Verify Generated Code in CI

When you commit your generated Process API, it can silently drift from your BPMN models. Someone edits a .bpmn file, forgets to regenerate, and the committed API no longer matches.

You don't need a dedicated plugin feature to catch this. Because generation is deterministic, a CI job can regenerate the API and fail if the result differs from what's committed.

Prerequisites

• Generated code is committed. Your outputFolderPath points at a tracked source directory (e.g. $projectDir/src/main/kotlin), so there's a reference state to diff against. See Configuration.
• Generation is deterministic. bpmn-to-code produces byte-identical output for the same input, so a re-run only changes files when the models actually changed.

GitHub Actions

Regenerate the API on every pull request and fail if it produces any change:

name: Verify Process API

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  verify-process-api:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@d23441a48e516b6c34aea4fa41551a30e30af803 # v6

      - name: Set up JDK 21
        uses: actions/setup-java@03ad4de0992f5dab5e18fcb136590ce7c4a0ac95 # v5
        with:
          java-version: '21'
          distribution: 'temurin'

      - name: Setup Gradle
        uses: gradle/actions/setup-gradle@3f131e8634966bd73d06cc69884922b02e6faf92 # v6

      - name: Regenerate the Process API
        run: ./gradlew generateBpmnModelApi

      - name: Fail if the generated API is out of date
        run: |
          if [ -n "$(git status --porcelain)" ]; then
            echo "::error::Generated Process API is out of date. Run './gradlew generateBpmnModelApi' and commit the result."
            git --no-pager diff
            exit 1
          fi

Pin your actions

For supply-chain safety, pin each action to a full commit SHA (e.g. actions/checkout@df4cb1c... # v6) rather than a mutable tag.

Why git status --porcelain and not git diff --exit-code

git diff --exit-code only inspects tracked files. Add a new BPMN model and commit it without its generated API, and regeneration creates a new, untracked file — which git diff ignores, so the check passes even though the API is missing.

git status --porcelain reports modified and untracked files, so it catches both a changed API and a missing one. It prints nothing when the working tree is clean.

Known limitation: orphaned files

This check does not detect orphaned generated files. If you delete a BPMN model, its previously generated API file stays on disk. bpmn-to-code only writes files, it never deletes them, so regeneration won't remove the stale file and the diff stays clean. You'd need to spot and delete orphans yourself.

INFO

If you hit a case a CI pipe can't cover — orphan detection being the main one — that's the signal a dedicated check/verify mode in the plugin would be worth building. See issue #5.