Join today
Write your awesome label here.
GitHub Actions: The Complete Course
Go from automation novice to confident practitioner with hands-on training in GitHub Actions. Learn to design and implement reliable CI/CD pipelines, create reusable workflows and custom actions, and manage secrets and deployments with industry best practices.
🏅 Included in the PRO membership!
Write your awesome label here.
108 Lectures
Comprehensive Knowledge
11 Hours
Video Duration
30+ Labs
Focus on Practice
Course Certificate
Validate Your Learning
Course Contents
01
Introduction
This section introduces the GitHub Actions course structure, covering the fundamental building blocks and progressing to complex concepts including workflow triggers, caching, artifacts, custom actions, and reusable workflows. The section emphasizes practical application through exercises and best practices for CI-CD pipeline design, security, and related concerns.
Welcome!
Let's Stay Connected!
Course Resources
Code and Repository Updates
02
Tools and Initial Setup
This section covers the essential setup and configuration tools needed to begin working with GitHub Actions. The material introduces different approaches for managing development environments across operating systems, explores a cloud-based alternative to local machine setup, guides learners through creating and configuring a repository with version control, and provides foundational knowledge of the configuration file format used throughout the course.
Setup NodeJS
Alternative to Setting Up the Local Environment - Using GitHub Codespaces
Creating a GitHub Repository for the Course
YAML in 5 Minutes
03
Github Actions Building Blocks
This section introduces the fundamental building blocks of GitHub Actions, including workflows, jobs, and steps, and demonstrates how to create a simple functional workflow. The concepts are explained through both theoretical descriptions and a practical hands-on exercise that shows how these components are structured and executed within the GitHub platform.
Theory - Building Blocks
Practical Exercise 01 - Creating Our First Workflow
Practical Exercise 01 - Solution & Discussion
Github Actions Building Blocks
04
Event Triggers
This section covers workflow events and the different mechanisms for triggering automated workflows. The lectures explain repository-level triggers such as pushes and pull requests, manual triggers accessed through the user interface and external calls, and scheduled triggers using time-based expressions. The practical exercises demonstrate how to configure multiple trigger types in workflow files and test them through various methods including direct pushes, pull request creation, manual execution, and scheduled runs.
Theory - Workflow Events
Practical Exercise 02 - Using Different Events to Trigger Workflows
Practical Exercise 02 - Solution & Discussion
Event Triggers
05
Workflow Runners
This section covers the different types of virtual machines available for running workflows in GitHub Actions, comparing hosted managed services with self-hosted infrastructure options. It explores the resource specifications of each runner type, discusses the operational implications of choosing between hosted and self-hosted environments, and demonstrates practical configuration of workflows to execute on multiple operating system platforms. The section emphasizes important security considerations and troubleshooting approaches when working across different computing environments.
Theory - GitHub and Self-Hosted Runners
Practical Exercise 03 - Working with Windows and Ubuntu Runners
Practical Exercise 03 - Solution & Discussion
Workflow Runners
06
Using Third-Party Actions
This section covers the fundamentals of using pre-built actions within workflows to automate common tasks. It explains how actions encapsulate repetitive setup and cleanup work, making workflows more maintainable and flexible through configuration options. The section also demonstrates how to discover, evaluate, and implement actions from the GitHub marketplace in practical workflows, including setting up environments and running tests with reusable action components.
Theory - Actions
Practical Exercise 04 - Working with Third-Party Custom Actions
Practical Exercise 04 - Solution & Discussion
Using Third-Party Actions
07
Event Filters and Activity Types
This section covers event filtering mechanisms that allow workflows to execute conditionally based on branch patterns, path modifications, and other event-specific criteria, as well as activity types that specify when during an event's lifecycle a workflow should trigger.
Theory - Event Filters
Theory - Activity Types
Practical Exercise 05 - Using Filters and Activity Types
Practical Exercise 05 - Solution & Discussion
Filters and Activity Types
08
Using Contexts
This section introduces contexts as sources of data from different workflow dimensions including repository information, event details, and environment variables that can be accessed throughout workflow execution.
Theory - Contexts
Practical Exercise 06 - Working with Different Contexts
Practical Exercise 06 - Solution & Discussion
09
Expressions & Variables
This section explores expressions that combine literal values, context references, and built-in functions to create dynamic workflow logic, along with variables for storing configuration information at different scope levels.
