Hey everyone, I’m working on a project and I want to set up a GitHub Actions workflow. I’m new to this and could use some advice. What are the basic steps to get started? Are there any best practices I should follow? I’m especially interested in how to handle secrets and environment variables. Also, is there a way to test the workflow locally before pushing it to the repo? Thanks in advance for any tips!
I’ve been using GitHub Actions for a while now, and it’s been a game-changer for my workflow. To get started, create a .github/workflows directory in your repo and add a YAML file for your workflow. Define your triggers, jobs, and steps there.
For secrets and env vars, use GitHub’s Secrets feature in your repo settings. You can then reference them in your workflow file using ${{ secrets.SECRET_NAME }}.
Testing locally is possible with act (GitHub - nektos/act: Run your GitHub Actions locally 🚀). It simulates the GitHub Actions environment on your machine, which is super helpful for debugging.
One tip: keep your workflows modular. Break them into reusable actions when possible. It makes maintenance much easier as your CI/CD pipeline grows more complex.