GitHub Actions Cheatsheet

Workflow Skeleton

Minimal file

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI
on: push
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci && npm test

Triggers

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths: ["src/**"]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 6 * * *"      # daily 06:00 UTC
  workflow_dispatch:         # manual run
  workflow_call:             # reusable

Common events

Jobs & Steps

Dependencies

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm test
  deploy:
    needs: test              # wait for test
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: ./deploy.sh

Runners

runs-on: ubuntu-latest    # windows-latest, macos-latest
runs-on: [self-hosted, linux, gpu]

Matrix

strategy:
  fail-fast: false
  matrix:
    os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest]
    node: ["20", "22"]
runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}

Secrets & Permissions

permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write

steps:
  - run: ./deploy.sh
    env:
      TOKEN: ${{ secrets.API_TOKEN }}
      GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

environment: production      # protection rules apply

Cache & Artifacts

Cache

- uses: actions/cache@v4
  with:
    path: ~/.npm
    key: npm-${{ runner.os }}-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json') }}
    restore-keys: npm-${{ runner.os }}-

Artifacts

- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with: { name: dist, path: dist/ }
- uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
  with: { name: dist }

Contexts & Expressions

Step conditions

if: success()          # default
if: failure()          # run only if a prior step failed
if: always()           # run regardless
if: github.event_name == 'push'