Did you know you can order a pizza with GitHub? 🍕 That’s right, with a nifty little feature called GitHub Actions, you can do just about anything—from nailing your workflows to checking off tasks on your personal to-do list, such as getting dinner plans sorted!

Not familiar with GitHub Actions? Well, to catch you up to speed, GitHub Actions is an automation feature within GitHub repositories that streamline everything from testing your code to deploying your latest updates. So, in this edition of The GitHub Insider, we’re going to show you a handful of super cool things you can do with GitHub Actions, like ordering that delicious pizza pie.

#1: Compress images for the web 🕸️

Do you manage a website? If so, then you know it can be quite a tedious task to compress images for your site, especially when dealing with a large number of images or trying to balance image quality with file size optimization.

This neat trick is invaluable for uploading perfectly sized images to your site on the fly! To get started:

• Visit GitHub Marketplace, where you can find and add tools to help build and grow your development workflows.
• Get Image Actions created by Calibre. This app will compress images so they’re smaller, while still leaving your pics looking crisp and sharp. 📸

But wait, what if you need to configure the compression settings? No problem, simply do so with the README file. Here’s how:

• Copy and paste the standard Push Request compression example into a new workflow YML file.

• After committing the workflow, you can see the app compressing images during the pull request CI workflow.
• It can reduce the size of some PNGs by 60%.
• And voilà! Your newly uploaded images and other existing images are now compressed and optimized for the web! 💃

If you’d like to see a full walkthrough of this process, check out this video:

#2: Publish your GitHub Action to GitHub Marketplace 🛒

GitHub Marketplace is home to more than 7,000 GitHub Actions to use across your development process, from project management to code review. 🤯 And best of all, you can add to the wealth by creating and publishing your own!

By publishing your GitHub Actions to the GitHub Marketplace, you're not only making your life easier but also empowering other developers to supercharge their workflows. Plus, it's simpler than you think! Follow these short steps to unleash your GitHub Action into the wild:

Create an action.yml.

The action.yml file serves as GitHub's means of recognizing your repository as a GitHub Action and contains essential details required for displaying your action on the marketplace listing.

Click the publish to GitHub Marketplace button.

Once you have committed a valid file, a box on your repository's dashboard will ask if you’d like to publish to the GitHub Marketplace. Hit the button and ensure “publish to marketplace” is selected.

Enjoy your newly published GitHub Action!

Not only does publishing your GitHub Action to the GitHub Marketplace give you the warm, fuzzy feeling of contributing to the developer community, but it also opens up exciting opportunities for collaboration and recognition. Who knows? Your action could become the next must-have tool for developers worldwide!

Watch this video for more deets:

#3: Order a pizza 🍕

Alright, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: it’s time to get that hot, cheesy pizza delivered to your door with GitHub Actions.

Workflow dispatch in GitHub Actions enables manual triggering of workflows through the GitHub interface or API. By configuring a workflow to listen for the ‘workflow_dispatch’ event, users can initiate the execution of specific actions (like ordering a pizza 🤤). Check out this repository for the dominos-action, which, when triggered, will order your favorite pizza from Domino’s!

Code smarter, not harder 😉

Are you ready to revolutionize your development workflow? With the power of automation and GitHub Actions, you can watch your productivity soar to new heights. And if you need some more resources to get started on your GitHub Actions journey, check out this blog post, where you’ll learn how to set up repositories for workflows, create custom automations, test actions, monitor workflows using visualization tools, and more!

Have a favorite automation tip or have you created your own unique GitHub Action? Share it with us on X using #GitHubActions!

And until next time, may you cook up some serious productivity with GitHub Actions to deliver piping hot efficiency in every workflow! 🍕🧑‍🍳

Get started with GitHub Actions

---

✨ This newsletter was written by Sara Verdi and produced by Gwen Davis. ✨

---

The world’s leading AI-powered developer platform.