Table of contents

1. Background
   1. Create an End-to-End GitHub Actions Workflow Using VS Code
      1. Create a New Repository Using GitHub Desktop
      2. Set Up the GitHub Actions Workflow in VS Code
      3. Create a Python Script
      4. Commit and Push the Changes
      5. Check the Workflow Execution
      6. Summary

Background

GitHub Actions Workflows are the core of GitHub CI/CD. You can set them up easily. VS Code has many extensions for GitHub. In this article, I will show how to create a simple GitHub Actions Workflow. It will help you understand the flow. Later using similar steps you can create complex Action Workflows. Let's get started.

Create an End-to-End GitHub Actions Workflow Using VS Code

Create a New Repository Using GitHub Desktop

• Open GitHub Desktop. Click on New repository. Provide a name for your repository, check the local path, and click on Create repository.

• Click on Publish repository. Then Click on Open in Visual Studio Code.

• In the VS Code you will be able to see your folder .gitattributes file

Set Up the GitHub Actions Workflow in VS Code

• Create Folder Structure:
  • In VS Code, click on the create folder icon and create a .github folder.
  • Inside the .github folder, create another folder named workflows.

• Create Workflow File:
  • Inside the workflows folder, create a file named hello-github-actions.yml.
  • Add the following code to hello-github-actions.yml:

    name: Hello GitHub Actions
    on: [push]
    jobs:
      say-hello:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        steps:
          - name: Checkout code
            uses: actions/checkout@v4
          - name: Run hello.py
            run: python hello.py
    

Create a Python Script

• In the root of your repository, create a new file named hello.py.
• Add the following code to hello.py:

  print("Hello, GitHub Actions!")
  

  

Commit and Push the Changes

• Click on the source control icon in VS Code.
• Uncomment or Write a commit message (e.g., “This is a message bla bla bla”).
• Click on Commit to commit the changes.
• Click on Push to push the changes to GitHub. This will trigger the workflow.

Check the Workflow Execution

• In VS Code, click on the GitHub Actions Extension in the left pane. This will show you the GitHub Actions Workflow that you created.
• You can click on the globe icon to see the workflow directly on GitHub.

Summary

Well, this was a hand-holding article. You can do a lot more with GitHub Actions workflows.