host this site at Render.com. Specifically, I use Render’s Static Site product. It’s a good product and free for most usage. It features an auto-configured SSL certificate, global CDN, pull request previews, and many other nice things. I’m also paying Render to host some Elixir things and enjoy the simplicity of fewer things to manage

When you read the docs, Render provides instructions on what to do if you are using Hugo to build your static site. Unfortunately, their version of Hugo is locked and a bit dated as I type this. (I observed version 0.124.0 when the current version of Hugo is 1.46.5.) Some other static allow you to set a HUGO_VERSION environment variable, but sadly Render does not support this.

Render allows you to supply a custom build command, and I’ve taken the opportunity to install an updated version of Hugo per deployment so I can keep it current. Here is the script and some other notes to keep in mind.

Using a custom build command

You can read more official docs about the build command, but in short, you set it up in the Settings for your site. Instead of a single command, you can point it to a build shell script from your project’s repo.

My build script looks like this:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# This script is used by Render to build the app for production deployment.

# set up an exit on error
set -o errexit

# Save the initial directory
ORIGINAL_DIR="$PWD"

# Install npm dependencies
echo "Installing npm dependencies..."
npm install --verbose

# Install specific version of Hugo
HUGO_VERSION="0.145.0"  # Change this to your required version
echo "Installing Hugo ${HUGO_VERSION}..."

# Create directory for Hugo download and installation
mkdir -p "${HOME}/bin"
mkdir -p /tmp/hugo
cd /tmp/hugo

# Download and install specific Hugo version
wget -q https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases/download/v${HUGO_VERSION}/hugo_extended_${HUGO_VERSION}_Linux-64bit.tar.gz
tar -xzf hugo_extended_${HUGO_VERSION}_Linux-64bit.tar.gz

# Move Hugo to a directory you have permission for
mv hugo "${HOME}/bin/"

# Add the bin directory to PATH
export PATH="${HOME}/bin:${PATH}"

# Verify installation
hugo version

# Return to project directory
cd "$ORIGINAL_DIR"

# Now you can add your Hugo build commands here
hugo --logLevel info

In addition to installing Hugo, I also install some npm packages, including Tailwind and the Tailwind Typography plugin, which I am using for my Hugo template HTML. One thing to keep in mind here is that Render does honor and expect a NODE_VERSION inside your environment settings to hint what version of node to use. This static site was defaulting to a pretty old version of node when I started without a NODE_VERSION environment variable, and that seems to be based on when the static site service was initialized.

I do a bit of extra logging to help me debug, but overall, this script is pretty straightforward. Make sure to grant execution permissions with chmod a+x build.sh to the shell script when composing it.

Inefficiencies

Installing Hugo (and node things) for every deployment is excessive and will be charged against my pipeline minutes, but for the simple needs of this site, which is published a few times a month I doubt it will add up to anything much. If you want to optimize this, consider Dockerizing the deployment and perhaps even assembling the static content in a continuous integration system like GitHub Actions. (I was planning on that at first, but this build command approach was more straightforward for now.)

Github Action Talk

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 13:52:26 -0500

I’m going to be doing a talk about GitHub Actions for ElixirClub: Creating Your First Elixir/Phoenix CI Check with GitHub Actions.

The talk is free and open to the public. RSVP and join us on Zoom Wednesday, March 8th from 7:00 PM to 08:00 PM (EST).

This talk is for people curious about the basics of GitHub Actions and how they can utilize this automation tool to better verify code changes within their Elixir projects. The event will consist of a lecture, live audience exercises on GitHub, and close with time for questions.

GitHub Actions enables you to build custom automations right within your GitHub repo. These automations can be used for Continuous Integration checks (verifying the app builds with no warnings, all the tests pass, etc), Continuous Deployment (package your app for release, execute the release, etc.), and many other creative workflows. The service is free for public repos and has a generous allocation for free-account private repos.

RSVP

Terraform on Linode Notes

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 05:54:53 -0500

Your browser does not seem to support the video format. You can download the MP4 file directly.

Download MP4 Watch on YouTube

Over vacation I worked through a small project to use Terraform on Linode to provision a new webserver for my personal website. The following is a collection of notes and resources from the experience.

Project Goals / Areas of Improvement:

Since the addition of the guildflow.com static website, anyone who was attempting to load a HTTPS version of mikezornek.com would be met with a security warning as the browser was attempting to load the SSL cert for guildflow.com when serving up mikezornek.com.
The lack of SSL to mikezornek.com has historically been intentional.
The Linode serving my static sites uses Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, which is going to be EOL on April 30, 2021 and so it’d be good to get one a new LTS version.
This is a good excuse to experiment with Terraform, which is something I’ve been learning in support of some possible Guildflow infrastructure updates.

Quick Review of the MikeZornek.com Infrastructure and Deployment

MikeZornek is a static site. I like static sites as they are cheaper to serve and easier to keep secure. I have used WordPress in the distant pass but I was lazy at keeping it updated and eventually it was hacked.
Hugo is used to help build the static site.
The git repo is public and hosted on GitHub.
I’ve setup CircleCI to detect changes on the repo’s master branch and deploy any changes.
The deploy is pretty basic but there are a few HTML/link checks.
Once generated, the static files are copied to my Linode using rsync.
The historic Linode was hand crafted and used Apache as it’s web server.

Learning Terraform Resources

Linode-specific tutorials
Learn the Linode regions or instance types through it’s API.
The Terraform Book
Linode Terraform provider docs.
Linode Community Questions: how to debug stack scripts
Certbot for Ubuntu / ngnix prefers snap now.
Managing multiple SSH keys.