Theory - Expressions
Practical Exercise 07 - Working with Expressions
Practical Exercise 07 - Solution & Discussion
Theory - Variables
Practical Exercise 08 - Environment Variables
Practical Exercise 08 - Solution & Discussion
Practical Exercise 09 - Organization, Repository, and Environment Variables
Practical Exercise 09 - Solution & Discussion
Contexts, Expressions and Variables
10
Functions
This section covers built-in functions available in expressions that perform string operations, data transformations, and status checks to enable complex workflow decision-making and data manipulation.
Theory - Functions
Practical Exercise 10 - Using Functions in Workflows
Practical Exercise 10 - Solution & Discussion
11
Controlling the Execution Flow
This section examines how to control job and step execution flow using conditional logic and job dependencies, allowing workflows to execute sequentially or in parallel based on explicit relationships between jobs.
Theory - Controlling the Execution Flow
Practical Exercise 11 - Defining Dependencies & Executing Jobs Conditionally
Practical Exercise 11 - Solution & Discussion
Functions and Conditional Execution
12
Inputs and Outputs
This section covers inputs that allow workflows to accept parameters at runtime, enabling customization of workflow behavior through the user interface or programmatic calls, and reusable workflows that receive input data.
Theory - Inputs
Practical Exercise 12 - Working with Inputs
Practical Exercise 12 - Solution & Discussion
Theory - Outputs
Practical Exercise 13 - Working with Outputs
Practical Exercise 13 - Solution & Discussion
Practical Exercise 14 - Avoiding the Mistake of Overwriting the Output File
Practical Exercise 14 - Solution & Discussion
Inputs and Outputs
13
Sharing Data - Caching and Artifacts
This section explores caching mechanisms that store files between workflow runs to speed up execution, with emphasis on dependency caching and comparing caching with artifacts for different use cases.
Theory - Caching
Practical Exercise 15 - Using Caching to Speed Up Installing Dependencies
Practical Exercise 15 - Solution & Discussion
Practical Exercise 16 - Using Multiple Jobs for Better Caching Functionality
Practical Exercise 16 - Solution & Discussion
Theory - Artifacts
Practical Exercise 17 - Working with Artifacts
Practical Exercise 17 - Solution & Discussion
Caching and Artifacts
14
Working with Matrices
This section introduces matrices that generate multiple job variations from a single job definition by creating Cartesian products of provided values, enabling efficient testing and building across multiple configurations.
Theory - Matrices
Practical Exercise 18 - Introduction to Using Matrices
Practical Exercise 18 - Solution & Discussion
Practical Exercise 19 - Exploring the Include Option
Practical Exercise 19 - Solution & Discussion
Practical Exercise 20 - Exploring the Exclude Option
Practical Exercise 20 - Solution & Discussion
Matrices
15
Environments
This section discusses environments that provide configuration scopes with variables, secrets, and deployment protection rules for different target environments like staging and production.
Theory - Environments
Practical Exercise 21 - Working with Environments
Practical Exercise 21 - Solution & Discussion
Environments and Protection Rules
16
Developing Custom Actions from Scratch
This section introduces custom actions that encapsulate reusable logic in composite, JavaScript, or Docker formats, enabling workflows to leverage standardized implementations and reduce code duplication across repositories.
Theory - Developing Custom Actions from Scratch
Practical Exercise 22 - Creating a Composite Custom Action
Practical Exercise 22 - Solution & Discussion
Practical Exercise 23 - Using and Extending Our Composite Custom Action
Practical Exercise 23 - Solution & Discussion
Composite Custom Actions
Practical Exercise 24 - Setting Up Our JavaScript Custom Action
Practical Exercise 24 - Solution & Discussion - Part 1
Practical Exercise 24 - Solution & Discussion - Part 2
Practical Exercise 25 - Parsing Inputs and Running Shell Commands
Practical Exercise 25 - Solution & Discussion - Part 1
Practical Exercise 25 - Solution & Discussion - Part 2
Practical Exercise 26 - Adding the Logic to Create PRs
Practical Exercise 26 - Solution & Discussion - Part 1
Practical Exercise 26 - Solution & Discussion - Part 2
JavaScript Custom Actions
Practical Exercise 27 - Setting Up Our Docker Custom Action
Practical Exercise 27 - Solution & Discussion - Part 1
Practical Exercise 28 - Solution & Discussion - Part 2
Practical Exercise 29 - Adding the Ping Logic in Python
Practical Exercise 29 - Solution & Discussion
Practical Exercise 30 - Working with Outputs in Custom Actions
Practical Exercise 30 - Solution & Discussion
Docker Custom Actions
17
Creating Reusable Workflows
This section covers reusable workflows that allow sharing workflow logic across repositories, supporting inputs, secrets, and outputs while maintaining isolation from caller workflows.
Theory - Reusable Workflows
Practical Exercise 31 - Creating and Using Reusable Workflows
Practical Exercise 31 - Solution & Discussion
Practical Exercise 32 - Reusing Workflows from Other Repositories
Practical Exercise 32 - Solution & Discussion - Part 1
Practical Exercise 32 - Solution & Discussion - Part 2
Practical Exercise 32 - Solution & Discussion - Part 3
Reusable Workflows
18
Managing Concurrency
This section addresses concurrency management in workflows to control parallel execution, preventing race conditions in deployment workflows and ensuring orderly processing of related workflow runs.
Theory - Managing Concurrency
Practical Exercise 33 - Managing Concurrency at the Workflow Level
Practical Exercise 33 - Solution & Discussion
Practical Exercise 34 - Managing Concurrency at the Job Level
Practical Exercise 34 - Solution & Discussion
Managing Concurrency
19
Workflow Security
This section comprehensively covers workflow security practices including secret management, token handling, script injection prevention, and authentication mechanisms for external services.
Theory - Workflow Security
Practical Exercise 35 - Preventing Script Injection via Intermediate Variables
Practical Exercise 35 - Solution & Discussion
Practical Exercise 36 - Preventing Script Injection via Custom Actions
Practical Exercise 36 - Solution & Discussion
Workflow Security and Script Injections
20
Conclusion
Congratulations!
Certificate of Completion
Frequently asked questions
Who is this course designed for?
This course is designed for multiple technical roles:
Software Engineers and Developers who want to modernize their development workflows will learn to automate testing, building, and deployment directly from their repositories, eliminating manual steps and reducing deployment errors.
DevOps Engineers and Platform Engineers seeking to implement enterprise-grade automation will master advanced concepts including custom actions, reusable workflows, environment management, and security practices that enable organization-wide standardization.
Technical Leads and Architects evaluating automation tools for their teams will gain deep understanding of GitHub Actions capabilities, limitations, and best practices to make informed decisions about CI/CD infrastructure.
Developers New to Automation who have limited CI/CD experience will start from fundamental concepts and progress through structured modules with practical exercises, building confidence in designing production-ready pipelines.
What prior knowledge do I need before taking this course?
You should have familiarity with version control using Git and a basic understanding of the command line and terminal operations. Experience with any programming language is helpful for understanding application examples throughout the course, though the focus is on automation rather than application development.
No prior knowledge of GitHub Actions or CI/CD concepts is required. The course starts from the fundamentals and builds your knowledge progressively through hands-on exercises that reinforce each concept before moving to more advanced topics.
Will I incur costs while taking this course?
The entire course can be completed for free using the GitHub free tier and free tools.
Free Components:
Do I need to understand shell scripting to succeed in this course?
No, you do not need to be a shell scripting expert to succeed. The course teaches necessary scripting concepts in context as you build workflows. Many course sections demonstrate using pre-built actions from the GitHub marketplace rather than writing shell scripts from scratch.
Familiarity with running commands in a terminal is helpful, and the course covers scripting basics for common automation tasks. If you prefer to avoid shell scripting, you will learn to leverage composite actions and pre-built actions that encapsulate complex logic, allowing you to build powerful workflows with minimal scripting knowledge.
How will I use GitHub Actions after this course?
You will use GitHub Actions to automate common development tasks directly from your repositories. Practical applications include running automated tests when code is pushed, building application binaries and container images, deploying applications to staging and production environments, managing pull request workflows, and enforcing code quality standards.
You will create reusable workflows and custom actions that your team shares across projects, reducing duplicated effort and standardizing automation practices. You will implement environment-specific configurations for staging and production deployments with appropriate security controls. You will optimize pipeline performance using caching and artifact strategies. You will design concurrency controls that prevent deployment race conditions and ensure orderly infrastructure modifications.
The skills you acquire apply to any development workflow and complement related technologies like Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms.