Automatically Commit changed Files back to Github with Github Actions
The GitHub Action for committing files for the 80% use case.
This GitHub Action automatically commits files which have been changed during a Workflow run and pushes the commit back to GitHub.
By default, the commit is made in the name of "GitHub Actions" and co-authored by the user that made the last commit.
This Action has been inspired and adapted from the auto-commit-Action of the Canadian Digital Service and this commit-Action by Eric Johnson.
Add the following step at the end of your job, after other steps that might add or change files.
- uses: stefanzweifel/[email protected]
This is a more extended example with all possible options.
- uses: stefanzweifel/[email protected] with: # Optional but recommended # Defaults to "Apply automatic changes" commit_message: Apply automatic changes# Optional branch name where commit should be pushed to # Defaults to the current branch branch: feature-123 # Optional options appended to `git-commit` # See https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit for a list of available options commit_options: '--no-verify --signoff' # Optional glob pattern of files which should be added to the commit # Defaults to all (.) # See the `pathspec`-documentation for git # - https://git-scm.com/docs/git-add#Documentation/git-add.txt-ltpathspecgt82308203 # - https://git-scm.com/docs/gitglossary#Documentation/gitglossary.txt-aiddefpathspecapathspec file_pattern: src/*.js tests/*.js *.php # Optional local file path to the repository # Defaults to the root of the repository repository: . # Optional commit user and author settings commit_user_name: My GitHub Actions Bot # defaults to "GitHub Actions" commit_user_email: [email protected] # defaults to "[email protected]" commit_author: Author <actions> # defaults to author of the commit that triggered the run # Optional tag message # Action will create and push a new tag to the remote repository and the defined branch tagging_message: 'v1.0.0' # Optional options appended to `git-push` # See git-push documentation for details: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push#_options push_options: '--force' # Optional: Disable dirty check and always try to create a commit and push skip_dirty_check: true # Optional: Skip internal call to `git fetch` skip_fetch: true
In this example, we're running
php-cs-fixerin a PHP project to fix the codestyle automatically, then commit possible changed files back to the repository.
Note that we explicitly specify
${{ github.head_ref }}in the checkout Action. This is required in order to work with the
pull_requestevent (or any other non-
pushevent).
name: php-cs-fixeron: pull_request: push: branches: - "main"
jobs: php-cs-fixer: runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps: - uses: actions/[email protected] with: ref: ${{ github.head_ref }} - name: Run php-cs-fixer uses: docker://oskarstark/php-cs-fixer-ga - uses: stefanzweifel/[email protected] with: commit_message: Apply php-cs-fixer changes
action.ymlfor a full list of supported inputs.
You can use these outputs to trigger other Actions in your Workflow run based on the result of
git-auto-commit-action.
changes_detected: Returns either "true" or "false" if the repository was dirty and files have changed.
- name: "Run if changes have been detected" if: steps.auto-commit-action.outputs.changes_detected == 'true' run: echo "Changes!"
You must use
action/[email protected]or later versions to checkout the repository. In non-
pushevents, such as
pull_request, make sure to specify the
refto checkout:
- uses: actions/[email protected] with: ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
You have to do this to avoid that the
checkout-Action clones your repository in a detached state.
The resulting commit will not trigger another GitHub Actions Workflow run. This is due to limitations set by GitHub.
When you use the repository's GITHUBTOKEN to perform tasks on behalf of the GitHub Actions app, events triggered by the GITHUBTOKEN will not create a new workflow run. This prevents you from accidentally creating recursive workflow runs.
You can change this by creating a new Personal Access Token (PAT), storing the token as a secret in your repository and then passing the new token to the
actions/checkoutAction step.
- uses: actions/[email protected] with: token: ${{ secrets.PAT }}
If you work in an organization and don't want to create a PAT from your personal account, we recommend using a robot account for the token.
☝️ Important Notice: This Action technically works with forks. However, please note that the combination of triggers and their options can cause issues. Please read the documentation on which triggers GitHub Actions support.\ If you use this Action in combination with a linter/fixer, it's easier if you run the Action on
pushon your
main-branch.
By default, this Action will not run on Pull Requests which have been opened by forks. (This is a limitation by GitHub, not by us.)
If you want that a Workflow using this Action runs on Pull Requests opened by forks, 2 things have to be changed:
pull_requestevent in your Workflow triggers, you have to add an additional event:
pull_request_target. You can learn more about this event in the GitHub docs.
After you have added the
pull_request_targetto your desired Workflow and the forked repository has enabled Actions and a new Pull Request is opened, the Workflow will run on the forked repository.
Due to the fact that the Workflow is not run on the repository the Pull Request is opened in, you won't see any status indicators inside the Pull Request.
The following workflow runs
php-cs-fixer(a code linter and fixer for PHP) when a
pull_requestis opened. We've added the
pull_request_target-trigger too, to make it work for forks.
name: Format PHPon: [push, pull_request, pull_request_target]
jobs: php-cs-fixer: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/[email protected]
- name: Run php-cs-fixer uses: docker://oskarstark/php-cs-fixer-ga - uses: stefanzweifel/[email protected] with: commit_message: Apply php-cs-fixer changes
Next time a user forks your project and enabled GitHub Actions and opened a Pull Request, the Workflow will run on the the forked repository and will push commits to the same branch.
Here's how the Pull Request will look like:
As you can see, your contributors have to go through hoops to make this work. For Workflows which runter linters and fixers (like the example above) we recommend running them when a push happens on the
master-branch.
For more information about running Actions on forks, see this announcement from GitHub.
By default, GitHub Actions doesn't run Workflows on forks from private repositories. To enable Actions for private repositories enable "Run workflows from pull requests" in your repository settings.
See this announcement from GitHub or the GitHub docs for details.
Using command lines options needs to be done manually for each workflow which you require the option enabled. So for example signing commits requires you to import the gpg signature each and every time. The following list of actions are worth checking out if you need to automate these tasks regulary
Make sure to checkout the correct branch.
If your Workflow can't push the commit to the repository because of authentication issues, please update your Workflow configuration and usage of
actions/checkout.
Updating the
tokenvalue with a Personal Access Token should fix your issues.
If your repository uses protected branches you have to do the following changes to your Workflow for the Action to work properly.
You have to enable force pushes to a protected branch (See documentation) and update your Workflow to use force push like this.
- uses: stefanzweifel/[email protected] with: commit_message: Apply php-cs-fixer changes push_options: --force
In addition, you have to create a new Personal Access Token (PAT), store the token as a secret in your repository and pass the new token to the
actions/checkoutAction step.
- uses: actions/[email protected] with: token: ${{ secrets.PAT }}
You can learn more about Personal Access Token in the GitHub documentation.
Note: If you're working in an organisation and you don't want to create the PAT from your personal account, we recommend using a bot-account for such tokens.
This is due to limitations set up by GitHub, commits of this Action do not trigger new Workflow runs.
The package has tests written in bats. Before you can run the test suite locally, you have to install the dependencies with
npmor
yarn.
npm install yarn
You can run the test suite with
npmor
yarn.
npm run test yarn test
We use SemVer for versioning. For the versions available, see the tags on this repository.
We also provide major version tags to make it easier to always use the latest release of a major version. For example you can use
stefanzweifel/[email protected]to always use the latest release of the current major version. (More information about this here.)
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.