Agent skill

workflow-development

Create, debug, and optimize GitHub Actions workflows with security best practices. USE THIS SKILL when user says "create workflow", "fix workflow", "workflow fails", "add CI", "reusable workflow", or needs help with GitHub Actions.

Stars 163
Forks 31

Install this agent skill to your Project

npx add-skill https://github.com/majiayu000/claude-skill-registry/tree/main/skills/development/workflow-development

SKILL.md

Workflow Development Skill

Design, debug, and optimize GitHub Actions workflows with security best practices.

Trigger Phrases

  • "create a CI workflow"
  • "add a release workflow"
  • "my workflow is failing"
  • "make this workflow reusable"
  • "workflow security audit"
  • "add [language] CI"

Security Requirements (Non-Negotiable)

SHA Pinning

yaml
# CORRECT
- uses: actions/checkout@11bd71901bbe5b1630ceea73d27597364c9af683 # v4.2.2

# WRONG - Never use tags
- uses: actions/checkout@v4

Minimal Permissions

yaml
permissions:
  contents: read  # Start with minimum

# Only add what's needed:
# pull-requests: write  # For PR comments
# packages: write       # For container registry

Reusable Workflow Pattern

Caller (in project)

yaml
name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  ci:
    uses: zircote/.github/.github/workflows/reusable-ci-python.yml@main
    with:
      python-version: '3.12'
      coverage-threshold: 80
    secrets: inherit

Reusable Definition (in .github repo)

yaml
name: Reusable Python CI

on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      python-version:
        required: false
        type: string
        default: '3.12'
      coverage-threshold:
        required: false
        type: number
        default: 80

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@11bd71901bbe5b1630ceea73d27597364c9af683
      - uses: zircote/.github/actions/setup-python-uv@main
        with:
          python-version: ${{ inputs.python-version }}
      - run: uv run ruff check .

Available Reusable Workflows

Workflow Purpose
reusable-ci-python.yml Python with uv, ruff, pyright, pytest
reusable-ci-typescript.yml TypeScript with pnpm, ESLint, Vitest
reusable-ci-go.yml Go with golangci-lint
reusable-release.yml Semantic release
reusable-security.yml Gitleaks + dependency scanning
reusable-docs.yml Documentation deployment
reusable-content.yml Content validation

Composite Action Pattern

yaml
# action.yml
name: 'Setup Python with uv'
description: 'Install Python and uv with caching'

inputs:
  python-version:
    required: false
    default: '3.12'

runs:
  using: 'composite'
  steps:
    - uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v4
      with:
        enable-cache: true
    - shell: bash
      run: uv python install ${{ inputs.python-version }}

Debugging Workflows

Common Failures

Error Cause Fix
"Resource not accessible" Missing permission Add to permissions:
Cache never hits Wrong key Check hashFiles path
Secrets unavailable Wrong context Use secrets: inherit
Workflow not triggered Event mismatch Check on: config

Debug Step

yaml
- name: Debug
  run: |
    echo "Event: ${{ github.event_name }}"
    echo "Ref: ${{ github.ref }}"
    echo "Actor: ${{ github.actor }}"

Validation

bash
# Validate SHA pinning
./scripts/validate-sha-pinning.sh .github/workflows/

# Check for unpinned actions
grep -rn "uses:.*@v[0-9]" .github/workflows/

# Validate workflow structure
./scripts/validate-workflows.sh .github/workflows/

Performance Optimization

Caching

yaml
- uses: actions/cache@0c907a75c2c80ebcb7f088228285e798b750cf8f
  with:
    path: ~/.cache/uv
    key: ${{ runner.os }}-uv-${{ hashFiles('uv.lock') }}

Matrix Builds

yaml
strategy:
  fail-fast: false
  matrix:
    os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest]
    python: ['3.11', '3.12']

Concurrency

yaml
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

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