Why Adopt

GitHub Actions is CI/CD done right. It lives in your repository, uses YAML config, and has a massive marketplace of reusable actions.

For any project hosted on GitHub (which is all of mine), Actions is the obvious choice.

What Makes It Great

1. Native integration - Pull requests, issues, releases all trigger workflows
2. Matrix builds - Test across OS/version combinations easily
3. Reusable workflows - DRY up common patterns
4. Generous free tier - 2,000 minutes/month for free accounts
5. Self-hosted runners - Run on your own infrastructure if needed

My Standard Workflow

name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
        with:
          bundler-cache: true
      - run: bundle exec rails test
      - run: bundle exec rubocop

Simple, readable, maintainable.

This Site’s Pipeline

This Jekyll site deploys automatically:

1. Push to main
2. Actions builds Jekyll
3. Deploys to GitHub Pages
4. Site live in ~60 seconds

Zero configuration beyond the workflow file.

Tips from Experience

1. Cache aggressively - bundler-cache: true saves minutes per build
2. Use matrix sparingly - Test what matters, not every permutation
3. Pin action versions - @v4 not @main for reproducibility
4. Keep secrets secret - Use repository secrets, never hardcode

When to Consider Alternatives

• Complex pipelines - GitLab CI has better DAG support
• Self-hosted preference - Jenkins, Drone are options
• Not on GitHub - GitLab CI, CircleCI, etc.

For GitHub users, Actions is the path of least resistance.