GitHub Release Action

A composite GitHub Action that creates GitHub releases with artifacts using the gh CLI tool.

Description

Builds release artifacts via make, generates SHA256 checksums, and creates a GitHub release with all artifacts attached. Supports draft releases for pre-release versions.

Usage

- uses: ./.github/actions/github-release-action
  with:
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
`release-targets`	Make targets to build release artifacts	No	`release`
`artifact-glob`	Glob pattern for release artifacts	No	`release/*`
`github-token`	GitHub token for authentication	Yes	—
`draft`	Create a draft release	No	`false`

Example Workflow

name: Release
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - "v*"

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - uses: ./.github/actions/github-release-action
        with:
          github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          release-targets: "build package"
          artifact-glob: "dist/*"

How It Works

Finds a SemVer tag on HEAD (vX.Y.Z, X.Y.Z, or vX.Y.Z-devN)
Builds release artifacts using make <release-targets>
Generates SHA256 checksums for all matched artifacts
Creates a GitHub release with artifacts and checksums attached
Marks the release as draft if the tag contains -dev or draft input is true

Requirements

Repository must have a SemVer tag on the current commit
A Makefile with the specified release target(s)
gh CLI (pre-installed on GitHub Actions runners)
GITHUB_TOKEN with permissions to create releases