Feedback: Custom GitHub Actions Workflows (beta)

[yoannchaudet]

👋 On 7/27 we shipped support for building and deploying Pages sites officially with GitHub Actions.

You can learn more about this change in our changelog post.

This is an evolution of Pages that we are excited about. Please leave your feedback as a comment!

[cccspl]

i need your help sir

[Milenamima123]

I have problem, I cant find master branch, I dont have that option. How can I publish bewpage witouth that?

[Ryan-Dogo]

When put in the mp3 and the site link, it shows an error

[Ryan-Dogo]

it is even published

[priyanshukumar64282]

its not working properly

[priyanshukumar64282]

its shows error when I publish my site

[mariotaku]

Just wanted to leave a thank you note to this feature. This is amazing.

This feature:

• Eliminated the need of separated branches
• Works without any extra secret variables

Thank you, GitHub team!

[SyedShawon15]

How to problem solved not http link showing

[UniverseFly]

Super cool feature!! This makes the deployment very neat. I can now automate my entire workflow, publishing my website simply by committing changes to a markdown file (w/o creating an extra gh-pages branch).

The Repo and My Homepage.

Thanks, GitHub Team!!

[sadortun]

This is indeed awesome !

[bruddy-lively]

Would really like a way to have an option to disable auto_inactive so that historical deployments are still viewable.

[pyby]

I would like to stop it. No more GitHub page needed. I unpublished the page, removed job runs, but the pages-build-deploiement actions is still run-in with commit on main branch.
It recreates the environment.

I probably missed a step to stop this action. How can we do it?

[dylanatsmith]

Hi @pyby. Did you also remove the YAML file from the .github/workflowspages.yml directory in your repo? If that’s still present, Actions will run it on each change and rebuild and publish the site.

[Denchyaknow]

Same problem here, in my reepo/actions pages-build-deployment exists and I cant find the Yaml file anywhere. Even when I delete the Githut.workflows dir, shit still stays there. How to get rid of it? I can even see the code used for it and it tris to build/deploy/log every push.

[wbarnha]

Thank you so much for releasing this! This is really a wonderful project. For years the faust-streaming project had gone without updates to documentation but now we have working builds and created https://faust-streaming.github.io/faust/ as well as https://faust-streaming.github.io/python-rocksdb/.

[figo-sf]

i do not want event:dynamic how can i edit?

[yoannchaudet]

A dynamic workflow is triggered to build your Pages site when you selected a branch as your source. To get rid of that either disable Pages (e.g. select branch to None) or use the new source "GitHub Actions" so a workflow of your choosing will be the sole responsible for deploying Pages sites.

[Denchyaknow]

Is that a feature or a bug? :O

[cre8]

Hi all,

the page-builder bot gets activated every time I push to main. But I have no workflow defined that could trigger it. Every time I unpublish the site, it gets published with the next push to main...

[yoannchaudet]

If you have a screenshot or the name of the repo where that happens, we can take a look. A page-builder bot does not sound like something GitHub owned.

[cre8]

here you go, if you need more information let me know. I think we stated using environments for deployments when it started

[yoannchaudet]

Hello,

Reviewing telemetry I see that up until 2022-09-14, your site was configured to build from a branch instead of to delegate that action to a custom workflow. Hence why any commit to the branch being tracked (main) was starting a dynamic workflow (i.e. a workflow that does not exist in your repo but is created on your behalf to build your site).

[cre8]

@yoannchaudet thank you for the feedback. Didn't think about when switching back to branch deploy to set the Branch to none (should have read the doc more carefully) :)

[Denchyaknow]

I too am haunted by the pages-build-deployment, think it showed up after i switched to actions based workflows, changing has no effect.

[fititnt]

Feature request (or help if already implemented)

Enable custom domains

Maybe I'm missing something, or the first person to test this part, but while at https://docs.github.com/en/pages/configuring-a-custom-domain-for-your-github-pages-site/troubleshooting-custom-domains-and-github-pages we have

If you are publishing from a custom GitHub Actions workflow, any CNAME file is ignored and is not required.

