Workflow to release a GitHub Action

release.yml

name: release

on:
  push:
    branches-ignore:
      - '**'
    tags:
      - 'v*.*.*'

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        # https://github.com/actions/checkout
        name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v1
      -
        name: Prepare
        id: prepare
        run: |
          TAG=${GITHUB_REF#refs/tags/}
          MINOR=${TAG%.*}
          MAJOR=${MINOR%.*}
          echo ::set-output name=tag_name::${TAG}
          echo ::set-output name=minor_tag::${MINOR}
          echo ::set-output name=major_tag::${MAJOR}
          echo ::set-output name=major_exists::$(git show-ref origin/releases/${MAJOR})
      -
        name: Set up Git
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        run: |
          git config user.name "${GITHUB_ACTOR}"
          git config user.email "${GITHUB_ACTOR}@users.noreply.github.com"
          git remote set-url origin https://x-access-token:${GITHUB_TOKEN}@github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}.git
      -
        name: Checkout releases/${{ steps.prepare.outputs.major_tag }} branch
        run: |
          git checkout -B releases/${{ steps.prepare.outputs.major_tag }}
          if [ -n "${{ steps.prepare.outputs.major_exists }}" ]; then
            git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/releases/${{ steps.prepare.outputs.major_tag }} releases/${{ steps.prepare.outputs.major_tag }}
          fi
      -
        # https://github.com/actions/setup-node
        name: Set up Node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v1
      -
        name: NPM production deps
        run: |
          rm -rf node_modules
          sed -i '/node_modules/d' .gitignore
          npm install --production
      -
        name: Commit and push changes
        run: |
          git add --all
          git status --short -uno
          git commit -m 'Release ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.tag_name }}'
          git show --stat-count=10 HEAD
          git push -f origin releases/${{ steps.prepare.outputs.major_tag }}
      -
        name: Update ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.minor_tag }} tag
        run: |
          git push origin :refs/tags/${{ steps.prepare.outputs.minor_tag }}
          git tag -fa ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.minor_tag }} -m "Release ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.tag_name }}"
          git push origin ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.minor_tag }}
      -
        name: Update ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.major_tag }} tag
        run: |
          git push origin :refs/tags/${{ steps.prepare.outputs.major_tag }}
          git tag -fa ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.major_tag }} -m "Release ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.tag_name }}"
          git push origin ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.major_tag }}

Workflow to release a GitHub Action

This workflow will automate the creation of branches and tags when you release your GitHub Action according to the recommendations of GitHub.

It will be triggered on tag creation with this specific pattern: v*.*.*. This pattern is important because we want to take care of major, minor version of your GitHub Action to create specific branches and tags.

Let's take an example with the ghaction-github-pages action. I have already uploaded this workflow and now I will create a new release v1.2.5 for this action:

Here's what the steps look like:

• Prepare step will extract major v1 and minor v1.2 from GITHUB_REF env var (tag name)
• Then we check if major branch releases/v1 exists and create it if not.
• As this is a Typescript action, npm deps are downloaded.
• Changes are committed and pushed to releases/v1
• Finally tags are created for minor v1.2 and major v1

Here's what your Releases page will looks like: