Publish GitHub Action

This action creates a release branch for your GitHub Actions which will be automatically tagged and released. The release version can be defined in package.json.

Based on the tgymnich/publish-github-action action, but I wanted further customization and control over the release process (i.e.: adding ncc output and not committing node_modules directory).

Features

• 🔐 Verified Commits - Uses GitHub API to create verified commits (when commit_node_modules is false)
• 🏷️ Annotated Tags - Creates annotated tags via Git CLI with atomic updates (no downtime)
• 🌐 Multi-instance Support - API URL defaults to the environment you are running in; works with GitHub.com, GitHub Enterprise Server, and GHE.com
• 📦 Flexible Build - Automatically installs production dependencies and supports custom build commands
• 🗂️ Selective Commits - Choose which files to include (dist, node_modules, or both)

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
github_token	Token for the GitHub API	Yes	-
github_api_url	GitHub API URL (e.g., https://api.github.com for GitHub.com or https://ghes.domain.com/api/v3 for GHES)	No	${{ github.api_url }}
npm_package_command	Command to build the action	No	npm run package
commit_node_modules	Whether to commit node_modules folder. Note: When set to true, commits will NOT be verified due to API limitations with large file counts	No	false
commit_dist_folder	Whether to commit dist folder	No	true
publish_minor_version	Whether to publish minor version tag (e.g., v1.2)	No	false
publish_release_branch	Whether to publish release branch (e.g., releases/v1.2.3)	No	false

Commit Signing Behavior

• ✅ Verified commits (signed by GitHub) when commit_node_modules: false - Uses GitHub API for commits; tags are created locally via Git CLI
• ❌ Unverified commits when commit_node_modules: true - Uses Git CLI due to API limitations with large file counts

Build and File Management

The action automatically handles clean builds and file management:

• Dist folder cleaning: When commit_dist_folder: true and npm_package_command is specified, the dist/ folder is cleaned before building to ensure no stale files persist
• Automatic file deletion: The action removes .github/ files from release commits and properly handles renamed/deleted files in the dist/ folder

Example Workflow

name: 'Publish GitHub Action'
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - name: install ncc
        run: npm i -g @vercel/ncc
      - uses: joshjohanning/publish-github-action@v1
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          npm_package_command: npm run package
          commit_node_modules: false
          commit_dist_folder: true # defaults to true
          publish_minor_version: false
          publish_release_branch: false