I just noticed that is not clear where to specify the custom domain, since now the CNAME file is ignored.

More context

These URLs likely to eventually stale, but there are the links

• https://github.com/fititnt/awesome-spatial-reference-data/actions/runs/3063444093
• https://github.com/fititnt/awesome-spatial-reference-data/tree/a1d3c5d64a832637ae5b695f4044f24cde697850

It still publish on older pages (but note that the GitHub interface does not know about the domain)

I can confirm that the CNAME (which the documentation says it would be ignored with if running with actions) is there

and the dig result

$ dig spatial-reference.etica.ai

; <<>> DiG 9.16.1-Ubuntu <<>> spatial-reference.etica.ai

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 65494
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;spatial-reference.etica.ai.	IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
spatial-reference.etica.ai. 300	IN	A	172.67.192.1
spatial-reference.etica.ai. 300	IN	A	104.21.20.84

[fititnt]

Okay. Created a few subdomains, including trying to point directly for the IP. Also, deleted the CNAME. Not sure what is triggering the redirect.

Maybe I'm missing something, but considering that GitHub tend to work flawlessly with cloudflare (unless I'm hitting something very edge case not related at all with the extension), this could be something between how Cloudflare read the information from github HTTP headers which is not behaving similar to how would be with Jekyll.

Note that I'm not in a hurry, not urgent. Yet maybe could worth give someone else try check if can reproduce the error with cloudflare (which is quite common to be used because provide HTTPS). I know that these types of debug can get very fun without access from both sides.

Bit more screenshots.

Anyway, thanks for fast response! But really not urgent or something this work. I could simply disable the the custom domain.

---

---

The interface is able to check DNS (just is not able to detect this redirects)

[fititnt]

@yoannchaudet any new feedback on this? I might go back to run without the extension. Strangely, it still ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error

[yoannchaudet]

Sorry I missed the ping. Hmm no, I have never since this case happening anywhere else before. It seems https://spatial-reference.etica.ai is working for me now and still going through Cloudflare. Did you make any changes yourself or did it start working on its own 🤔?

[serriere]

Just want to chime in here and say that I had a similar issue trying to get our private GitHub Pages published that I ultimately traced back to the Cloudflare proxy (thanks to this thread 🙌 ). I was tearing my hair out trying different configurations with DNS and the CNAME file (even though I shouldn't need one). Tried A records instead of a CNAME record. I always ended up at 404 page. Turned off the Cloudflare proxy and it was fixed almost instantly.

[kaikaibenkai]

The error occurred again. How can I resolve it?😥
#63541

[ghost]

This change made my page useless, it doesn't work anymore.

[yoannchaudet]

Link?

[ghost]

The link was https://swapperbox.com It was working fine with the classic deployment, but when I changed it to Actions (using the recommended workflow for Jekyll) it stopper working.

Some hints: I use GitHub Pages in private repositories. This might have something to do with the issue?

Finally, my site is back up, but I changed it back to the classic deployment.

[yoannchaudet]

Unless you deleted the repository on your side, the workflow that was failing would have all the details as to why.

[mkkashif]

Thank you!
This makes the deployment very easy. below are my latest deployments:
Laptops Crunch and Droid Mods

[KotlinIsland]

Do these new actions support maintaining multiple versions of documentation for example? I need to maintain a 'main' version of documentation, but also versions for each release.

Is this possible with the current set of actions, or do I need to maintain a 'pages' branch? If not, where can I raise an issue to track this.

