GitHub Deployments

bobheadxi/deployments is a GitHub Action for working painlessly with GitHub deployment statuses. Instead of exposing convoluted Action configuration that mirrors that of the GitHub API like some of the other available Actions do, this Action simply exposes a number of configurable, easy-to-use "steps" common to most deployment lifecycles.

📢 This project is in need of additional maintainers - if you are interested in helping out please let me know!

• Configuration
  • step: start
  • step: finish
  • step: deactivate-env
  • step: delete-env
• Debugging
• Migrating to v1

A simple example:

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: start deployment
      uses: bobheadxi/deployments@v1
      id: deployment
      with:
        step: start
        token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        env: release

    - name: do my deploy
      # ...

    - name: update deployment status
      uses: bobheadxi/deployments@v1
      if: always()
      with:
        step: finish
        token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        status: ${{ job.status }}
        env: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.env }}
        deployment_id: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.deployment_id }}

You can also refer to other projects that also use this action - you can find more usages of this action on Sourcegraph, or check out the following examples:

• github/super-linter - GitHub's all-in-one linter Action
• mxcl/PromiseKit - promises for Swift and Objective-C
• saleor/saleor - modular, high performance, headless e-commerce storefront
• sharetribe/sharetribe - marketplace software
• skylines-project/skylines - live tracking, flight database and competition web platform

Also feel free to chime in on the show and tell discussion to share your usages of this Action!

Check out this blog post for a bit of background on the origins of this project.

Configuration

The following inputs configuration options are for all steps:

Variable	Default	Purpose
step		One of start, finish, deactivate-env, or delete-env
token	${{ github.token }}	provide your ${{ github.token }} or ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} for API access
env		identifier for environment to deploy to (e.g. staging, prod, main)
repository	Current repository	target a specific repository for updates, e.g. owner/repo
logs	URL to GitHub commit checks	URL of your deployment logs
desc	GitHub-generated description	description for this deployment
ref	github.ref	Specify a particular git ref to use, (e.g. ${{ github.head_ref }})

step: start

This is best used on the push: { branches: [ ... ] } event, but you can also have release: { types: [ published ] } trigger this event. start should be followed by whatever deployment tasks you want to do, and it creates and marks a deployment as "started":

In addition to the core configuration, the following inputs are available:

Variable	Default	Purpose
deployment_id		Use an existing deployment instead of creating a new one (e.g. ${{ github.event.deployment.id }})
override	false	whether to mark existing deployments of this environment as inactive
payload		JSON-formatted dictionary with extra information about the deployment
task	'deploy'	change the task associated with this deployment, can be any string

The following outputs are available:

Variable	Purpose
deployment_id	ID of created GitHub deployment
status_id	ID of created GitHub deployment status
env	name of configured environment

Simple Push Example

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    steps:
    - name: start deployment
      uses: bobheadxi/deployments@v1
      id: deployment
      with:
        step: start
        env: release

    - name: do my deploy
      # ...

Simple Pull Request Example

on:
  pull_request:

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: start deployment
      uses: bobheadxi/deployments@v1
      id: deployment
      with:
        step: start
        env: integration

    - name: do my deploy
      # ...

step: finish

This is best used after step: start and should follow whatever deployment tasks you want to do in the same workflow. finish marks an in-progress deployment as complete:

In addition to the core configuration, the following inputs are available:

Variable	Default	Purpose
status		provide the current deployment job status ${{ job.status }}
deployment_id		identifier for deployment to update (see outputs of step: start)
env_url		URL to view deployed environment
override	true	whether to manually mark existing deployments of this environment as inactive
auto_inactive	false	whether to let GitHub handle marking existing deployments of this environment as inactive (if and only if a new deployment succeeds).

Simple Example

# ...

jobs:
  deploy:
    steps:
    - name: start deployment
      # ... see previous example

    - name: do my deploy
      # ...

    - name: update deployment status
      uses: bobheadxi/deployments@v1
      if: always()
      with:
        step: finish
        token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        status: ${{ job.status }}
        env: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.env }}
        deployment_id: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.deployment_id }}

step: deactivate-env

This is best used on the pull_request: { types: [ closed ] } event, since GitHub does not seem to provide a event to detect when branches are deleted. This step can be used to automatically shut down deployments you create on pull requests and mark environments as destroyed:

Refer to the core configuration for available inputs.

Simple Example

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [ closed ]

jobs:
  prune:
    steps:
    # see https://dev.to/bobheadxi/branch-previews-with-google-app-engine-and-github-actions-3pco
    - name: extract branch name
      id: get_branch
      shell: bash
      env:
        PR_HEAD: ${{ github.head_ref }}
      run: echo "##[set-output name=branch;]$(echo ${PR_HEAD#refs/heads/} | tr / -)"

    - name: do my deployment shutdown
      # ...

    - name: mark environment as deactivated
      uses: bobheadxi/deployments@v1
      with:
        step: deactivate-env
        token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        env: ${{ steps.get_branch.outputs.branch }}
        desc: Environment was pruned

step: delete-env

This is the same as deactivate-env, except deletes the environment entirely. See step: deactivate-env for more details.

Note that the default GITHUB_TOKEN does not allow environment deletion - you have to set a personal access token with deployments:write and administration:write permissions and provide it in the token input.

Refer to the core configuration for available inputs.

Debugging

The argument debug: true can be provided to print arguments used by deployments and log debug information.

If you run into an problems or have any questions, feel free to open an issue or discussion!

Migrating to v1

bobheadxi/deployments@v1 makes the following breaking changes from v0.6.x:

• CHANGED: no_override is now override, and the default behaviour is override: true in step: finish (step: start behaviour remains unchanged, but you can now set override: true on it now as well).
• CHANGED: log_args is now debug, but does the same thing as before.
• CHANGED: env is now always required. You can use env: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.env }} to avoid repeating your env configuration.
• REMOVED: transient - all deployments created by this action are transient by default, with removals handled by override, auto_inactive, or step: deactivate-env.
• ADDED: step: delete-env deletes an environment entirely.

Then you can change your workflow to target the v1 tag, and automatically receive updates going forward:

- uses: bobheadxi/[email protected]
+ uses: bobheadxi/deployments@v1

Migrating to v1.2.0

The token configuration variable now has a default value so if you are happy with the default (${{ github.secret }}) you can simplify the action configuration by removing this from your actions.