# Examples
- [Use case: Create a pull request to update X on push](#use-case-create-a-pull-request-to-update-x-on-push)
- [Update project authors](#update-project-authors)
- [Keep a branch up-to-date with another](#keep-a-branch-up-to-date-with-another)
- [Use case: Create a pull request to update X on release](#use-case-create-a-pull-request-to-update-x-on-release)
- [Update changelog](#update-changelog)
- [Use case: Create a pull request to update X periodically](#use-case-create-a-pull-request-to-update-x-periodically)
- [Update NPM dependencies](#update-npm-dependencies)
- [Update Gradle dependencies](#update-gradle-dependencies)
- [Update Cargo dependencies](#update-cargo-dependencies)
- [Update SwaggerUI for GitHub Pages](#update-swaggerui-for-github-pages)
- [Keep a fork up-to-date with its upstream](#keep-a-fork-up-to-date-with-its-upstream)
- [Spider and download a website](#spider-and-download-a-website)
- [Use case: Create a pull request to update X by calling the GitHub API](#use-case-create-a-pull-request-to-update-x-by-calling-the-github-api)
- [Call the GitHub API from an external service](#call-the-github-api-from-an-external-service)
- [Call the GitHub API from another GitHub Actions workflow](#call-the-github-api-from-another-github-actions-workflow)
- [Use case: Create a pull request to modify/fix pull requests](#use-case-create-a-pull-request-to-modifyfix-pull-requests)
- [autopep8](#autopep8)
- [Misc workflow tips](#misc-workflow-tips)
- [Filtering push events](#filtering-push-events)
- [Dynamic configuration using variables](#dynamic-configuration-using-variables)
- [Using a markdown template](#using-a-markdown-template)
- [Debugging GitHub Actions](#debugging-github-actions)
## Use case: Create a pull request to update X on push
This pattern will work well for updating any kind of static content based on pushed changes. Care should be taken when using this pattern in repositories with a high frequency of commits.
### Update project authors
Raises a pull request to update a file called `AUTHORS` with the git user names and email addresses of contributors.
```yml
name: Update AUTHORS
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
updateAuthors:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
fetch-depth: 0
- name: Update AUTHORS
run: |
git log --format='%aN <%aE>%n%cN <%cE>' | sort -u > AUTHORS
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
commit-message: update authors
title: Update AUTHORS
body: Credit new contributors by updating AUTHORS
branch: update-authors
```
### Keep a branch up-to-date with another
This is a use case where a branch should be kept up to date with another by opening a pull request to update it. The pull request should then be updated with new changes until it is merged or closed.
In this example scenario, a branch called `production` should be updated via pull request to keep it in sync with `main`. Merging the pull request is effectively promoting those changes to production.
```yml
name: Create production promotion pull request
on:
push:
branches:
- main
jobs:
productionPromotion:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
ref: production
- name: Reset promotion branch
run: |
git fetch origin main:main
git reset --hard main
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
branch: production-promotion
```
## Use case: Create a pull request to update X on release
This pattern will work well for updating any kind of static content based on the tagged commit of a release. Note that because `release` is one of the [events which checkout a commit](concepts-guidelines.md#events-which-checkout-a-commit) it is necessary to supply the `base` input to the action.
### Update changelog
Raises a pull request to update the `CHANGELOG.md` file based on the tagged commit of the release.
Note that [git-chglog](https://github.com/git-chglog/git-chglog/) requires some configuration files to exist in the repository before this workflow will work.
This workflow assumes the tagged release was made on a default branch called `main`.
```yml
name: Update Changelog
on:
release:
types: [published]
jobs:
updateChangelog:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
fetch-depth: 0
- name: Update Changelog
run: |
curl -o git-chglog -L https://github.com/git-chglog/git-chglog/releases/download/0.9.1/git-chglog_linux_amd64
chmod u+x git-chglog
./git-chglog -o CHANGELOG.md
rm git-chglog
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
commit-message: update changelog
title: Update Changelog
body: Update changelog to reflect release changes
branch: update-changelog
base: main
```
## Use case: Create a pull request to update X periodically
This pattern will work well for updating any kind of static content from an external source. The workflow executes on a schedule and raises a pull request when there are changes.
### Update NPM dependencies
This workflow will create a pull request for npm dependencies.
It works best in combination with a build workflow triggered on `push` and `pull_request`.
A [Personal Access Token (PAT)](https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token) can be used in order for the creation of the pull request to trigger further workflows. See the [documentation here](concepts-guidelines.md#triggering-further-workflow-runs) for further details.
```yml
name: Update Dependencies
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 10 * * 1'
jobs:
update-dep:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v3
with:
node-version: '16.x'
- name: Update dependencies
run: |
npx -p npm-check-updates ncu -u
npm install
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
token: ${{ secrets.PAT }}
commit-message: Update dependencies
title: Update dependencies
body: |
- Dependency updates
Auto-generated by [create-pull-request][1]
[1]: https://github.com/peter-evans/create-pull-request
branch: update-dependencies
```
The above workflow works best in combination with a build workflow triggered on `push` and `pull_request`.
```yml
name: CI
on:
push:
branches: [main]
pull_request:
branches: [main]
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v3
with:
node-version: 16.x
- run: npm ci
- run: npm run test
- run: npm run build
```
### Update Gradle dependencies
The following workflow will create a pull request for Gradle dependencies.
It requires first configuring your project to use Gradle lockfiles.
See [here](https://github.com/peter-evans/gradle-auto-dependency-updates) for how to configure your project and use the following workflow.
```yml
name: Update Dependencies
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 1 * * 1'
jobs:
update-dep:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-java@v2
with:
distribution: 'temurin'
java-version: 1.8
- name: Grant execute permission for gradlew
run: chmod +x gradlew
- name: Perform dependency resolution and write new lockfiles
run: ./gradlew dependencies --write-locks
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
token: ${{ secrets.PAT }}
commit-message: Update dependencies
title: Update dependencies
body: |
- Dependency updates
Auto-generated by [create-pull-request][1]
[1]: https://github.com/peter-evans/create-pull-request
branch: update-dependencies
```
### Update Cargo dependencies
The following workflow will create a pull request for Cargo dependencies.
It optionally uses [`cargo-edit`](https://github.com/killercup/cargo-edit) to update `Cargo.toml` and keep it in sync with `Cargo.lock`.
```yml
name: Update Dependencies
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 1 * * 1'
jobs:
update-dep:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Update dependencies
run: |
cargo install cargo-edit
cargo update
cargo upgrade --to-lockfile
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
token: ${{ secrets.PAT }}
commit-message: Update dependencies
title: Update dependencies
body: |
- Dependency updates
Auto-generated by [create-pull-request][1]
[1]: https://github.com/peter-evans/create-pull-request
branch: update-dependencies
```
### Update SwaggerUI for GitHub Pages
When using [GitHub Pages to host Swagger documentation](https://github.com/peter-evans/swagger-github-pages), this workflow updates the repository with the latest distribution of [SwaggerUI](https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-ui).
You must create a file called `swagger-ui.version` at the root of your repository before running.
```yml
name: Update Swagger UI
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 10 * * *'
jobs:
updateSwagger:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Get Latest Swagger UI Release
id: swagger-ui
run: |
release_tag=$(curl -sL https://api.github.com/repos/swagger-api/swagger-ui/releases/latest | jq -r ".tag_name")
echo "release_tag=$release_tag" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
current_tag=$(<swagger-ui.version)
echo "current_tag=$current_tag" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
- name: Update Swagger UI
if: steps.swagger-ui.outputs.current_tag != steps.swagger-ui.outputs.release_tag
env:
RELEASE_TAG: ${{ steps.swagger-ui.outputs.release_tag }}
SWAGGER_YAML: "swagger.yaml"
run: |
# Delete the dist directory and index.html
rm -fr dist index.html
# Download the release
curl -sL -o $RELEASE_TAG https://api.github.com/repos/swagger-api/swagger-ui/tarball/$RELEASE_TAG
# Extract the dist directory
tar -xzf $RELEASE_TAG --strip-components=1 $(tar -tzf $RELEASE_TAG | head -1 | cut -f1 -d"/")/dist
rm $RELEASE_TAG
# Move index.html to the root
mv dist/index.html .
# Fix references in index.html
sed -i "s|https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/swagger.json|$SWAGGER_YAML|g" index.html
sed -i "s|href=\"./|href=\"dist/|g" index.html
sed -i "s|src=\"./|src=\"dist/|g" index.html
# Update current release
echo ${{ steps.swagger-ui.outputs.release_tag }} > swagger-ui.version
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
commit-message: Update swagger-ui to ${{ steps.swagger-ui.outputs.release_tag }}
title: Update SwaggerUI to ${{ steps.swagger-ui.outputs.release_tag }}
body: |
Updates [swagger-ui][1] to ${{ steps.swagger-ui.outputs.release_tag }}
Auto-generated by [create-pull-request][2]
[1]: https://github.com/swagger-api/swagger-ui
[2]: https://github.com/peter-evans/create-pull-request
labels: dependencies, automated pr
branch: swagger-ui-updates
```
### Keep a fork up-to-date with its upstream
This example is designed to be run in a seperate repository from the fork repository itself.
The aim of this is to prevent committing anything to the fork's default branch would cause it to differ from the upstream.
In the following example workflow, `owner/repo` is the upstream repository and `fork-owner/repo` is the fork. It assumes the default branch of the upstream repository is called `main`.
The [Personal Access Token (PAT)](https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token) should have `repo` scope. Additionally, if the upstream makes changes to the `.github/workflows` directory, the action will be unable to push the changes to a branch and throw the error "_(refusing to allow a GitHub App to create or update workflow `.github/workflows/xxx.yml` without `workflows` permission)_". To allow these changes to be pushed to the fork, add the `workflow` scope to the PAT. Of course, allowing this comes with the risk that the workflow changes from the upstream could run and do something unexpected. Disabling GitHub Actions in the fork is highly recommended to prevent this.
When you merge the pull request make sure to choose the [`Rebase and merge`](https://docs.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/about-pull-request-merges#rebase-and-merge-your-pull-request-commits) option. This will make the fork's commits match the commits on the upstream.
```yml
name: Update fork
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 0 * * 0'
jobs:
updateFork:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
repository: fork-owner/repo
- name: Reset the default branch with upstream changes
run: |
git remote add upstream https://github.com/owner/repo.git
git fetch upstream main:upstream-main
git reset --hard upstream-main
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
token: ${{ secrets.PAT }}
branch: upstream-changes
```
### Spider and download a website
This workflow spiders a website and downloads the content. Any changes to the website will be raised in a pull request.
```yml
name: Download Website
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 10 * * *'
jobs:
format:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Download website
run: |
wget \
--recursive \
--level=2 \
--wait=1 \
--no-clobber \
--page-requisites \
--html-extension \
--convert-links \
--domains quotes.toscrape.com \
http://quotes.toscrape.com/
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
commit-message: update local website copy
title: Automated Updates to Local Website Copy
body: This is an auto-generated PR with website updates.
branch: website-updates
```
## Use case: Create a pull request to update X by calling the GitHub API
You can use the GitHub API to trigger a webhook event called [`repository_dispatch`](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/events-that-trigger-workflows#repository_dispatch) when you want to trigger a workflow for any activity that happens outside of GitHub.
This pattern will work well for updating any kind of static content from an external source.
You can modify any of the examples in the previous section to work in this fashion.
Set the workflow to execute `on: repository_dispatch`.
```yml
on:
repository_dispatch:
types: [create-pull-request]
```
### Call the GitHub API from an external service
An `on: repository_dispatch` workflow can be triggered by a call to the GitHub API as follows.
- `[username]` is a GitHub username
- `[token]` is a `repo` scoped [Personal Access Token](https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token)
- `[repository]` is the name of the repository the workflow resides in.
```
curl -XPOST -u "[username]:[token]" \
-H "Accept: application/vnd.github.everest-preview+json" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
https://api.github.com/repos/[username]/[repository]/dispatches \
--data '{"event_type": "create-pull-request"}'
```
### Call the GitHub API from another GitHub Actions workflow
An `on: repository_dispatch` workflow can be triggered from another workflow with [repository-dispatch](https://github.com/peter-evans/repository-dispatch) action.
```yml
- name: Repository Dispatch
uses: peter-evans/repository-dispatch@v2
with:
token: ${{ secrets.REPO_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
repository: username/my-repo
event-type: create-pull-request
client-payload: '{"ref": "${{ github.ref }}", "sha": "${{ github.sha }}"}'
```
## Use case: Create a pull request to modify/fix pull requests
**Note**: While the following approach does work, my strong recommendation would be to use a slash command style "ChatOps" solution for operations on pull requests. See [slash-command-dispatch](https://github.com/peter-evans/slash-command-dispatch) for such a solution.
This is a pattern that lends itself to automated code linting and fixing. A pull request can be created to fix or modify something during an `on: pull_request` workflow. The pull request containing the fix will be raised with the original pull request as the base. This can be then be merged to update the original pull request and pass any required tests.
Note that due to [token restrictions on public repository forks](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/configuring-and-managing-workflows/authenticating-with-the-github_token#permissions-for-the-github_token), workflows for this use case do not work for pull requests raised from forks.
Private repositories can be configured to [enable workflows](https://docs.github.com/en/github/administering-a-repository/disabling-or-limiting-github-actions-for-a-repository#enabling-workflows-for-private-repository-forks) from forks to run without restriction.
### autopep8
The following is an example workflow for a use case where [autopep8 action](https://github.com/peter-evans/autopep8) runs as both a check on pull requests and raises a further pull request to apply code fixes.
How it works:
1. When a pull request is raised the workflow executes as a check
2. If autopep8 makes any fixes a pull request will be raised for those fixes to be merged into the current pull request branch. The workflow then deliberately causes the check to fail.
3. When the pull request containing the fixes is merged the workflow runs again. This time autopep8 makes no changes and the check passes.
4. The original pull request can now be merged.
```yml
name: autopep8
on: pull_request
jobs:
autopep8:
# Check if the PR is not raised by this workflow and is not from a fork
if: startsWith(github.head_ref, 'autopep8-patches') == false && github.event.pull_request.head.repo.full_name == github.repository
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
- name: autopep8
id: autopep8
uses: peter-evans/autopep8@v1
with:
args: --exit-code --recursive --in-place --aggressive --aggressive .
- name: Set autopep8 branch name
id: vars
run: |
branch-name="autopep8-patches/${{ github.head_ref }}"
echo "branch-name=$branch-name" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
- name: Create Pull Request
if: steps.autopep8.outputs.exit-code == 2
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
commit-message: autopep8 action fixes
title: Fixes by autopep8 action
body: This is an auto-generated PR with fixes by autopep8.
labels: autopep8, automated pr
branch: ${{ steps.vars.outputs.branch-name }}
- name: Fail if autopep8 made changes
if: steps.autopep8.outputs.exit-code == 2
run: exit 1
```
## Misc workflow tips
### Filtering push events
For workflows using `on: push` you may want to ignore push events for tags and only execute for branches. Specifying `branches` causes only events on branches to trigger the workflow. The `'**'` wildcard will match any branch name.
```yml
on:
push:
branches:
- '**'
```
If you have a workflow that contains jobs to handle push events on branches as well as tags, you can make sure that the job where you use `create-pull-request` action only executes when `github.ref` is a branch by using an `if` condition as follows.
```yml
on: push
jobs:
createPullRequest:
if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/heads/')
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
...
someOtherJob:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
...
```
### Dynamic configuration using variables
The following examples show how configuration for the action can be dynamically defined in a previous workflow step.
Note that the step where output variables are defined must have an id.
```yml
- name: Set output variables
id: vars
run: |
pr_title="[Test] Add report file $(date +%d-%m-%Y)"
pr_body="This PR was auto-generated on $(date +%d-%m-%Y) \
by [create-pull-request](https://github.com/peter-evans/create-pull-request)."
echo "pr_title=$pr_title" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
echo "pr_body=$pr_body" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
title: ${{ steps.vars.outputs.pr_title }}
body: ${{ steps.vars.outputs.pr_body }}
```
### Using a markdown template
In this example, a markdown template file is added to the repository at `.github/pull-request-template.md` with the following content.
```
This is a test pull request template
Render template variables such as {{ .foo }} and {{ .bar }}.
```
The template is rendered using the [render-template](https://github.com/chuhlomin/render-template) action and the result is used to create the pull request.
```yml
- name: Render template
id: template
uses: chuhlomin/render-template@v1.4
with:
template: .github/pull-request-template.md
vars: |
foo: this
bar: that
- name: Create Pull Request
uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v6
with:
body: ${{ steps.template.outputs.result }}
```
### Debugging GitHub Actions
#### Runner Diagnostic Logging
[Runner diagnostic logging](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/configuring-and-managing-workflows/managing-a-workflow-run#enabling-runner-diagnostic-logging) provides additional log files that contain information about how a runner is executing an action.
To enable runner diagnostic logging, set the secret `ACTIONS_RUNNER_DEBUG` to `true` in the repository that contains the workflow.
#### Step Debug Logging
[Step debug logging](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/configuring-and-managing-workflows/managing-a-workflow-run#enabling-step-debug-logging) increases the verbosity of a job's logs during and after a job's execution.
To enable step debug logging set the secret `ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG` to `true` in the repository that contains the workflow.
#### Output Various Contexts
```yml
steps:
- name: Dump GitHub context
env:
GITHUB_CONTEXT: ${{ toJson(github) }}
run: echo "$GITHUB_CONTEXT"
- name: Dump job context
env:
JOB_CONTEXT: ${{ toJson(job) }}
run: echo "$JOB_CONTEXT"
- name: Dump steps context
env:
STEPS_CONTEXT: ${{ toJson(steps) }}
run: echo "$STEPS_CONTEXT"
- name: Dump runner context
env:
RUNNER_CONTEXT: ${{ toJson(runner) }}
run: echo "$RUNNER_CONTEXT"
- name: Dump strategy context
env:
STRATEGY_CONTEXT: ${{ toJson(strategy) }}
run: echo "$STRATEGY_CONTEXT"
- name: Dump matrix context
env:
MATRIX_CONTEXT: ${{ toJson(matrix) }}
run: echo "$MATRIX_CONTEXT"
```