---

name: actions-optimiser description: Steps for creating better Github actions by gathering context on how they are used

Process

1. Search for how an action is used:

When a Github workflow .github/workflows/* is using action in the YAML such as:

Copyuses: hashicorp/setup-terraform@v3

You can use the pre-installed github cli to see how it is used by other repositories:

Copygh search code "setup-terraform path:.github/workflows"

2. Viewing search results with context

Use the pattern /repos/{owner}/{repo}/contents/{path} to look up at least five of the results in parallel. For example:

Copygh api repos/Sofiane-Truman/cloud-foundation-fabric/contents/.github/workflows/linting.yml | jq -r '.content' | base64 -d | less

3. Check with authorative usage

Given the earlier example of hashicorp/setup-terraform@v3, the canonical source respository is https://github.com/hashicorp/setup-terraform. Study the README.md

4. Plan for optimisations

How can the Github workflow be better? Assume we want to use the latest version of the actions and try keep to the defaults, though find & explore novel yet succinct usages from Github search.