Write Your First GitHub Actions Workflow

Enter the project

Workflows always live inside the repository, in a hidden .github directory at the repo root.

Create the workflows directory

GitHub only picks up workflow files from .github/workflows/ — the path is not configurable.

Start the workflow file

name is the display name; on: push is the trigger — the workflow runs on every push to the repository.

Add the trigger

Append the trigger line. >> appends instead of overwriting.

Add the job

jobs group steps; runs-on chooses the runner VM — ubuntu-latest is the standard choice.

Add the build job and checkout step

Every job starts from a fresh VM, so the first step is always actions/checkout@v4 to pull your code onto the runner.

Finish the workflow

Add runs-on, then steps with - uses: actions/checkout@v4. Run cat to review the whole file.

Add the checkout step

Append the steps list with the checkout action — the line the validator looks for.

Verify and submit

cat prints the finished workflow. Then submit — the validator parses the YAML you wrote.