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<p>First launched in 2018 as a platform-native automation tool, GitHub Actions has evolved to give developers powerful automation and CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous deployment) capabilities right next to your code in GitHub.</p>

<p>At its core, GitHub Actions is designed to help simplify workflows with flexible automation and offer easy-to-use CI/CD capabilities built by developers for developers.</p>

<p>Compared with other automation or CI/CD tools, GitHub Actions offers native capabilities right in your GitHub flow. It also makes it easy to leverage any of the 10,000+ pre-written and tested automations and CI/CD actions <a href="https://github.com/marketplace?category=&amp;query=&amp;type=actions&amp;verification=">in the GitHub Marketplace</a> as well as the ability to write your own with easy-to-use YAML files.</p>

<p>The best part? GitHub Actions responds to webhook events. That means you can automate any workflow based on a webhook trigger in your GitHub repository—whether it’s from an event on GitHub or from a third-party tool.</p>

<p>In this guide, we’ll explore the following:</p>

<ul>
<li><b>What are GitHub Actions and how do they work?</b> Everything technical you need to know about GitHub Actions and how its automation and CI/CD features work.</li>
<li><b>Who can use GitHub Actions?</b> What’s included in GitHub’s free and paid plans.</li>
<li><b>What can you do with GitHub Actions?</b> Common ways other developers are using GitHub Actions to simplify their workflows.</li>
</ul>

<h2>The benefits of GitHub Actions</h2>
<p>GitHub Actions offers a powerful array of functionality and features to aid your developer experience. Here are just a few:</p>

<ul>
<li><b>Automate everything within the GitHub flow:</b> Actions gives you the ability to implement powerful automations right in your repositories. You can create your own actions or use readily available actions on the GitHub Marketplace to integrate your preferred tools right into your repository.</li>
<li><b>Hosted virtual machines on multiple operating systems:</b> Actions offer hosted virtual machines (VM) with Ubuntu Linux, Windows, and macOS so you can build, test, and deploy code directly to the operating system of your choice—or all three at the same time.</li>
<li><b>Pre-written CI templates that are ready to use:</b> GitHub Actions brings continuous integration (CI) directly to the GitHub flow with templates built by developers for developers. You can also create your own custom CI workflows, and your own continuous deployment (CD) workflows, too (more on that later).</li>
<li><b>Simple container and operating system testing:</b> With support for Docker and access to hosted instances of Ubuntu Linux, Windows, and macOS, Actions make it simple to build and test code across systems—and automate build and test workflows, too.</li>
<li><b>Use it on your public repository for free:</b> GitHub Actions is free to use on all public repositories—and can be used for free on private repositories with a limit of 2,000 minutes a month of hosted workflows (or an unlimited amount of minutes if a developer hosts their own GitHub Action server).</li>
</ul>

<h3>Get the full guide to learn more about GitHub Actions</h3>

<p>Download our PDF guide now to find out how GitHub Actions works and what you can do with it, from automating pull request notifications in Slack to building out a full CI/CD pipeline.</p>

<h4>Additional resources</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.blog/2021-11-04-10-github-actions-resources-basics-ci-cd/">10 GitHub Actions resources to bookmark from the basics to CI/CD</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.blog/2021-11-18-7-advanced-workflow-automation-features-with-github-actions/">7 advanced workflow automation features with GitHub Actions</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.blog/2021-03-04-4-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-do-with-github-actions/">4 things you didn’t know you could do with GitHub Actions</a></li>
</ul>

A full guide on the benefits of having built-in automation and CI/CD capabilities on GitHub, how GitHub Actions work, common use cases, and more.

DevOps - Productivity pillar - Light 2

Resource Page for /devops/tools/automation/actions

What is GitHub Actions? How CI/CD & automation work on GitHub

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Cloud-based CI/CD helps enterprises ship faster—and helps developers stay focused on the code that matters. By combining the power of built-in CI/CD with GitHub Actions and Google Cloud, your organization can spend more time on innovation and less time between commit and deployment.

Join GitHub Senior Partner Engineer John Bohannon, Google Developer Relations Engineer Averi Kitsch, and Google Strategic Cloud Engineer Bharath Baiju to learn:

- How to build a modern CI/CD pipeline that improves developer focus, flexibility, and productivity
- How to build and deploy to the cloud with GitHub-hosted runners
- How to use private clusters to stay secure and compliant, while shipping faster

Bring your DevOps pipeline to the cloud with hosted runners and private clusters.

Resource Page for /devops/tools/automation/automating-ci-cd-actions-google-cloud

Automating CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions and Google Cloud


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Software projects in C/C++ are especially difficult in this regard. To make developers happier and more productive, GitHub is working on a new feature called “Codespaces” which will allow development environments to be defined through code. This video shows you how you can start working on a software project inside an environment containing everything you will need out of the box.


In order to start working on a software project, a developer needs to first set up a development environment containing all the tools, libraries, dependencies and configuration necessary before the actual work can begin. This process is cumbersome, frustrating and very time-consuming.

Resource Page for /devops/tools/automation/codespaces-easy-setup

Codespaces - Start working on software projects with zero setup time


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Codespaces, GitHub’s new cloud dev environment, is designed to make it easier for you to join a project or launch a developer environment. Learn how you can write, build, test, and debug your code all right from the browser. Tune in or code along as we build an action in Codespaces.


Coding with minimal configuration and from any device is possible now!

/devops/tools/automation/

What is GitHub Actions? How CI/CD & automation work on GitHub

Automating CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions and Google Cloud

Codespaces - Start working on software projects with zero setup time

Master GitHub's Codespaces