Github Actions

GitHub Actions

GitHub Actions automates software workflows with event-driven CI/CD pipelines. Workflows are YAML files in .github/workflows/ that define jobs, steps, and actions triggered by repository events.

Action types:

• Workflow files: CI/CD pipelines using existing actions (.github/workflows/*.yml)
• Custom JavaScript actions: Fast, cross-platform, use @actions/toolkit
• Custom Docker actions: Full environment control, Linux only, slower startup
• Composite actions: Combine multiple steps into reusable units

Quick Start

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Run tests
        run: npm test

Ruby/Rails with RSpec:

- uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
  with:
    ruby-version: .ruby-version
    bundler-cache: true

- name: Setup database
  env:
    RAILS_ENV: test
  run: bin/rails db:setup

- run: bundle exec rspec

TypeScript/Node.js:

- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '20'
    cache: 'npm'

- run: npm ci
- run: npm run build --if-present
- run: npm test

Deploy to Fly.io:

- uses: superfly/flyctl-actions/setup-flyctl@1.5
- run: flyctl deploy --remote-only
  env:
    FLY_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.FLY_API_TOKEN }}

Creating Workflows

1. Identify triggers: push, pull_request, workflow_dispatch, schedule, etc.
2. Define jobs: Specify runner OS, steps, and dependencies
3. Add security: Set GITHUB_TOKEN permissions to read-only, pin actions to SHA
4. Optimize performance: Enable caching, use matrix builds for parallelization
5. Test locally: Use act or GitHub CLI to test before pushing

Evaluating Workflows

1. Security scan: Check permissions, secrets exposure, action pinning, pull_request_target usage
2. Performance analysis: Identify slow steps, missing caches, parallelization opportunities
3. Best practices review: Validate naming, structure, error handling, documentation

Critical Security Patterns

1. Always set GITHUB_TOKEN permissions to read-only:

   permissions:
     contents: read
   

2. Pin actions to commit SHA (most secure):

   - uses: actions/checkout@b4ffde65f46336ab88eb53be808477a3936bae11 # v4.1.1
   

3. Use OIDC for cloud deployments (credential-less):

   permissions:
     id-token: write
     contents: read
   

4. Avoid pull_request_target with untrusted code - runs in base repository context with access to secrets

5. Never log secrets - use ::add-mask:: for dynamic values

6. Validate user-controlled inputs via environment variables:

   - env:
       TITLE: ${{ github.event.issue.title }}
     run: echo "Title: $TITLE"
   

For complete security guidelines, see references/security-checklist.md.

Key Anti-Patterns

• Running as root in Docker actions
• Hardcoded secrets (always use GitHub Secrets)
• Overly broad permissions
• No caching (wastes time on every run)
• Sequential jobs that could be parallel
• Using branch references for actions (use tags or SHAs)
• No timeout-minutes (jobs default to 6 hours)
• fetch-depth: 0 when full history isn't needed

Concurrency Control

Cancel outdated runs to save resources:

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

Reference Guides

For detailed information on specific topics:

• Workflow Syntax: Complete YAML reference - triggers, jobs, steps, expressions, contexts, matrix, reusable workflows
• Custom Actions: Building JavaScript, Docker, and composite actions with @actions/toolkit
• Security Checklist: GITHUB_TOKEN permissions, action pinning, OIDC setup, secrets management, input validation, self-hosted runner security
• Performance Optimization: Dependency caching (Ruby/Node/Python/Docker), parallelization, selective triggers, test splitting, self-hosted runners
• Common Workflows: Production-ready templates for Rails CI/CD, TypeScript CI, Heroku/Fly.io deployments, monorepos, release automation, full-stack examples
• Troubleshooting: Permission errors, caching issues, secret problems, database connections, timeout debugging, act for local testing

Validation Checklist

Pre-deployment:

• YAML syntax valid
• Required secrets configured
• GITHUB_TOKEN permissions set to minimum required
• Actions pinned to SHA or trusted tags
• Caching configured for dependencies
• Workflow triggers appropriate for use case

Post-deployment:

• First run completes successfully
• Execution time acceptable (<15 min for full CI)
• No secrets in logs
• Cache hit rate >80% after first run