Why I Switched From CircleCI to GitHub Actions

I recently switched my Continuous Integration (CI) provider from CircleCI to GitHub Actions. My primary use for CI is running linting/tests on every pull request. Nothing too crazy.

I've used CircleCI as my go-to provider for a while now. When I'm trying to get a project off the ground, I don't want to worry about reinventing the wheel every time I need to set up CI.

GitHub recently came out with Actions, which appeared to solve the same problem without relying on an external service. Then, there was a security incident with CircleCI on August 31st. I decided to sign up for the beta of GitHub Actions and give it a shot.

CircleCI#

Here's the CircleCI config I was using. It installs the dependencies and runs yarn test.

version: 2
jobs:
  build:
    docker:
      - image: circleci/node:10.15.0
    steps:
      - checkout
      - restore_cache:
          name: Restoring dependencies
          keys:
            - dependencies-v1-{{ checksum "yarn.lock" }}
      - run:
          name: Installing dependencies
          command: yarn
      - save_cache:
          name: Saving dependencies
          paths:
            - ~/.cache/yarn
            - node_modules
          key: dependencies-v1-{{ checksum "yarn.lock" }}
      - run:
          name: Running tests
          command: yarn test

Github Actions#

I can achieve the exact configuration as CircleCI with GitHub Actions 🎉

name: CI
on: pull_request
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v1
        with:
          fetch-depth: 1
      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v1
        with:
          node-version: 10.15.0
      - name: Installing dependencies
        run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
      - name: Running tests
        run: yarn test

After adding this file at .github/workflows/workflow.yml, you'll be able to see each run show up under the "Actions" tab.

I've defined my check to happen on every pull request.

Conclusion#

GitHub Actions has been excellent so far. Plus, there's a lot more I could do with Actions. You can run a workflow on any GitHub event (e.g. push, issue creation, releases, etc) and even:

• Deploy to AWS/Kubernetes
• Publish a package to NPM
• Create a ticket in JIRA
• Label and close stale issues and pull requests

I'm looking forward to seeing the adoption of GitHub Actions as it releases to the public.