GitHub Actions Generator

Generate production-ready GitHub Actions workflows and custom actions following current best practices, security standards, and naming conventions. All generated resources are automatically validated using the devops-skills:github-actions-validator skill.

Quick Reference

Core Capabilities

1. Generate Workflows

Triggers: "Create a workflow for...", "Build a CI/CD pipeline..."

Process:

1. •Understand requirements (triggers, runners, dependencies)
2. •Reference references/best-practices.md for patterns
3. •Reference references/common-actions.md for action versions
4. •Generate workflow with:
   • •Semantic names, pinned actions (SHA), proper permissions
   • •Concurrency controls, caching, matrix strategies
5. •Validate with devops-skills:github-actions-validator skill
6. •Fix issues and re-validate if needed

Minimal Example:

name: CI Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:

permissions:
  contents: read

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

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@08c6903cd8c0fde910a37f88322edcfb5dd907a8 # v5.0.0
      - uses: actions/setup-node@2028fbc5c25fe9cf00d9f06a71cc4710d4507903 # v6.0.0
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

2. Generate Custom Actions

Triggers: "Create a composite action...", "Build a Docker action...", "Create a JavaScript action..."

Types:

• •Composite: Combine multiple steps → Fast startup
• •Docker: Custom environment/tools → Isolated
• •JavaScript: API access, complex logic → Fastest

Process:

1. •Use templates from assets/templates/action/
2. •Follow structure in references/custom-actions.md
3. •Include branding, inputs/outputs, documentation
4. •Validate with devops-skills:github-actions-validator skill

See references/custom-actions.md for:

• •Action metadata and branding
• •Directory structure patterns
• •Versioning and release workflows

3. Generate Reusable Workflows

Triggers: "Create a reusable workflow...", "Make this workflow callable..."

Key Elements:

• •workflow_call trigger with typed inputs
• •Explicit secrets (avoid secrets: inherit)
• •Outputs mapped from job outputs
• •Minimal permissions

on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      environment:
        required: true
        type: string
    secrets:
      deploy-token:
        required: true
    outputs:
      result:
        value: ${{ jobs.build.outputs.result }}

See references/advanced-triggers.md for complete patterns.

4. Generate Security Workflows

Triggers: "Add security scanning...", "Add dependency review...", "Generate SBOM..."

Components:

• •Dependency Review: actions/dependency-review-action@v4
• •SBOM Attestations: actions/attest-sbom@v2
• •CodeQL Analysis: github/codeql-action

Required Permissions:

permissions:
  contents: read
  security-events: write  # For CodeQL
  id-token: write         # For attestations
  attestations: write     # For attestations

See references/best-practices.md section on security.

5. Modern Features

Triggers: "Add job summaries...", "Use environments...", "Run in container..."

See references/modern-features.md for:

• •Job summaries ($GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY)
• •Deployment environments with approvals
• •Container jobs with services
• •Workflow annotations

6. Public Action Documentation

When using public actions:

1. •

   Search for documentation:

   code

   "[owner/repo] [version] github action documentation"
   

2. •

   Or use Context7 MCP:

   • •mcp__context7__resolve-library-id to find action
   • •mcp__context7__get-library-docs for documentation
3. •

   Pin to SHA with version comment:

   yaml

   - uses: actions/checkout@08c6903cd8c0fde910a37f88322edcfb5dd907a8 # v5.0.0
   

See references/common-actions.md for pre-verified action versions.

Validation Workflow

CRITICAL: Every generated resource MUST be validated.

1. •Generate workflow/action file
2. •Invoke devops-skills:github-actions-validator skill
3. •If errors: fix and re-validate
4. •If success: present with usage instructions

Skip validation only for:

• •Partial code snippets
• •Documentation examples
• •User explicitly requests skip

Mandatory Standards

All generated resources must follow:

See references/best-practices.md for complete guidelines.

Resources

Reference Documents

Templates

Common Patterns

Matrix Testing

strategy:
  matrix:
    os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest]
    node: [18, 20, 22]
  fail-fast: false

Conditional Deployment

deploy:
  if: github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'

Artifact Sharing

# Upload
- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with:
    name: build-${{ github.sha }}
    path: dist/

# Download (in dependent job)
- uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
  with:
    name: build-${{ github.sha }}

Workflow Summary

1. •Understand requirements
2. •Reference appropriate docs
3. •Generate with standards
4. •Search for public action docs (if needed)
5. •Validate with devops-skills:github-actions-validator
6. •Fix any errors
7. •Present validated result