GitHub Actions Version Updater

GitHub Actions Version Updater is GitHub Action that is used to update other GitHub Actions in a Repository and create a pull request with the updates. It is an automated dependency updater similar to GitHub's Dependabot, but for GitHub Actions.

How Does It Work:

GitHub Actions Version Updater first goes through all the workflows in a repository and checks for updates for each of the action used in those workflows.
If an update is found and if that action is not ignored then the workflows are updated with the latest release of the action being used.
If at least one workflow file is updated then a new branch is created with the changes and pushed to GitHub.
Finally, a pull request is created with the newly created branch.

Usage:

We recommend running this action on a schedule event or a workflow_dispatch event.

To integrate GitHub Actions Version Updater on your repository, create a YAML file inside .github/workflows/ directory (.github/workflows/updater.yaml) add the following into the file:

name: GitHub Actions Version Updater

# Controls when the action will run. 
on:
  # can be used to run workflow manually
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    # Automatically run on every Sunday
    - cron:  '0 0 * * 0'

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          # Access token with `workflow` scope is required
          token: ${{ secrets.WORKFLOW_SECRET }}

      - name: Run GitHub Actions Version Updater
        uses: saadmk11/github-actions-version-updater@v0.5.6
        with:
          # Optional, This will be used to configure git
          # defaults to `github-actions[bot]` if not provided
          committer_username: 'test'
          committer_email: 'test@test.com'
          # Access token with `workflow` scope is required
          token: ${{ secrets.WORKFLOW_SECRET }}
          # Do not update these actions (Optional)
          # You need to add JSON array inside a string
          # because GitHub Actions does not yet allow `Lists` as input
          ignore: '["actions/checkout@v2", "actions/cache@v2"]'

Important Note:

GitHub does not allow updating workflow files inside a workflow run. The token generated by GitHub in every workflow (${{secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN}}) does not have permission to update a workflow. That's why you need to create a Personal Access Token with repo and workflow scope and pass it to the action.

To know more about how to pass a secret to GitHub actions you can Read GitHub Docs