Unable to get Act to Work (fails with File not Found error)

[dvdmtw98]

I am trying to use Act to test a action that I am creating to compile a Mkdocs Site. I want to use Docker based Actions so I have created a Dockerfile and entrypoint.sh file as mentioned in the Actions Documentation but when I try to run act I am getting File not Found error.

Directory Structure

MKDOCS-SITE-BUILDER
|   .env
|   .gitignore
|   .secrets
|   action.yml
|   Dockerfile
|   entrypoint.sh
|
+---.github
|   \---workflows
|           mkdocs.yml
|
\---.vscode
        settings.json

action.yml

YAML for the Action I am trying to create

name: 'Mkdocs Site Builder'
inputs:
  repository:
    description: 'Repository name with owner'
    required: true
    default: ${{ github.REPOSITORY }}
  checkout:
    description: 'Branch, Tag or SHA Hash to checkout'
    required: true
    default: main
outputs:
  time:
    description: 'Stores the time returned by the Action'
runs:
  using: docker
  image: 'Dockerfile'
  args:
    - ${{ inputs.REPOSITORY }}
    - ${{ inputs.CHECKOUT }}

mkdocs.yml

commands to call my Action (Workflow)

name: 'Mkdocs build testing Workflow'
on: [ push ]

jobs:
  testing:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: 'Mkdocs Site Builder'
        uses: ./.github/workflows/mkdocs/
        with:
          repository: ${{ secrets.REPOSITORY }}
          checkout: ${{ secrets.CHECKOUT }}

I am using the following command to run act: act --secret-file .secrets --env-file .env

The .secrets file has an variable called REPOSITORY and .env file as an variable called CHECKOUT

[KnisterPeter]

You are referencing the action ./.github/workflows/mkdocs/ in your workflow.
According to your directory structure this does not exist.

[dvdmtw98]

Oops... not sure how I missed that.

How would I call action.yml (My action) from the mkdocs.yml (Workflow) file ?

I tried using ../../action.yml but it still does not working
Error: Expected format {org}/{repo}[/path]@ref. Actual '../../action.yml' Input string was not in a correct format

Do I need to use the checkout action to be able to access it ?

[KnisterPeter]

You can use uses: .. It's relative from the checkout repository.
Also for local actions you need to checkout your repository, yes.

[dvdmtw98]

Is there any way to test an action I am developing without committing the changes to GitHub ? Your solution works but since my GitHub repo is empty I can't clone everything.

The thing is I am quite new to Actions to I want to make minor changes and keep testing to understand what is happening but committing my action to GitHub for all small change will make the history look really bad. Any way to deal with this ?

[KnisterPeter]

Use --bind in that case.
The docs for all flags are here: https://github.com/nektos/act#flags

[dvdmtw98]

Thanks. Using the -b flag with act and using ./ in uses I was able to run my action successfully