My Terraform Script

provider "linode" {
  # API Token
  token = "abc123"
}

resource "linode_sshkey" "mikezornek_linode_ssh_key" {
  label = "mikezornek_linode_ssh_key"
  ssh_key = chomp(file("~/.ssh/id_rsa_linode_mikezornek.pub"))
}

resource "linode_stackscript" "setup_mikezornek_prod" {
  label = "setup_mikezornek_prod"
  description = "setups nginx and certbot for mikezornek"
  script = file("files/setup.sh")
  images = ["linode/ubuntu20.04"]
  is_public = false
}

resource "linode_instance" "mikezornek_prod" {
  image = "linode/ubuntu20.04"
  label = "mikezornek_prod"
  group = "mikezornek"
  region = "us-east"
  type = "g6-nanode-1"
  authorized_keys = [linode_sshkey.mikezornek_linode_ssh_key.ssh_key]
  # Leave the root password unset if want to keep it random
  root_pass = "abc123"
  backups_enabled = true
  stackscript_id = linode_stackscript.setup_mikezornek_prod.id
}

output "server_ip" {
  value = linode_instance.mikezornek_prod.ip_address
}

The output is useful if you want to ssh into your new linode instance right away with:

$ ssh root@(terraform output server_ip)

My setup bash script

#!/bin/bash

# strict mode
set -xeo pipefail

exec > >(tee -i /var/log/stackscript.log)

FQDN=mikezornek.com

echo Setting hostname to ${FQDN}
hostnamectl set-hostname ${FQDN}

echo Running apt-get update and upgrade
apt update && apt upgrade -y

echo Installing nginx
apt install -y nginx

echo Prep snap
snap install core; snap refresh core

echo Install certbot
snap install --classic certbot

# echo Setup certbot for nginx for the domain ${FQDN}
# we will do this manually after setup since the
# domain should be pointing at this machine at the time of setup
# certbot --nginx --agree-tos -m zorn@zornlabs.com --verbose -d mikezornek.com

echo Starting nginx
sudo service nginx start

echo ALL DONE!

Observe the log file on your new server with:

$ tail -f /var/log/stackscript.log

Terminal Tip: Quickly Launch Into Servers and Services

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:00:00 -0500

With my enjoyment of Elixir and things like the new engine of this blog I find myself back in the Mac OS X Terminal more and more.

One quick tip I think many might miss, is that you can launch new Terminal windows based on a profile. Out of the box the only difference for the default profiles is color themes, but for each profile you can have it execute a series of commands when the new window is created.

For me, I like to use this to quickly jump to project folders or even quickly start up local servers. I also find it helpful to use different colors for different things, like say red for the web server, blue for the database and black for my main command line.

Give it a shot and save yourself some repetitive typing.

Hello from Linode

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 19:20:26 +0000

If you are reading this, then the DNS gods have shown you to my new Linode web server!

Not really sure if I’m happy with WordPress in the long term, but I wanted to move this blog off my old server asap so I stuck with it through the migration. This was the last site to be moved off that old server and now I can close up that account and save $40 a month.

Feels great to be back on Linode too. We used to use Linode back in the day during a old startup I was in (had a few app server nodes, node balancer, db node). I really like the raw access we get on Linode and that it feels like a real computer (unlike AWS which feels like witchcraft for me).

Setup Bots Status as a Screensaver

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 03:55:24 +0000

It’s time to turn off that family photo screensaver and switch to something that’s important, CI status screens!

First up you’ll need this screensaver (or something similar), which can be configured to load a single or multiple websites up as a screensaver.

https://github.com/liquidx/webviewscreensaver

Sadly the screensaver bundle is not developer signed so if you are bit paranoid consider downloading, inspecting and building the thing from source. Or you could be like me and hit run inside of Security after the initial “can’t run, not signed” dialogue.

Next you’ll need some URLs. I run both Xcode Bots and Jenkins off my Mac mini named GLaDOS and for those you’ll want URLs like:

http://glados.local/xcode/bigscreen

http://glados.local:8080/view/Monitor/

For Jenkins I’m currently using the Build Monitor Plugin which is pretty basic but a nice start.

Here’s to hoping all your returns from coffee breaks are bathed in green and passing tests.

Xcode Bots and Branches

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 02:58:05 +0000

Just a little quick tip tonight. If you create a Bot from within Xcode 5 it will assume that the branch you want this Bot to run on is the branch you are currently on. To change this, use the Xcode Bot Web interface. Select your Bot and look for the settings gear in the upper right and then edit the Bot, defining which branch you want to bot to run on.

I’m starting to revive an old side project of mine and it’s feeling good so far. I have Xcode Bots running tests and the static analyzer (all green baby!). I also have Jenkins deploying to HockeyApp when I merge development into my qa branch. Hope to share more details soon.

Updating Homebrew’s “httpListenAddress” Default for Jenkins

mike@mikezornek.com (Mike Zornek) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 02:49:20 +0000

I’ve setup some Jenkins servers in the past for Ruby on Rails apps but these days we are trying to get things running for iOS deployment and testing at work.

To experiment with some plugins and such I have my own Mac mini and installed Jenkins via Homebrew. Overall it’s working great though I was a bit stumped as to why I couldn’t load the Jenkins webpages outside of using localhost:8080 on the Mac mini itself. Worked fine last I did a clean install.

Turns out the Launch Agent settings Homebrew gives you (located at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.jenkins.plist for me) will launch with the following command line parameter --httpListenAddress=127.0.0.1. Edit this to 0.0.0.0 (the default) to allow all addresses.

I know this isn’t the most enjoyable blog post but wanted to post it as Google Food for others who might run into the issue.