Notes / tag / github-actions

#github-actions

22 notes

1 — Why GitHub Actions

Explains what event-driven automation on the GitHub ecosystem buys you, compares GitHub Actions against Jenkins, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Buildkite, and Tekton, and calls out when NOT to reach for GitHub Actions at all.

ci-cd github-actions book

10 — Reusable Workflows

Covers workflow_call, typed inputs/outputs/secrets, and versioning and best-practice conventions for DRY, org-shared CI, grounded in this repo's own reusable Docker, .NET, Python, and Terraform workflows.

ci-cd github-actions book

11 — Composite Actions

Compares composite actions, JavaScript actions, and Docker actions as ways to package and publish reusable steps to the Marketplace.

ci-cd github-actions book

12 — Workflow Templates

Covers organization and enterprise workflow templates as a governance and standardization mechanism across many repositories.

ci-cd github-actions book

13 — GitHub-Hosted Runners

Covers GitHub-hosted runner images, resource limits, performance characteristics, and billing model.

ci-cd github-actions book

14 — Self-Hosted Runners

Covers self-hosted runner installation, labels, runner groups, scaling, autoscaling, security hardening, and maintenance for enterprise fleets.

ci-cd github-actions book

15 — Actions Runner Controller (ARC)

Covers running Actions Runner Controller on Kubernetes — runner scale sets, autoscaling, ephemeral runners, and enterprise fleet architecture.

ci-cd github-actions book

16 — Monorepo Pipelines

Covers path filters, selective builds, dependency graphs, and incremental builds for CI in a monorepo.

ci-cd github-actions book

17 — Large-Scale Repository Automation

Covers automating CI/CD across many repositories, org-wide shared workflows, and governance at scale.

ci-cd github-actions book

18 — Azure

Covers Azure Login, ARM templates, AKS, Container Apps, Functions, Key Vault, Bicep, and Terraform deployment from a workflow.

ci-cd github-actions book

19 — AWS

Covers IAM, OIDC federation, ECS, Lambda, and EKS deployment from a workflow.

ci-cd github-actions book

2 — GitHub Actions Architecture

Walks the full GitHub Actions object model — repositories, events, workflows, jobs, steps, runners, the Marketplace, artifacts, cache, packages, and environments — and how they compose.

ci-cd github-actions book

20 — Google Cloud

Covers GKE, Cloud Run, and Workload Identity Federation deployment from a workflow.

ci-cd github-actions book

21 — Containers

Covers building with Docker and Buildx, multi-stage and multi-arch builds, and image signing in CI.

ci-cd github-actions book

22 — Kubernetes

Covers deploying to Kubernetes from a workflow with kubectl, Helm, and Kustomize, versus triggering GitOps reconciliation via ArgoCD or FluxCD.

ci-cd github-actions book

3 — YAML Essentials

Covers the YAML syntax, expressions, variables, anchors, and multiline string forms that every GitHub Actions workflow file depends on.

ci-cd github-actions book

4 — Workflow Syntax

Documents the top-level workflow keys — name, on, jobs, steps, uses, run, env, defaults, permissions, and concurrency — and how they interact.

ci-cd github-actions book

5 — Events & Triggers

Surveys the trigger surface — push, pull_request, workflow_dispatch, workflow_call, schedule, repository_dispatch, release, issue and issue_comment events, tags, and branch/path filters — for deciding what fires a workflow.

ci-cd github-actions book

6 — Expressions & Contexts

Details the github, env, vars, secrets, matrix, strategy, needs, runner, job, steps, and inputs/outputs contexts plus expression functions like hashFiles() used to make workflows conditional and data-driven.

ci-cd github-actions book

7 — Running Jobs

Covers sequential vs. parallel job execution, job dependencies via needs, conditional job/step execution, and continue-on-error semantics for fault-tolerant pipelines.

ci-cd github-actions book

8 — Matrix Builds

Explains matrix strategy fan-out, dynamic matrices computed at runtime, include/exclude overrides, and common OS and language matrix patterns.

ci-cd github-actions book

9 — Workflow Outputs

Covers job outputs, step outputs, and passing data between jobs and reusable workflows without relying on shared filesystem state.

ci-cd github-actions book