setup

Setup Action

This action copies workflow script files to the agent environment.

Description

This action runs in all workflow jobs to provide scripts that can be used instead of being inlined in the workflow. This includes scripts for activation jobs, agent jobs, and safe-output jobs.

The action copies runtime .cjs JavaScript files (excluding tests) from the js/ directory and .sh shell scripts from the sh/ directory.

All files are copied to the destination directory (default: ${{ runner.temp }}/gh-aw/actions). These files are generated by running make actions-build and are committed to the repository.

Usage

- name: Setup Scripts
  uses: ./actions/setup
  with:
    # Destination directory for script files
    # Default: ${{ runner.temp }}/gh-aw/actions
    destination: ${{ runner.temp }}/gh-aw/actions

Inputs

destination

Optional Destination directory for script files.

Default: ${{ runner.temp }}/gh-aw/actions

Outputs

files-copied

The number of runtime JavaScript, JSON, and shell files copied to the destination directory.

Example

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v7
    with:
      sparse-checkout: |
        actions
  
  - name: Setup Scripts
    uses: ./actions/setup
    with:
      destination: ${{ runner.temp }}/gh-aw/actions

Files Included

This action copies files from actions/setup/, including:

JavaScript Files

• Activation job scripts (check_stop_time, check_skip_if_match, check_command_position, etc.)
• Agent job scripts (compute_text, create_issue, create_pull_request, etc.)
• Safe output scripts (safe_outputs_, safe_inputs_, messages, etc.)
• Prompt rendering scripts (create_prompt.cjs, interpolate_prompt.cjs, etc.)
• Utility scripts (sanitize_, validate_, generate_*, etc.)

Shell Scripts (7 files from sh/)

• create_gh_aw_tmp_dir.sh - Creates temporary directory structure
• start_mcp_scripts_server.sh - Starts MCP Scripts HTTP server
• print_prompt_summary.sh - Prints prompt summary to logs
• generate_git_patch.sh - Generates git patches
• create_cache_memory_dir.sh - Creates cache-memory directory
• validate_multi_secret.sh - Validates that at least one secret from a list is configured

All files are copied from the committed js/ and sh/ directories which contain the source of truth for all JavaScript and shell scripts.

Development

The js/ and sh/ directories contain the source of truth for all JavaScript and shell script files. These files are manually edited and committed to the repository.

To update JavaScript files:

# Edit files in actions/setup/js/
# Format the JavaScript files
make fmt-cjs

# Lint the JavaScript files  
make lint-cjs

# Commit the changes
git add actions/setup/js/
git commit -m "Update JavaScript files"

To update shell scripts:

# Edit files in actions/setup/sh/
# Commit the changes
git add actions/setup/sh/
git commit -m "Update shell scripts"

Note: JavaScript and shell files are NOT embedded in the binary. They are copied at runtime by setup.sh from actions/setup/js/ and actions/setup/sh/ to ${{ runner.temp }}/gh-aw/actions where workflows can access them.

Testing Locally

You can test this action locally using the provided test script:

./test-setup-local.sh

This script will:

1. Check if js/ directory exists (runs make actions-build if needed)
2. Run setup.sh with test configuration
3. Verify all files are copied correctly