[gkucmierz]

After build vue app my nested directories are not included.

https://github.com/gkucmierz/vanity-eth/blob/main/.github/workflows/vue-gh-pages.yml

# Sample workflow for building and deploying a vue site to GitHub Pages
name: Deploy Vue with GitHub Pages dependencies preinstalled

on:
  # Runs on pushes targeting the default branch
  push:
    branches: ["main"]

  # Allows you to run this workflow manually from the Actions tab
  workflow_dispatch:

# Sets permissions of the GITHUB_TOKEN to allow deployment to GitHub Pages
permissions:
  contents: read
  pages: write
  id-token: write

# Allow one concurrent deployment
concurrency:
  group: "pages"
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  # Build job
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Setup Pages
        uses: actions/configure-pages@v2
      - name: npm i
        run: npm i
      - name: Build with Vue
        run: npm run build
      - name: Upload artifact
        uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v1
        with:
          path: ./dist

  # Deploy
  deploy:
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build
    steps:
      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        id: deployment
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v1

How can I fix this?

[bingis-khan]

Everything seems to work except the deploy-page action. Despite reporting success and providing the URL, the connection times out.

[sovetski]

It was more simple to understand before on how works GitHub pages.

I created a workflow for a project using Vite, it just build the code and push the "dist" folder to the "gh-pages" branch.

The "index.html" works, but the styles and scripts included by Vite, are not loading. When I check my "gh-pages" branch, I see the "assets" folder and related styles/scripts, but on the github page link, when I write URL/assets/script.js for example, I have 404 error

[sovetski]

I resolved my problem, I just added "vite.config.js" file with this content and selected "gh-pages" from "Settings → Pages → Build and deployment → Deploy from a branch"

export default {
    base: "/my-repository-name/",
};

[ishtiaqSamdani]

can put your workflow here

[ishtiaqSamdani]

I am trying with react app(CRA) and trying to put the build folder directly to artificat and then to github histing but I cant find the static folder (conatins css,js)formed in sources if I inspect the page

[work-ixiaozi-cn]

I NEED HELP!!!

gh-pages exist other files,
maybe gh-pages also exist test.json with a old version, I want to create or update the only file test.json

so,I create a new branch script,
then, I create a new workflow script.yml,
but, how can I git push a file test.json to gh-pages,

      - name: Commit and Push to gh-pages
        run: |
          git checkout -b gh-pages
          git add test.json
          git commit -m "Merge and commit JSON files"

I got error : remote: Permission to xxxxxx/yyy.git denied to github-actions[bot].

chatgpt give me a answer:

      - name: Commit and Push to gh-pages
        run: |
          git checkout -b gh-pages
          git add test.json
          git commit -m "Merge and commit JSON files"
          git remote set-url origin "https://github-actions:${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN }}@github.com/${{ github.repository }}.git"
          git push origin gh-pages

I got the same error :

[gh-pages d9472d9] Merge and commit JSON files
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 test.json
remote: Permission to xxx/xxx.git denied to github-actions[bot].
fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/xxx/xxx/': The requested URL returned error: 403

[mfisher87]

Do you have "read and write permissions" enabled for your actions in the "Settings" > "Actions" > "General" > "Workflow permissions" (scroll down)?

You can also add this top-level key to your YAML:

permissions:
  contents: "write"

[rossjrw]

'GitHub Actions' deployment option name is misleading - 'Deploy from an artifact' would be more appropriate

I maintain an action that generates a preview site for pull requests and adds them to the Pages deployment. It's a fairly old action at this point and was originally built when 'Deploy from a branch' was the only option. I'm now seeing users confused about why the action doesn't work for them when they're using the 'GitHub Actions' deployment source.

I feel that my users' confusion is appropriate, because of course you would choose the 'GitHub Actions' deployment source when you want to deploy Pages via GitHub Actions... right?

---

My understanding of this deployment method is that it uses a combination of the actions/upload-pages-artifact and actions/deploy-pages actions to upload a special artifact that Pages then uses as its source.

But the 'Deploy from a branch' deployment method can work very similarly, e.g. using JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action to put what would have been in that artifact into a dedicated branch (e.g. gh-pages) and then Pages uses that as its source.

Both of these methods use GitHub Actions, so the 'GitHub Actions' deployment source only working for one of them is nonintuitive. The difference between them is that one uses an artifact and one uses a branch. The name of these two options should make that difference clear. I suggest 'Deploy from an artifact' and 'Deploy from a branch'.

The first thing I have to instruct my GitHub Action's users to do is to avoid using the 'GitHub Actions' deployment source, and that's just not right.

[mfisher87]

Thank you for pushing on this terminology issue. It bothers me immensely. The difference between these two ways of deploying to GHPages is very difficult to explain to newer users. Once you understand and have built up the abstractions in your mind, it's really hard to empathize with new users confused by the misleading terminology and understand how truly inaccessible the current state of affairs is. Accessibility is really important.

My take: "from" itself is misleading; the branch isn't the source of the deployment -- it is the target. "Deploy from branch" should be "Deploy as branch" (the branch is the deployment, how things get on that branch doesn't matter) and "GitHub Actions" should be "Deploy as artifact" (the artifact is the deployment, how you make it and how you upload it doesn't matter). You can use GitHub Actions (or not -- you can push directly to gh-pages branch or upload a zip file to the artifacts API) to achieve both, the difference is only where you send the data.

EDIT: mockup that I feel greatly improves accessibility of this feature:

If I remember correctly, the actions/upload-pages-artifact uploads a generic artifact with a special magic name that identifies it as a "pages artifact". I think there are no other differences between "pages artifacts" and "artifacts".

The first thing I have to instruct my GitHub Action's users to do is to avoid using the 'GitHub Actions' deployment source, and that's just not right.

💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯

(@rossjrw FWIW this is the personal account of @MattF-NSIDC from the other thread 👋)

[vincerubinetti]

Hit the nail on the head here. I don't think most developers realize how important copy text is, and how it can even be an accessibility issue. Especially for short option names like this, every word is very precious and should be chosen with extreme care.

Personally speaking, I can get why they called it "deploy from a branch", because you're taking the contents of a from branch and publishing them as a site. Notice how I used both "as" and "from" there. Perhaps simply "deploy a branch/artifact" would be better, and let the secondary text explain it further. Something like this:

"Deploy method:"

"Use artifacts"
"Upload your site's content "manually" when you want to publish changes, using the GitHub Artifacts API from a workflow or elsewhere."

"Use a branch"
"A branch in this repo serves as the basis for your site's content. Changes to the branch get automatically published."

[abay777]

i have unpublished my page now when i try to publish there is no option i tried selecting githubactions still not working

[yufeih]

Deleting the gh-pages branch after publishing from actions deletes the site. It would be nice to keep the site running when deleting gh-pages branch if the site is published from actions. dotnet/docfx#9468

[andrey-helldar]

Hello!

I encountered a problem deploying a site using GitHub Actions, and it is that if I DO NOT specify my domain name, i.e. I use the default laravel-lang.github.io/docs, then the site is displayed normally, BUT if I specify a domain name, for example, laravel-lang.com, then all the code inside the pre block is not indented.

What could be the problem?

Deploy rules:

• https://github.com/Laravel-Lang/docs/blob/6fdfc04818cfb9987cc2e477b3810bc331b9074f/.github/workflows/deploy.yml#L67-L81

Website:

• https://laravel-lang.com/configuration.html
• https://laravel-lang.github.io/docs/configuration.html

Screenshots

DNS settings

I replaced them today with that:

Before I switched to Jetbrains Writerside, I created documentation using Vuepress 2 and had no such problems. It deployed via a branch.

Old deploy rules:

• https://github.com/Laravel-Lang/common/blob/106ebc679fd342f1db3c019c844c7494c6ce41c0/.github/workflows/docs.yml

[andrey-helldar]

Deploying through a branch also displays this problem:

Screenshots

I don't know what else can be done...

[andrey-helldar]

The mobile browser also displays incorrectly:

Screenshot

[andrey-helldar]

I found the trigger for the mapping problem is the presence of the "-" character in the APEX domain.

In general, domain names like <name>.<zone> and <subname>.<name>.<zone> display content correctly, but <na-me>.<zone> and <subname>.<na-me>.<zone> do not.

I checked on the following names:

1. laravel-lang.com - fail
2. foo.laravel-lang.com - fail
3. lang.dragon-code.pro - fail
4. refactor.style - ok
5. foo.refactor.style - ok
6. foo-bar.refactor.style - ok
7. cashbox.city - ok
8. andrey-helldar.github.io/test/ - ok
9. laravel-lang.github.io/docs/ - ok

Screenshots

[andrey-helldar]

@yoannchaudet, hi!

Are you collecting information on detected problems or is this topic just for feedback? How convenient or inconvenient is it to use GitHub Actions to publish applications to GitHub Pages?

[andrey-helldar]

I found the problem - CloudFlare cache...

I transferred the site to my server and the behavior was identical to GitHub Pages.

Screenshots

As it turns out, I had HTML minification enabled in the settings of two domains, which I had forgotten about.

The settings are here: "Speed > Optimization > Auto Minify":

Auto Minify settings compare

[Andre601]

Not quite related, but I feel like the title of this discussion is a bit misleading.

Reading Feedback: Custom GitHub Actions Workflows (beta) I was thinking that Actions have received some changes to customize their behaviour... Not that it actually is about GitHub Pages being deployable through GitHub Actions.
So perhaps change it to Feedback: GitHub Pages deployable through GitHub Actions (beta) to make it clear that it is related to GitHub Pages and Actions.

[victorpaleologue]

I wrote a job that publishes a GitHub Pages via the Actions section.
I had an error that the GitHub Pages were not enabled.
I enabled them, and selected the GitHub Actions options.
The page tries to get me started by inviting to set up a GitHub Actions, but it is already set up!
I'd like to tell it to go check the GitHub Pages and wake up!

Otherwise it's all good an convenient, good job =)

[sxlijin]

I was able to use this to delete a bunch of Ruby/Bundler cruft that I never took the time to fully understand, and replace my Jekyll setup with a homegrown Pandoc script, deleting about half of the repo - thanks for shipping this, even if it's still in beta!

[VivIsBee]

can these HTTP headers be set to these values? i want to be able to use WebContainers but they require SharedArrayBuffers which require cross origin isolation which is only possible if these HTTP headers are set to these values

Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy: same-origin
Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy: require-corp (can also be set to credentialless)

Edit: I'm realizing that can mess up oauth, but maybe developers should be able to choose if they want that or not?

[poembro]

Making pages function Now can only visit https://poembro.github.io/poemrbo.github.io/ this way

How to change to https://poembro.github.io/ access. List detailed steps

[VivIsBee]

I don't work at GitHub, but I believe you need to title your repo just your username. Might be wrong about that though.

[mfisher87]

@poembro it looks like you got everything right except for a typo where you swapped the r and b in poembro to become poemrbo. Once you fix that your desired URL should work.

[Vickymahi2102]

link is not generating

[kaihendry]

My goal is for my action to produce a SLOC chart so that repo owners can link and showcase their stats.

I could have used maybe an approach like https://github.com/bobheadxi/gobenchdata/blob/main/entrypoint.sh to clone out gh-pages and commit back.

Instead I went for the new Pages approach via https://github.com/kaihendry/scc/blob/master/.github/workflows/static.yml which bloats out the workflow and puts the burden on the repo owner.

My main concerns is that doesn't seem possible to upload just the one file to gh-pages with this workflow, as well as confusing onboarding flow: https://youtu.be/rgfd3FB3dB4?t=2258

[smithaborkar]

We just announced the GA of this feature. here