GitHub Actions questions are easy to answer from stale memory. Use this skill to ground answers in official GitHub documentation and return the closest authoritative page instead of generic CI/CD advice.
When to Use
Use this skill when the request is about:
- GitHub Actions concepts, terminology, or product boundaries
- Workflow YAML, triggers, jobs, matrices, concurrency, variables, contexts, or expressions
- GitHub-hosted runners, larger runners, self-hosted runners, or Actions Runner Controller
- Artifacts, caches, reusable workflows, workflow templates, or custom actions
- Secrets,
GITHUB_TOKEN, OpenID Connect, artifact attestations, or secure workflow patterns - Environments, deployment protection rules, deployment history, or deployment examples
- Migrating from Jenkins, CircleCI, GitLab CI/CD, Travis CI, Azure Pipelines, or other CI systems
- Troubleshooting workflow behavior when the user needs documentation, syntax guidance, or official references
Do not use this skill for:
- A specific failing PR check, missing workflow log, or CI failure triage. Use
gh-fix-ci. - General GitHub pull request, branch, or repository operations. Use
github. - CodeQL-specific configuration or code scanning guidance. Use
codeql. - Dependabot configuration, grouping, or dependency update strategy. Use
dependabot.
Workflow
1. Classify the request
Decide which bucket the question belongs to before searching:
- Getting started or tutorials
- Workflow authoring and syntax
- Runners and execution environment
- Security and supply chain
- Deployments and environments
- Custom actions and publishing
- Monitoring, logs, and troubleshooting
- Migration
If you need a quick starting point, load references/topic-map.md and jump to the closest section.
2. Search official GitHub docs first
- Treat
docs.github.comas the source of truth. - Prefer pages under https://docs.github.com/en/actions.
- Search with the user's exact terms plus a focused Actions phrase such as
workflow syntax,OIDC,reusable workflows, orself-hosted runners. - When multiple pages are plausible, compare 2-3 candidate pages and pick the one that most directly answers the user's question.
3. Open the best page before answering
- Read the most relevant page, and the exact section when practical.
- Use the topic map only to narrow the search space or surface likely starting pages.
- If a page appears renamed, moved, or incomplete, say that explicitly and return the nearest authoritative pages instead of guessing.
4. Answer with docs-grounded guidance
- Start with a direct answer in plain language.
- Include exact GitHub docs links, not just the docs homepage.
- Only provide YAML or step-by-step examples when the user asks for them or when the docs page makes an example necessary.
- Make any inference explicit. Good phrasing:
According to GitHub docs,...Inference: this likely means...
Answer Shape
Use a compact structure unless the user asks for depth:
- Direct answer
- Relevant docs
- Example YAML or steps, only if needed
- Explicit inference callout, only if you had to connect multiple docs pages
Keep citations close to the claim they support.
Search and Routing Tips
- For concept questions, prefer overview or concept pages before deep reference pages.
- For syntax questions, prefer workflow syntax, events, contexts, variables, or expressions reference pages.
- For security questions, prefer
Secure use,Secrets,GITHUB_TOKEN,OpenID Connect, and artifact attestation docs. - For deployment questions, prefer environments and deployment protection docs before cloud-specific examples.
- For migration questions, prefer the migration hub page first, then a platform-specific migration guide.
- If the user asks for a beginner walkthrough, start with a tutorial or quickstart instead of a raw reference page.
Common Mistakes
- Answering from memory without verifying the current docs
- Linking the GitHub Actions docs landing page when a narrower page exists
- Mixing up reusable workflows and composite actions
- Suggesting long-lived cloud credentials when OIDC is the better documented path
- Treating repo-specific CI debugging as a documentation question when it should be handed to
gh-fix-ci - Letting adjacent domains absorb the request when
codeqlordependabotis the sharper fit
Bundled Reference
Read references/topic-map.md only as a compact index of likely doc entry points. It is intentionally incomplete and should never replace the live GitHub docs as the final authority.
