Managed Actions

Import third-party GitHub Actions into a shared catalog so their inputs are ready to use when you build workflows.

Table of contents
  1. What is a Managed Action?
  2. Adding a Managed Action
  3. The default catalog
  4. Shared across your workspace
  5. Using Managed Actions in the workflow editor
  6. Known limitation
  7. Related Topics

What is a Managed Action?

A Managed Action is a catalog entry for a third-party GitHub Action: a slug (owner/repo), a pinned ref, and a set of typed inputs (name, description, required, default) parsed from the action’s action.yml. It exists so you don’t have to re-read an action’s metadata every time you add a step that uses it.

A Managed Action is not a project. It has no repository scope, no branch, no pull requests, and no drift lifecycle — it’s a reference entry, not something ActionsManager delivers or keeps in sync with GitHub. See Projects for the project types that do have that lifecycle.

Adding a Managed Action

Adding a Managed Action starts with a URL. ActionsManager supports three formats:

  • Bare repo URL — https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>. ActionsManager looks for action.yml, action.yaml, actions.yml, or actions.yaml at the repository root.
  • Direct file URL — https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/blob/<ref>/<path>. Use this for actions whose metadata file isn’t at the repo root (composite actions in a subdirectory, for example).
  • GitHub Marketplace listing URL — https://github.com/marketplace/actions/<slug>. ActionsManager resolves the listing to its backing repository.

Paste one of these into the add flow and ActionsManager fetches and parses the action’s metadata into a preview: name, description, and the full list of inputs. From there you can edit the name, description, or any input’s default before saving. Saving adds it to the shared catalog.

The default catalog

Every install starts with 7 pre-seeded, commonly used actions:

  • actions/checkout
  • actions/setup-node
  • actions/setup-python
  • actions/setup-java
  • actions/cache
  • actions/upload-artifact
  • actions/download-artifact

Any user can remove entries they don’t want. Removal is permanent — deleted defaults are not re-seeded and won’t reappear on restart.

Shared across your workspace

The Managed Actions catalog is shared and workspace-wide, not per-user. Any authenticated user can view, edit, or delete any entry, including ones imported by someone else.

Using Managed Actions in the workflow editor

In the GUI workflow editor’s step picker, imported Managed Actions appear under Your imported actions when you’re configuring a uses: step. Selecting one fills in its owner/repo@ref and pre-fills its known inputs as with: fields, so you don’t have to look up the action’s inputs separately.

Known limitation

Every input currently renders as a plain text field — there’s no boolean/checkbox or choice/dropdown UI, because imported action schemas don’t carry type information yet (only name, description, required, and default). Tracked in #1693.

  • Projects — the project types that do have a repo/branch/PR/drift lifecycle
  • Workflows — the GUI editor where Managed Actions surface as step suggestions