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GitHub Actions

GoReleaser can also be used within our official GoReleaser Action through GitHub Actions.

You can create a workflow for pushing your releases by putting YAML configuration to .github/workflows/release.yml.

Usage

Workflow

Below is a simple snippet to use this action in your workflow:

# .github/workflows/release.yml
name: goreleaser

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    # run only against tags
    tags:
      - "*"

permissions:
  contents: write
  # packages: write
  # issues: write

jobs:
  goreleaser:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
      - name: Set up Go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v4
        with:
          go-version: stable
      # More assembly might be required: Docker logins, GPG, etc.
      # It all depends on your needs.
      - name: Run GoReleaser
        uses: goreleaser/goreleaser-action@v5
        with:
          # either 'goreleaser' (default) or 'goreleaser-pro'
          distribution: goreleaser
          version: latest
          args: release --clean
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          # Your GoReleaser Pro key, if you are using the 'goreleaser-pro' distribution
          # GORELEASER_KEY: ${{ secrets.GORELEASER_KEY }}

Some things to look closely...

The action does not install, configure or authenticate into dependencies

GoReleaser Action will not install nor setup any other software needed to release. It's the user's responsibility to install and configure Go, Docker, Syft, Cosign and any other tools the release might need. It's also the user's responsibility to log in into tools that need it, such as docker.

Fetch depthness

Notice the fetch-depth: 0 option on the Checkout workflow step. It is required for GoReleaser to work properly. Without that, GoReleaser might fail or behave incorrectly.

Tag fetching

Notice the git fetch --force -tags. This is needed if you use fields like TagBody, TagSubject or TagContents in your templates. For more information, take a look at actions/checkout#290.

Tip

For detailed instructions please follow GitHub Actions workflow syntax.

Signing

If signing is enabled in your GoReleaser configuration, you can use the Import GPG GitHub Action along with this one:

# .github/workflows/release.yml
jobs:
  # ...
  goreleaser:
    # ...
    steps:
      # ...
      - name: Import GPG key
        id: import_gpg
        uses: crazy-max/ghaction-import-gpg@v6
        with:
          gpg_private_key: ${{ secrets.GPG_PRIVATE_KEY }}
          passphrase: ${{ secrets.PASSPHRASE }}
      - name: Run GoReleaser
        uses: goreleaser/goreleaser-action@v5
        with:
          version: latest
          args: release --clean
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          GPG_FINGERPRINT: ${{ steps.import_gpg.outputs.fingerprint }}
      # ...

And reference the fingerprint in your signing configuration using the GPG_FINGERPRINT environment variable:

# .goreleaser.yaml
signs:
  - artifacts: checksum
    cmd: gpg2
    args:
      - "--batch"
      - "-u"
      - "{{ .Env.GPG_FINGERPRINT }}"
      - "--output"
      - "${signature}"
      - "--detach-sign"
      - "${artifact}"

Customizing

Inputs

Following inputs can be used as step.with keys

Name Type Default Description
distribution String goreleaser GoReleaser distribution, either goreleaser or goreleaser-pro
version1 String latest GoReleaser version
args String Arguments to pass to GoReleaser
workdir String . Working directory (below repository root)
install-only Bool false Just install GoReleaser

Outputs

Following outputs are available

Name Type Description
artifacts JSON Build result artifacts
metadata JSON Build result metadata

Environment Variables

Following environment variables can be used as step.env keys

Name Description
GITHUB_TOKEN GITHUB_TOKEN as provided by secrets
GORELEASER_KEY Your GoReleaser Pro License Key, in case you are using the goreleaser-pro distribution

Token Permissions

The following permissions are required by GoReleaser:

GITHUB_TOKEN permissions are limited to the repository that contains your workflow.

If you need to push the homebrew tap to another repository, you must create a custom Personal Access Token with repo permissions and add it as a secret in the repository. If you create a secret named GH_PAT, the step will look like this:

# .github/workflows/release.yml
jobs:
  # ...
  goreleaser:
    # ...
    steps:
      # ...
      - name: Run GoReleaser
        uses: goreleaser/goreleaser-action@v5
        with:
          version: latest
          args: release --clean
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
      # ...

You can also read the GitHub documentation about it.

What does it look like?

You can check this example repository for a real world example.


Example release on GitHub.

  1. Can be a fixed version like v0.117.0 or a max satisfying SemVer one like ~> 0.132. In this case this will return v0.132.1. ↩