GitHub Actions Tutorial — Steps & Actions
Chapter 5 — Steps & Actions
Steps are the individual commands or action calls inside a job. Actions are reusable units of code that you can plug into your workflows instead of writing everything from scratch. Together, they form the actual work your CI/CD pipeline performs.
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to run commands, use marketplace actions, configure inputs and outputs, and build multi-step pipelines.
What You’ll Learn
- Running shell commands with
run: - Using pre-built actions with
uses: - The essential
actions/checkoutandactions/setup-*actions - Passing inputs to actions and reading their outputs
- Sharing data between steps using outputs and environment files
Topics Covered
1. Run Commands
Execute shell commands directly — single-line, multi-line, and with custom shells.
2. Using Actions
Pull in pre-built functionality from the GitHub Marketplace with the uses: keyword.
3. Checkout & Setup
The two most important actions: checking out your code and setting up language runtimes.
4. Action Inputs & Outputs
Configure actions with with: inputs and read their outputs for downstream steps.
Read: Action Inputs & Outputs →
5. Step Outputs
Share data between steps within the same job using $GITHUB_OUTPUT and $GITHUB_ENV.
Practice
Test your understanding with hands-on exercises.
← Previous: Chapter 4: Jobs & Runners
Next: Chapter 6: Environment & Secrets →
