Introduction to GitHub Actions

Location: On-Site or Online
Pricing: $1,250 per seat (6-seat minimum)
Length: 4 Days

Course Summary

Introduction to GitHub Actions is a practical, hands-on course designed to give students a strong foundation in CI/CD and workflow automation using GitHub Actions, one of the most widely adopted automation platforms in modern software development.

Students learn how to design, read, and maintain GitHub Actions workflows to automate testing, builds, security checks, and deployments across applications, infrastructure, and cloud environments. Core concepts such as workflows, jobs, steps, runners, actions, secrets, variables, and reusable automation patterns are reinforced through frequent labs and real-world scenarios.

By the end of the course, students are comfortable using GitHub Actions in day-to-day development and operations, reducing manual effort, improving reliability, and scaling automation across teams and repositories.

Course Outline

Day 1 – GitHub Actions Fundamentals and Core Concepts

• 💬 Lecture: Introduction to CI/CD and automation use cases

• 💬 Lecture: GitHub Actions architecture and execution model

• 💬 Lecture: Repositories, workflows, events, and runners

• 💬 Lecture: YAML fundamentals for GitHub Actions

• ⚙️ Lab: Exploring repositories with existing workflows

• ⚙️ Lab: Understanding the .github/workflows directory

• ⚙️ Lab: Creating a first GitHub Actions workflow

• ⚙️ Lab: Triggering workflows with push and pull request events

• ⚙️ Lab: Running jobs on GitHub-hosted runners

• ⚙️ Lab: Reviewing workflow logs and execution output

• 💬 Lecture: Jobs, steps, and execution order

• ⚙️ Lab: Creating multi-step jobs

• ⚙️ Lab: Controlling step execution order

• ⚙️ Lab: Using environment variables in workflows

• ⚙️ Lab: Customizing workflow behavior with defaults and env

Day 2 – Actions, Variables, and Workflow Logic

• 💬 Lecture: Marketplace actions vs custom workflow steps

• 💬 Lecture: Inputs, outputs, and environment variables

• ⚙️ Lab: Using popular marketplace actions

• ⚙️ Lab: Pinning action versions safely

• ⚙️ Lab: Passing data between steps and jobs

• 💬 Lecture: Secrets and secure data handling

• ⚙️ Lab: Creating and using repository secrets

• ⚙️ Lab: Preventing secret exposure in logs

• 💬 Lecture: Conditional execution and expressions

• ⚙️ Lab: Using if conditions at step and job level

• ⚙️ Lab: Controlling execution by branch and event type

• 💬 Lecture: Reusable workflows and composite actions

• ⚙️ Lab: Creating a reusable workflow

• ⚙️ Lab: Calling reusable workflows across repositories

• ⚙️ Lab: Building a composite GitHub Action

Day 3 – Builds, Testing, and Environments

• 💬 Lecture: Build and test automation patterns

• ⚙️ Lab: Running unit tests in a workflow

• ⚙️ Lab: Failing workflows based on test results

• 💬 Lecture: Matrix strategies and parallel execution

• ⚙️ Lab: Creating matrix builds for multiple versions

• 💬 Lecture: Artifacts and caching

• ⚙️ Lab: Uploading and downloading build artifacts

• ⚙️ Lab: Using cache to speed up workflows

• 💬 Lecture: Environment-based workflows

• ⚙️ Lab: Using GitHub environments

• ⚙️ Lab: Applying environment-specific secrets

• 💬 Lecture: Error handling and debugging workflows

• ⚙️ Lab: Debugging failed jobs

• ⚙️ Lab: Using continue-on-error and verbose logging

Day 4 – Best Practices, Security, and Real-World Automation

• 💬 Lecture: Securing GitHub Actions workflows

• ⚙️ Lab: Restricting workflow permissions

• ⚙️ Lab: Auditing third-party actions

• 💬 Lecture: Writing maintainable and scalable workflows

• ⚙️ Lab: Refactoring workflows for clarity

• ⚙️ Lab: Organizing workflows across repositories

• 💬 Lecture: Testing, quality gates, and enforcement

• ⚙️ Lab: Enforcing status checks

• ⚙️ Lab: Using workflow failures as quality gates

• 💬 Lecture: Deployment automation patterns

• ⚙️ Lab: Automating deployments with GitHub Actions

• ⚙️ Lab: Using approvals and protected environments

• 💬 Lecture: Real-world CI/CD patterns

• ⚙️ Lab: Building a complete CI/CD workflow

• ⚙️ Lab: Combining triggers, reusable workflows, secrets, artifacts, and environments

• ⚙️ Lab: Validating outcomes and enforcing deployment controls

Outcomes

Students who complete Introduction to GitHub Actions will be able to:

• Design and maintain GitHub Actions workflows with confidence

• Automate builds, tests, and deployments reliably

• Use secrets, variables, and conditions safely

• Troubleshoot and debug failed workflows

• Apply GitHub Actions best practices in real operational environments