GitHub Actions Cookbook

Good automation begins with a workflow that is both useful and understandable. GitHub Actions Cookbook by Michael Kaufmann takes a practical, recipe-led approach to building that foundation—and then extends it to custom actions, runners, and broader GitHub task automation.

Build and refine dependable workflows

Start with the essentials of GitHub Actions workflows, then work through techniques for authoring and debugging them. The book covers workflow editing, secrets and variables, environments, Visual Studio Code, linting, logging, and running workflows locally. These recipes help make workflow development more deliberate, from the first draft through troubleshooting.

Create actions of your own

When existing actions are not enough, the guide explores creating Docker, TypeScript, and composite actions. It also addresses outputs, job summaries, and sharing actions through the GitHub Marketplace—useful ground for developers who want to turn repeated steps into reusable components.

Bring automation into the wider workflow

Further topics include self-hosted and GitHub-hosted runners, scaling runners with Kubernetes, issue templates, approvals, reusable workflows, and composite actions. The book also covers building and validating code, including matrix builds for testing different versions.

A practical reference for GitHub Actions

Each recipe is organized around preparation, implementation, and an explanation of how the solution works. That structure makes the book useful both for working through a topic and for returning to a particular technique when a project calls for it.

For developers and DevOps practitioners looking to make GitHub Actions part of their everyday engineering toolkit, Kaufmann’s cookbook offers a hands-on route from workflow basics to more involved automation.