GitHub Actions

Automate service deployments using GitHub Actions workflows that are automatically generated upon deployment.

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Credentials Setup

To enable communication between ale and GitHub, set up authentication credentials.

Generate GitHub Personal Access Token

Go to Developer Settings in your GitHub account, select Personal access tokens from the sidebar, then click Generate new token (classic)

Select both repo and admin:public_key scopes, then click Generate token.

The workflow will stop working when your token expires according to the expiration date you set.

Copy and store the token.

Generate ale API Key

In ale, click Create a New Key in the Auth page of your space settings.

Configure the Above Secrets as GitHub Actions Secrets

Go to Repository Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions, then click New repository secret.

Add two repository secrets with the following values:

Name	Secret
ALE_TOKEN	ale API key
GHP_TOKEN	GitHub Personal Access Token

GitHub Actions Setup

Get Workflow Code

Navigate to the service page and copy the auto-generated GitHub Actions workflow code from the CLI tab.

The endpoint automatically changes depending on the environment where ale is installed.

Create Workflow File

Create a .github/workflows directory in your project’s root and add a yaml file using the code copied from ale.

The .github/workflows folder path is required and fixed, but you can choose any filename for your workflow.

Action Input Parameters

The pre-configured GitHub Actions workflow includes two main actions: the connect action, which configures GitHub repository Deploy Keys for ale’s source access, and the deploy action, which sends deployment settings to ale and triggers the deployment process.

Connect Action Inputs

Input	Description	Required / Default
token	ale API Key	Required
ghtoken	GitHub Personal Token	Required
endpoint	ale API Endpoint	Required (https://app.[domain]/api)
scope	Target space name	Default: API Key user’s space name
repo	GitHub repository (format: user/repo)	Default: Current action’s repository
readOnly	Generate read-only deploy key if set to ‘true’	Default: false

Deploy Action Inputs

Input	Description	Required / Default
token	ale API Key	Required
endpoint	ale API Endpoint	Required (https://app.[domain]/api)
project	Project name to deploy	Required (space/project)
stage	Deployment environment name	Default: Project’s default environment
allStages	Deploy to all environments if ‘true’	Default: false
repo	GitHub repository (format: user/repo)	Default: Current action’s repository
file	Deployment config file location	Default: .cloudtype/app.yaml
json	Deployment config JSON text	-
yaml	Deployment config YAML text	-

One of file, json, or yaml inputs must be provided.

Advanced Usage

The generated workflow file can be customized to fit your service needs.

Subdirectory Configuration

• Specify the deployment directory with the path field

context:
git:
...
path: /pathname    

Resource Configuration

By default, services use the resource configuration defined in ale. You can customize resource settings in the resources section of your YAML file

...
yaml: |
  name: springboot-crud-example
  app: java@17
  resources:
    spot: false
    cpu: 1
    memory: 1.5
    replicas: 2
...

The spot field determines the VM type: true for Spot, false for On-demand.

Environment Variables

Environment variables can be managed in two ways:

1. Configure via dashboard (automatically synced to workflow)
2. Define directly in YAML using the options.env array

...
yaml: |
  name: springboot-crud-example
  app: java@17
  options:
    ports: 8080
    env:
      - name: JAVA_OPTS
        value: -Xms256m -Xmx512m
      - name: SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE
        value: dev
...

You can use your registered secret name in ale as the value field to reference secrets in environment variables.

Service Port Configuration

Specify up to three service ports in the options.ports field using comma-separated values.

...
yaml: |
  name: springboot-crud-example
  app: java@17
  options:
    ports: 8080, 8081, 8082
...