github-actions-wac

GitHub Actions - Workflows as Code (WaC).

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Overview
• Examples
• Reference
  • Functions
    • createWorkflow
  • CLI
    • build
    • watch

Installation

npm install --save github-actions-wac --dev

Or if you prefer yarn:

yarn add github-actions-wac --dev

Overview

The github-actions-wac package enables you to create GitHub Actions workflows via TypeScript code.

To get started, simply create a new .wac.ts file in your .github/workflows folder and start creating your GitHub Actions workflow. For example:

// .github/workflows/index.wac.ts

import { createWorkflow, NormalJob } from "github-actions-wac";

// Some global environment variables.
const defaultEnv = {
  NODE_OPTIONS: "--max_old_space_size=4096"
};

// Let's assign some of the common steps into a standalone const.
const checkoutInstallBuildTest: NormalJob["steps"] = [
  { uses: "actions/checkout@v2" },
  { name: "Install dependencies", run: "yarn --immutable" },
  { name: "Build", run: "yarn build" }
];

// Create "Push to main branch" workflow.
export const push = createWorkflow({
  name: "Push to main branch",
  on: "push",
  env: defaultEnv,
  jobs: {
    buildTestRelease: {
      name: "Build, test, release",
      "runs-on": "ubuntu-latest",
      steps: [
        ...checkoutInstallBuildTest,
        {
          name: "Release",
          uses: "cycjimmy/semantic-release-action@v3",
          with: { working_directory: "./dist" },
          env: {
            GITHUB_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}",
            NPM_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
});

// Create "Pull requests" workflow.
export const pullRequests = createWorkflow({
  name: "Pull requests",
  on: "pull_request",
  env: defaultEnv,
  jobs: {
    buildTest: {
      name: "Build and test",
      "runs-on": "ubuntu-latest",
      steps: [...checkoutInstallBuildTest]
    }
  }
});

Once you're done, in your terminal, simply run the npx github-actions-wac build (or npx ghawac build) CLI command to emit regular YAML files. For example, if we were to build the above example, we'd end up with two YAML files: push.yml and pullRequests.yml.

The npx github-actions-wac build commands detects all exported workflows from .wac.ts files and emits a standalone YAML file for each one.

It's up to you to decide whether you want a single .wac.ts file that exports all workflows, or multiple .wac.ts files where each exports a single workflow.

Why Create GitHub Actions via Code?

Creating GitHub Actions workflows via (TypeScript) code has a couple of benefits:

• if you don't like YAML in general, then this might be a more favorable approach
• type safety - the mentioned npx github-actions-wac build CLI command will throw TypeScript errors if something is wrong
• no need to copy/paste dozens of lines of YAML - simply store all of your repetitive jobs/steps as variables (or even as factory functions if additional dynamicity is required)
• it's even possible to import external NPM modules if needed (although, personally I haven't had the need to do it yet)

Examples

Example	Description
Simple Workflow	Exports a single workflow that consists of a couple of a single job and some steps.
Multiple Workflows	Exports multiple workflows that consist of a single jobs and multiple steps.
Complex Example	A more complex example that exports multiple branch-dependent workflows.

Reference

Functions

createWorkflow

Type Declaration

export declare const createWorkflow: (workflow: Workflow) => Workflow;

Creates a new GitHub Actions workflow. Accepts a Workflow object.

import { createWorkflow } from "github-actions-wac";

export const push = createWorkflow({
    name: "Push to main branch",
    on: "push",
    env: defaultEnv,
    jobs: { ... }
});

CLI

This package includes a small CLI that can be invoked via npx or yarn:

# Using npx:
npx github-actions-wac

# Using yarn: 
yarn github-actions-wac

Instead of github-actions-wac, you can also use ghawac to invoke the CLI. For example: npx ghawac (yarn ghawac).

You can also run npx github-actions-wac --help for in-terminal reference.

build

Builds YAML from detected TypeScript (.wac.ts) workflow files.

npx github-actions-wac build

watch

Watches for changes in detected TypeScript (.wac.ts) workflow files and automatically generates YAML.

npx github-actions-wac watch