Frank can be configured using the following yaml:: .frank.yml commads: - test - deploy - publish newtag: - python: - frank.actions:detect_new_tag deploy: - cmd - runif - test - newtag publish: - shell: - cd docs; make html - python: - frank.actions:recursive_copy The sections commands is a simple list of command you would like to define. This section is optional. It's main purpose is for you to decalre which commands frank should execute upon recieving a load. Each command is a dictionary with the following possible keys:: cmd_name: - cmd # not mandatory if you include it in the list of commands - runif # a conditional to determine whether to run or skip the command # it can contain multiple directives which can be python # code to execute # or shell code For example, let's say you would like to build the sphinx documentation of your project after every push. You start by defining a command build_docs in the following way:: build_docs: - cmd - shell: - cd docs - make html You could also specify:: build_docs: - cmd - shell: cd docs; make html or:: build_docs: - shell: - cwd: docs - cmd: make html This tells that `build_docs` is a command that executes after every push. It will execute a shell and will run the shell commands `cd docs; make html`. Pretty straight forward! Now, let's refine. Suppose we want to build the docs only if the docs changed, thus ignoring completely, changes in the embeded docs strings*:: build_docs: - cmd - runif: - shell: - git --no-pager diff --name-status HEAD~1 | grep -v docs - shell: cd docs; make html Now, the command will run if the latest git commit have changed the docs directory. Since the grep command will return exit with 1. Alternatively, the conditional to run can be some python code that returns True or False. Here is how to specify this: build_docs: - cmd - runif: - python: frank.githubparsers:detect_changes_in_docs - shell: cd docs; make html This, will invoke the method ``detect_changes_in_docs`` which is found in the module `frank.githubparsers`. If this function will return True the shell command will execute. If the methods takes some arguments, they could also be given. Suppose the function is called `detect_changes_in` and this function takes a single paramter called path we can configure the build_docs command in the following way:: build_docs: - cmd - runif: - python: - function: frank.githubparsers:detect_changes_in - args: - path: docs note:: This is probably a lame idea, but it's good for demonstration. So, do write doc-strings, and do build your docs often.