GitHub Actions Cheat Sheet

GitHub Actions cheat sheet with real commands and snippets for setup, core workflows, debugging, and production-safe automation patterns. If you are working across tools, pair this with the Git Cheat Sheet and Jest Cheat Sheet.

Setup and Installation

Goal: Verify installation and CLI metadata

# Resolve command path from current shell
command -v gh

# Print installed version to confirm runtime
gh --version

# Read top-level help before using subcommands
gh --help

Goal: Install or upgrade the tool on a workstation

# Install actionlint for local workflow checks
brew install actionlint

# Verify actionlint version
actionlint --version

Goal: Run day-to-day commands

# Create workflow directory
mkdir -p .github/workflows

# Validate workflow syntax using actionlint
actionlint

# Run workflows locally with act
act -j ci

# Trigger workflow manually via GitHub CLI
gh workflow run ci.yml

Core Workflows

Goal: Capture command help for quick offline lookup

# Create docs folder for generated command references
mkdir -p docs/cli

# Write help output to a timestamped file
gh --help > docs/cli/github-actions-help.txt

# Search help output for a keyword
rg "config|auth|deploy" docs/cli/github-actions-help.txt

Goal: Wrap repetitive commands in a script

# Create scripts directory for local automation
mkdir -p scripts

# Write repeatable health-check script
cat > scripts/check-github-actions.sh <<'SH'
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
gh --version
gh --help >/dev/null
SH

# Make script executable and run it
chmod +x scripts/check-github-actions.sh && ./scripts/check-github-actions.sh

Configuration and Environment

Goal: Pin environment variables for predictable runs

# Define environment profile for local commands
export GITHUB_ACTIONS_PROFILE=dev

# Persist profile in local shell configuration
echo 'export GITHUB_ACTIONS_PROFILE=dev' >> ~/.zshrc

# Reload shell profile changes
source ~/.zshrc

Automation and CI

Goal: Define a working CI pipeline file

name: ci
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 22
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run check
      - run: npm run build

Goal: Add tool checks to CI pipeline

# Run lint/test/build in strict mode
set -euo pipefail

# Verify CLI exists before invoking workflow
command -v gh

# Exit quickly if command is unavailable
gh --version

Debugging and Troubleshooting

Goal: Collect diagnostics when commands fail

# Capture command output and exit code
gh --help > /tmp/github-actions-debug.log 2>&1; echo $?

# Inspect captured diagnostics
tail -n 80 /tmp/github-actions-debug.log

# Check current shell PATH entries
echo $PATH | tr ':' '\n'

Common Gotchas

• Pin GitHub Actions versions in CI so local and pipeline behavior match.
• Check tool authentication context before running write or deploy commands.
• Prefer non-interactive flags in scripts to avoid stalled jobs.
• Capture stderr logs in CI artifacts for faster incident triage.
• Keep secrets in environment variables, not committed scripts.

Related Sheets

• Git Cheat Sheet — daily Git commands and production-ready examples.
• Jest Cheat Sheet — daily Jest commands and production-ready examples.
• Playwright Cheat Sheet — daily Playwright commands and production-ready examples.