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Testing a GitHub Action locally before pushing it to GitHub can be achieved using a tool like act. The act tool allows you to run GitHub Actions locally in a containerized environment, mimicking the GitHub Actions runner.

Steps to test GitHub Actions locally using act:

1. Install act

  • First, you need to install act on your local machine. You can install it via Homebrew (on macOS and Linux), or download the appropriate binary for your OS.

On macOS or Linux using Homebrew:

brew install act

Alternatively, you can install it using a script or binary directly:

Follow the instructions at the official repository: https://github.com/nektos/act

2. Configure Secrets Locally

  • GitHub Actions often use secrets that are configured in the repository. You will need to set up those secrets locally for act to use.

Create a .secrets file in the root of your repository to store secrets. Here is an example format:

OVH_S3_APPLICATION_KEY=your-key
OVH_S3_APPLICATION_SECRET=your-secret
OVH_KUBECONFIG=your-kubeconfig

You can also pass secrets as command-line arguments if you don't want to store them in a file:

act -s OVH_S3_APPLICATION_KEY=your-key -s OVH_S3_APPLICATION_SECRET=your-secret -s OVH_KUBECONFIG=your-kubeconfig

3. Run Your Workflow Locally

After installing act and configuring your secrets, you can run your workflow locally. Use the following steps:

Run all workflows:

act

Run a specific workflow:

act -j <job-name>

Replace <job-name> with the specific job you want to run (which corresponds to the id of a job in your GitHub Actions workflow YAML).

Specify an event:

You can also specify an event that triggers the workflow:

act <event>

For example, to run a workflow triggered by a push event:

act push

4. Use Docker to Simulate GitHub Runner Environments

The act tool uses Docker to run workflows locally. By default, act uses a very minimal image (nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:18.04). You can run with the larger GitHub-provided runner environments by using the --platform flag.

For example:

act --platform ubuntu-latest=nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:22.04

5. View Logs and Debugging

  • The logs will be printed to your terminal, just like they would in GitHub Actions.
  • You can see any errors or output from the actions and adjust your workflow accordingly.

Example of Running a Workflow Locally

Assume you have a GitHub Actions workflow in .github/workflows/cleanup.yml. You can run it locally with:

act workflow_dispatch

If your workflow requires secrets, make sure they are set up either in the .secrets file or passed as parameters, like this:

act -s OVH_S3_APPLICATION_KEY=your-key -s OVH_S3_APPLICATION_SECRET=your-secret -s OVH_KUBECONFIG=your-kubeconfig workflow_dispatch

Additional Notes

  • Docker Installation: Ensure Docker is installed on your machine since act uses Docker to run the workflows.
  • Runner Versions: You can choose specific runner versions (like ubuntu-latest or ubuntu-20.04) using --platform.

By using act, you can thoroughly test your GitHub Actions workflows locally before committing and pushing them to GitHub.

Use a deploy key in repo A so repo B can clone it and use it in the github actions

Perfect — yes, since A is private, and you’re accessing it from another repo (B), you do need to create and configure a deploy key in GitHub.

Here’s the full 🔒 SSH deploy key setup guide for your workflow to succeed:

⸻

✅ Step 1: Generate an SSH key pair

Run this locally on your machine:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "verana-gha-deploy-key" -f verana_test_harness_key

You’ll get: • repo_a_key (the private key) • repo_a_key.pub (the public key)

⸻

✅ Step 2: Add the public key to the verana-test-harness repo 1. Go to repo_a → Settings → Deploy keys 2. Click “Add deploy key” 3. Title: GHA access from verana-blockchain 4. Paste in the contents of verana_test_harness_key.pub 5. ✅ Enable “Allow write access” only if the action needs to push. (Otherwise, leave it unchecked.) 6. Click Save

⸻

✅ Step 3: Add the private key as a GitHub Secret in verana-blockchain 1. Go to the verana-blockchain repo → Settings → Secrets → Actions 2. Add a new secret: • Name: A_REPO_KEY • Value: paste the entire content of verana_test_harness_key

⸻

✅ Step 4: Update your GitHub Action to use SSH clone

Instead of https://github.com/verana-labs/verana-test-harness, use the SSH form:

  • name: Checkout repo_a uses: actions/checkout@v3 with: repository: verana-labs/repo_a ssh-key: ${{ secrets.A_REPO_KEY }} path: ${{ env.REPO_A_PATH }}

You no longer need to manually create the SSH directory or run ssh-keyscan — actions/checkout will handle all of that when you use the ssh-key parameter.

⸻

✅ Optional: Remove the manual SSH step

Since you’re now using ssh-key in actions/checkout, you can remove this from your workflow:

  • name: Set up SSH for accessing the selected repository run: | mkdir -p ~/.ssh echo "${{ env.A_REPO_KEY }}" > ~/.ssh/id_rsa chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa ssh-keyscan github.com >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts