MIT License
Use this template to bootstrap the creation of a container action with the GitHub Actions toolkit. 🚀
This template includes compilation support, tests, a validation workflow, publishing, and versioning guidance.
For more information on the GitHub Actions toolkit, see the
actions/toolkit
repository
To create your own action, you can use this repository as a template! Just follow the below instructions:
[!IMPORTANT]
Make sure to remove or update the
CODEOWNERS
file! For details on how to use this file, see About code owners.
After you've cloned the repository to your local machine or codespace, you'll need to perform some initial setup steps before you can develop your action.
[!NOTE]
You'll need to have reasonably modern versions of Node.js and Docker handy (e.g. Node.js v20+ and docker engine v20+).
🛠️ Install the dependencies
npm install
🏗️ Package the TypeScript for distribution
npm run bundle
✅ Run the tests
$ npm test
PASS ./index.test.js
✓ throws invalid number (3ms)
✓ wait 500 ms (504ms)
✓ test runs (95ms)
...
🛠️ Build the container
Make sure to replace actions/container-toolkit-action
with an appropriate
label for your container.
docker build -t actions/container-toolkit-action .
✅ Test the container
You can pass individual environment variables using the --env
or -e
flag.
$ docker run --env INPUT_MILLISECONDS=2000 actions/container-toolkit-action
::debug::The event payload: {}
16:19:19 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
16:19:21 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
::set-output name=time::16:19:21 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Or you can pass a file with environment variables using --env-file
.
$ echo "INPUT_MILLISECONDS=2000" > ./.env.test
$ docker run --env-file ./.env.test actions/container-toolkit-action
::debug::The event payload: {}
16:19:19 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
16:19:21 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
::set-output name=time::16:19:21 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
The action.yml
file defines metadata about your action, such as
input(s) and output(s). For details about this file, see
Metadata syntax for GitHub Actions.
When you copy this repository, update action.yml
with the name, description,
inputs, and outputs for your action.
The src/
directory is the heart of your action! This contains the
source code that will be run when your action is invoked. You can replace the
contents of this directory with your own code.
There are a few things to keep in mind when writing your action code:
Most GitHub Actions toolkit and CI/CD operations are processed asynchronously.
In main.ts
, you will see that the action is run in an async
function.
import * as core from '@actions/core'
//...
export async function run(): Promise<void> {
try {
//...
} catch (error) {
core.setFailed(error.message)
}
}
For more information about the GitHub Actions toolkit, see the documentation.
In this template, the container action runs a Node.js script,
node /dist/index.js
, when the container is launched. Since you can choose any
base Docker image and language you like, you can change this to suite your
needs. There are a few main things to remember when writing code for container
actions:
Inputs are accessed using argument identifiers or environment variables
(depending on what you set in your action.yml
). For example, the first input
to this action, milliseconds
, can be accessed in the Node.js script using
the process.env.INPUT_MILLISECONDS
environment variable or the
getInput('milliseconds')
function from the @actions/core
library.
// Use an action input
const ms: number = parseInt(core.getInput('milliseconds'), 10)
// Use an environment variable
const ms: number = parseInt(process.env.INPUT_MILLISECONDS, 10)
GitHub Actions supports a number of different workflow commands such as
creating outputs, setting environment variables, and more. These are
accomplished by writing to different GITHUB_*
environment variables. For
more information, see
Commands.
Scenario | Example |
---|---|
Set environment vars | core.exportVariable('MY_VAR', 'my-value') |
Set outputs | core.setOutput('time', new Date().toTimeString()) |
Set secrets | core.setSecret('mySecret') |
Prepend to PATH
|
core.addPath('/usr/local/bin') |
So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and start customizing your action!
Create a new branch
git checkout -b releases/v1
Replace the contents of src/
with your action code
Add tests to __tests__/
for your source code
Format, test, and build the action
npm run all
[!WARNING]
This step is important! It will run
ncc
to build the final JavaScript action code with all dependencies included. If you do not run this step, your action will not work correctly when it is used in a workflow. This step also includes the--license
option forncc
, which will create a license file for all of the production node modules used in your project.
Commit your changes
git add .
git commit -m "My first action is ready!"
Push them to your repository
git push -u origin releases/v1
Create a pull request and get feedback on your action
Merge the pull request into the main
branch
Your action is now published! 🚀
For information about versioning your action, see Versioning in the GitHub Actions toolkit.
You can now validate the action by referencing it in a workflow file. For
example, ci.yml
demonstrates how to reference an
action in the same repository.
steps:
- name: Checkout
id: checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Test Local Action
id: test-action
uses: ./
with:
milliseconds: 1000
- name: Print Output
id: output
run: echo "${{ steps.test-action.outputs.time }}"
For example workflow runs, check out the Actions tab! 🚀
After testing, you can create version tag(s) that developers can use to reference different stable versions of your action. For more information, see Versioning in the GitHub Actions toolkit.
To include the action in a workflow in another repository, you can use the
uses
syntax with the @
symbol to reference a specific branch, tag, or commit
hash.
steps:
- name: Checkout
id: checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Test Local Action
id: test-action
uses: actions/container-toolkit-action@v1 # Commit with the `v1` tag
with:
milliseconds: 1000
- name: Print Output
id: output
run: echo "${{ steps.test-action.outputs.time }}"