Github Actions

What are GitHub Actions?

GitHub Actions is a CI/CD platform that allows you to automate workflows directly in your GitHub repository. It can be used for tasks like running tests, building applications, and deploying code. In the context of matt-init, it sets up a basic linting workflow to ensure code quality.

Setting Up GitHub Actions in matt-init

When you create a new project with matt-init, you can choose to include GitHub Actions for linting. This is done through via default, but can be disabled using the --no-linting-ci flag.

Understanding YAML

YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) is a human-readable data serialization format often used for configuration files. I hate it. If I ever write YAML again, it will be too soon. But it's widely used in GitHub Actions workflows, so you'll need to understand the basics.

# The name of the workflow
name: Lint (npm)

# What events trigger this workflow?
# In this case, we run on pull requests to the main branch
on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

# The jobs that this workflow will run
jobs:
  # The lint job
  eslint:
    # What environment to run this job in?
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    # How long to wait before timing out this job
    timeout-minutes: 60
    # The steps that this job will run
    steps:
      # Check out the code from the repository
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      # Set up Node.js using the latest LTS version
      - name: Use Node.js LTS
        # This action sets up Node.js for the workflow
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        # Specify the Node.js version and enable npm caching
        with:
          node-version: "lts/*"
          cache: npm

      # Install dependencies using npm
      - name: Install deps
        run: npm ci

      # Run the linting command
      - name: Run lint
        run: npm run lint

This is the default linting workflow created by matt-init when using NPM. It runs on every pull request to the main branch, checks out the code, sets up Node.js, installs dependencies, and runs the linting command.

Customizing Your Workflow

You can customize the workflow file located at .github/workflows/lint.yaml in your project. Here are some common customizations:

• Change the Node.js version: Modify the node-version field in the setup-node step. (If you use Nix, this is handled automatically.)
• Add more steps: You can add additional steps to run tests, build your application, or deploy your code.
• Change the trigger events: Modify the on section to run the workflow on different events, like push or release.

Resources