Modern GitHub Actions Features Reference

This reference covers validation of modern GitHub Actions features including reusable workflows, attestations, OIDC authentication, and more.

Reusable Workflows

Validation Points

• workflow_call trigger configuration
• Required and optional inputs with correct types
• Secrets declaration and usage
• Outputs definition

Example

# Reusable workflow (.github/workflows/reusable-deploy.yml)
on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      environment:
        required: true
        type: string
      deploy-version:
        required: false
        type: string
        default: 'latest'
    secrets:
      deploy-token:
        required: true
    outputs:
      deployment-url:
        description: "The URL of the deployment"
        value: ${{ jobs.deploy.outputs.url }}

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      url: ${{ steps.deploy.outputs.url }}
    steps:
      - name: Deploy
        id: deploy
        run: echo "url=https://example.com" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

Common Errors

• Incorrect input types (string, number, boolean)
• Missing required secrets
• Invalid output references

Workflow Limits (November 2025)

GitHub Actions increased reusable workflow limits:

• Nested workflows: Up to 10 levels (previously 4)
• Total workflows per run: Up to 50 workflows (previously 20)

This enables complex workflow compositions and better code reuse.

---

SBOM and Build Provenance Attestations

Validation Points

• Correct permissions (id-token: write, attestations: write)
• Valid artifact paths
• Proper attestation action usage

Example

permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read
  attestations: write

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Build artifact
        run: |
          mkdir -p dist
          tar -czvf dist/app.tar.gz ./src

      - name: Generate SBOM
        run: |
          # Generate SPDX SBOM
          syft ./src -o spdx-json > sbom.spdx.json

      - uses: actions/attest-sbom@v3
        with:
          subject-path: '${{ github.workspace }}/dist/*.tar.gz'
          sbom-path: '${{ github.workspace }}/sbom.spdx.json'

      - uses: actions/attest-build-provenance@v3
        with:
          subject-path: '${{ github.workspace }}/dist/*.tar.gz'

Common Errors

• Missing required permissions
• Invalid subject-path glob patterns
• Incorrect SBOM format

---

OIDC Authentication

Validation Points

• Correct permissions (id-token: write)
• Valid audience claims
• Proper OIDC provider configuration
• Token claim validation in receiving systems

Available Token Claims (November 2025)

Example: AWS OIDC

permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Configure AWS Credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
        with:
          role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/GitHubActionsRole
          aws-region: us-east-1
          # Token now includes check_run_id for granular tracking

      - name: Deploy to AWS
        run: aws s3 sync ./build s3://my-bucket/

AWS IAM Policy with check_run_id

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Principal": {
      "Federated": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:oidc-provider/token.actions.githubusercontent.com"
    },
    "Action": "sts:AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity",
    "Condition": {
      "StringEquals": {
        "token.actions.githubusercontent.com:sub": "repo:org/repo:ref:refs/heads/main",
        "token.actions.githubusercontent.com:aud": "sts.amazonaws.com"
      },
      "StringLike": {
        "token.actions.githubusercontent.com:check_run_id": "*"
      }
    }
  }]
}

Benefits of check_run_id

• Fine-grained access control: Trace tokens to exact job and compute
• Improved auditability: Track which specific check run made API calls
• Least-privilege policies: Attribute-based access control without enumerating repositories
• Faster revocation: Reduce secret exposure risk

---

Deployment Environments

Validation Points

• Environment name configuration
• Protection rules compatibility
• Required reviewers setup
• Environment variables and secrets scope

Example

jobs:
  deploy-staging:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    environment:
      name: staging
      url: https://staging.example.com
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - run: ./deploy.sh staging

  deploy-production:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: deploy-staging
    environment:
      name: production
      url: https://prod.example.com
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - run: ./deploy.sh production

Common Errors

• Undefined environment names
• Missing URL for environment tracking
• Incorrect environment variable scope

---

Job Summaries

Validation Points

• Correct usage of $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
• Valid Markdown formatting
• Proper escaping of dynamic content

Example

steps:
  - name: Run tests
    id: tests
    run: |
      # Run tests and capture results
      npm test 2>&1 | tee test-output.txt
      PASSED=$(grep -c "PASS" test-output.txt || echo 0)
      FAILED=$(grep -c "FAIL" test-output.txt || echo 0)
      echo "passed=$PASSED" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
      echo "failed=$FAILED" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

  - name: Generate summary
    run: |
      echo "## Test Results" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
      echo "" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
      echo "| Status | Count |" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
      echo "|--------|-------|" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
      echo "| Passed | ${{ steps.tests.outputs.passed }} |" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
      echo "| Failed | ${{ steps.tests.outputs.failed }} |" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY

Note: Job summaries are runtime features - actionlint validates script syntax but not summary content.

---

Container Jobs

Validation Points

• Valid container image references
• Correct volume mounts
• Environment variable configuration
• Service container networking

Example

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container:
      image: node:24
      env:
        NODE_ENV: test
      volumes:
        - /data:/data

    services:
      postgres:
        image: postgres:16
        env:
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
          POSTGRES_DB: testdb
        ports:
          - 5432:5432
        options: >-
          --health-cmd pg_isready
          --health-interval 10s
          --health-timeout 5s
          --health-retries 5

      redis:
        image: redis:7
        ports:
          - 6379:6379

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Run tests
        env:
          DATABASE_URL: postgres://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/testdb
          REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379
        run: npm test

Common Errors

• Invalid image tags
• Incorrect volume mount syntax
• Service container networking issues
• Missing health checks for services

---

Matrix Strategies

Validation Points

• Matrix values must be arrays
• Valid matrix variable references
• Proper include/exclude syntax

Example

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macos-latest]
        node: [20, 22, 24]
        exclude:
          - os: macos-latest
            node: 20
        include:
          - os: ubuntu-latest
            node: 24
            experimental: true

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: ${{ matrix.node }}
      - run: npm test

---

Concurrency Control

Validation Points

• Valid concurrency group names
• Proper cancel-in-progress usage

Example

name: CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: ${{ github.ref != 'refs/heads/main' }}

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - run: npm ci && npm run build

This prevents redundant runs while protecting main branch runs from cancellation.