Actionforge has released the beta of its GitHub Actions tool as a VS Code extension. The extension consists of a suite of tools making up a visual node system for building and managing GitHub Actions workflows.

GitHub Actions is a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform that lets developers automate their build, test, and deployment pipeline. Users can create workflows that build and test every pull request to a repository, or deploy merged pull requests to production.

The Actionforge extension integrates into your coding environment, and offers an alternative to editing YAML files. The developers say that the tool can be used to create complex workflows in minutes, complete with installing dependencies, testing the units and integration, all the way to publishing packages.

The developer says the tool goes further than simply providing a UI wrapper for GitHub workflows as action graphs enable more complex and versatile node setups with different flow nodes like if-conditions, for-loops, switches and more while still being more secure.

In order to use an action graph in your workflow, Actionforge needs two files. The first one is a traditional GitHub Action workflow with a single step top-to-bottom workflow that runs the actionforge/action action. The second one is the action graph itself. This is a YAML file that you can edit via the graph editor that is part of the extension.

Under the covers there's a command line interface for executing action graphs and the graph editor,. There's also a GitHub action that reads an action graph and starts the graph runner. Developers can take a project and open it in the graph editor. A basic project opens with a trigger node and the checkout. Actionforge finds and displays all GitHub Action ports, and uses a drag-and-drop system for designing and implementing development workflows.

The developers say they're working on a desktop app for action graphs so they can be built and executed outside GitHub.

Actionforge is free for non-commercial public GitHub repositories. A pricing update for commercial and private repositories will follow, and the developers say licenses for commercial use will soon be available on the GitHub Marketplace.

More Information

Actionforge Website

Actionforge On GitHub

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