A GitHub Action to send arbitrary requests to GitHub's REST API
Minimal example
name: Log latest release
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
logLatestRelease:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: octokit/[email protected]
id: get_latest_release
with:
route: GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/releases/latest
owner: octokit
repo: request-action
env:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
- run: "echo latest release: '${{ steps.get_latest_release.outputs.data }}'"
More complex examples involving POST
, setting custom media types, and parsing output data
name: Check run
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
create-file:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
# Create check run
- uses: octokit/[email protected]
id: create_check_run
with:
route: POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/check-runs
owner: octokit
repo: request-action
name: "Test check run"
head_sha: ${{ github.sha }}
output: | # The | is significant!
title: Test check run title
summary: A summary of the test check run
images:
- alt: Test image
image_url: https://octodex.github.com/images/jetpacktocat.png
env:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
# Download file
- uses: octokit/[email protected]
id: download_file
with:
route: GET /repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/README.md
owner: octokit
repo: request-action
mediaType: | # The | is significant!
format: raw
env:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
# Update check run to completed, successful status
- uses: octokit/[email protected]
id: update_check_run
with:
route: PATCH /repos/{owner}/{repo}/check-runs/{check_run_id}
owner: octokit
repo: request-action
check_run_id: ${{ fromJson(steps.create_check_run.outputs.data).id }}
conclusion: "success"
status: "completed"
env:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
Handle errors
name: Log latest release
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
handleError:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: octokit/[email protected]
id: get_release
with:
route: GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/releases/v0.9.9
owner: octokit
repo: request-action
env:
GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
- run: "echo Release found: '${{ steps.get_release.outputs.data }}'"
- run: "echo Release could not be found. Request failed with status '${{ steps.get_release.outputs.status }}'"
if: ${{ failure() }}
To use request body parameters, simply pass in an input
matching the parameter name. See previous examples.
Due to how request parameters are processed, it may be necessary in some cases to first encode the value as either JSON or a block scalar:
env:
REQUEST_BODY: |
Multi-line string with *special* characters:
- "'`
with:
# As JSON
body: ${{ toJSON(env.REQUEST_BODY) }}
# As block scalar
body: |
|
${{ env.REQUEST_BODY }}
To see additional debug logs, create a secret with the name: ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG
and value true
.
octokit/request-action
is using @octokit/request
internally with the addition
that requests are automatically authenticated using the GITHUB_TOKEN
environment variable. It is required to prevent rate limiting, as all anonymous requests from the same origin count against the same low rate.
The actions sets data
output to the response data. The action also sets the headers
(again, to a JSON string) and status
output properties.
To access deep values of outputs.data
and outputs.headers
, check out the fromJson function.
The GitHub Actions runners are currently showing warnings when using this action that look like:
##[warning]Unexpected input 'repository', valid inputs are ['route', 'mediaType']
The reason for this warning is because the repository
key is not listed as a possible value in actions.yml
. This warning will appear for any key used under the with
except route
and mediaType
. Due to the flexible nature of the required inputs depending on the route
, not all of the possible parameters can be listed in actions.yml
, so you will see this warning under normal usage of the action. As long as you see a 200 response code at the bottom of the output, everything should have worked properly and you can ignore the warnings. The response code will appear at the bottom of the output from the action and looks like:
< 200 451ms
See Issue #26 for more information.