# Github Actions Update Actions

> Use when updating every outdated GitHub Action across one repository or a fleet, one researched change at a time.

- Skill: `tony/github-actions-update-actions` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tony/github-actions-update-actions`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tony/github-actions-update-actions/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: tony (https://skillmd.com/u/tony)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tony/github-actions-update-actions

---


# Update All GitHub Actions

Audit every `uses:` pin across the repositories in scope, then bring
the out-of-date ones current — one commit per repository and action,
each justified against the vendor's own release notes.

Use the `github-actions-bumping-github-actions` skill for
the phase structure. It reads the same two references this command
does, so the audit and the single-action path cannot drift:
`references/action-pinning.md` and
`references/dependabot-closeout.md`.

For a single named action, use the `github-actions-update-action` skill instead.

User arguments: $ARGUMENTS

## Context

Repository — run this command and read the output:

```bash
git remote get-url origin 2>/dev/null || echo "(not a git repository)"
```

Default branch — run this command and read the output:

```bash
git symbolic-ref --short refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null || echo "(unknown)"
```

Pins on this branch — run this command and read the output:

```bash
git grep -hoE 'uses:[[:space:]]*[^[:space:]]+' "$(git symbolic-ref --short refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2>/dev/null || echo HEAD)" -- '.github/workflows/*' '.github/actions/*' 2>/dev/null | sed -E 's/uses:[[:space:]]*//' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn || echo "(no workflows found)"
```

Open dependabot pull requests here — run this command and read the output:

```bash
gh pr list --author app/dependabot --state open --limit 50 --json number,title --jq '.[] | "#\(.number) \(.title)"' 2>/dev/null || echo "(none, or gh unavailable)"
```

## Procedure

Follow the skill's phases. This command supplies the scope and the
fan-out.

### 1. Scope

Default scope is the current repository. `--root` audits every git
repository beneath a directory; `--owner` keeps only those whose remote
belongs to the given accounts or organisations; `--repo` names
individual ones. Exclude forks — check the fork flag, not the owner
name — and say which were excluded.

### 2. Inventory and verify

Run the skill's inventory and verification phases across the whole
scope before touching anything. Every target tag is confirmed to exist
first; a dangling ref written fleet-wide is the expensive failure this
sequencing prevents.

### 3. Research, one chain per distinct upgrade

Group the work by upgrade chain rather than by repository — twenty
repositories moving `actions/checkout` from the same major share one
piece of research. Dispatch a subagent per chain where the host
supports it. Validate every release URL before it reaches a commit
message.

### 4. Orchestration plan

Present the plan the skill defines and wait for approval. With
`--audit-only`, stop here and report; nothing is written.

### 5. Commit and push

One commit per repository and action. Work through repositories one at
a time, pushing as each completes, so an interrupted run resumes
cleanly. Repositories parked on a feature branch get a throwaway
worktree based on the remote default branch.

### 6. Verify and close out

Watch CI per repository. Attribute failures before blaming the bumps.
Close every dependabot pull request whose action was bumped, citing the
commit that superseded it; close as obsolete any whose action no longer
appears in a workflow.

## Rules

- No version string is written before its tag is confirmed to exist.
- One commit per repository and action — never bundle actions.
- Commit messages never cite dependabot; the pull request cites the
  commit.
- A fleet-wide claim is verified per repository before it enters that
  repository's commit body.
- Report unrelated breakage; fix it only when a bump caused it.
- Forks and upstream projects are out of scope.

## Output

Open with a one-line hero (`✓ N commits across M repos` or
`⚠ Audit only: N pins out of date`), then exactly these sections:

1. `## Audit` — every action in scope with its current pins and the
   latest version, and what was excluded as fork, upstream, or already
   current.
2. `## Upgrades` — one entry per distinct chain: what changed, release
   links, and which repositories the breaking changes reach.
3. `## Commits` — per repository, the commits made and whether they
   were pushed.
4. `## Close-out` — CI results, dependabot pull requests closed with
   the commit each cited, and any failure shown to predate the bumps.
5. `## Drift` — repositories with no dependabot configuration, and
   actions pinned to a moving branch.

End with an `ask-user-choice` panel offering next steps (for example:
add dependabot configuration to the repos lacking it, pin the moving
branches, stop here) — skip the panel only in plan mode.


## Portability notes

- `ask-user-choice` — present the listed options and wait for the user to pick one. Hosts with a structured multiple-choice tool (Claude Code's `AskUserQuestion`) should use it; otherwise print a numbered list and wait for a numbered reply. Never proceed on an assumed answer.
- `$ARGUMENTS` — the text the user passed when invoking this skill. If your host does not substitute it, read it as the user's request in the current turn, and ask when there is none.
- Bundled files — every relative path in this skill points at a file shipped inside this skill directory. Read them from here, not from the host's plugin tree.