Azure DevOps Dependency Dashboard body can use a higher Markdown body limit

[mhennecke]

How are you running Renovate?

Self-hosted Renovate CLI

Which platform you running Renovate on?

Other (please specify)

Which version of Renovate are you using?

43.263.6

Please tell us more about your question or problem

Azure DevOps currently appears to use the same hard limit (4000) for both pull request descriptions and issue/work item bodies. That is correct for PR descriptions, but it is too low for Dependency Dashboard content, which is stored in a work item markdown field with a much higher limit (up to 1048576).

This causes unnecessary truncation of Dependency Dashboard content in Azure DevOps. A good improvement would be to apply different limits by target object: keep 4000 for PR descriptions, and use the larger work item limit for issue/dashboard bodies. This should preserve full dashboard details without changing current PR behavior.

Logs (if relevant)

N/A

[jamietanna]

Do you have docs to link to that notes the higher limit? Sounds great if so!

[mhennecke]

Yes, I do have evidence for the higher limit. When I try to save a longer work item description in Azure DevOps, the UI returns:
TF401262: Value of long text field System.Description exceeds the maximum allowed length of 1048576.

I’ll attach a screenshot of that exact validation message. It’s from Azure DevOps itself and specifically references the System.Description field limit, which is what Renovate uses for the Dependency Dashboard work item body.

I haven’t found a clearer Microsoft doc page that states the same number as explicitly as this runtime validation error.

Ref:

[jamietanna]

Thanks! I've converted to an Issue: #44606