Use GitHub CLI in Github Actions

To use GitHub CLI in a GitHub Action (Workflow), the GH_TOKEN environment variable must be linked to the action. The GH_TOKEN environment variable is linked to a secret, which contains a secret and a scope.

Example:

name: Comment when opened
on:
  issues:
    types:
      - opened
jobs:
  comment:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: gh issue comment $ISSUE --body "Thank you for opening this issue!"
        env:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          ISSUE: ${{ github.event.issue.html_url }}

Source: Using GitHub CLI in workflows

Generate a Personnal Access Token

❗ Personal Access Token are secrets and must be carefully stored in secure locations. There are two types of Personal Access Token:

To generate an access token, click on your profile photo, from any repository, and select settings. In the settings, click on Developer Settings (at the bottom of the left pane), an then on Personnal Access Token section.

You have the choice between:

• Classic: linked to the scope and rights of the user who generated the token, less secure,
• Fine-grained: to restrict the scope of the token to specific actions, more secure.

💡 It is recommended to prefer Fine-grained tokens.

Click on generate new token, validate the security questions, and set the following information:

• The token name,
• The owner,
• The expiration duration (prefer short duration),
• A description
• The repositories which can you the PAT,
• The persmission scope

Once generated, the value of the token can be saved in a repository secret, or in any secure location.

💡 As the token expires shortly, a new token is to be generated often. Keep the information used for the generation in your repository documentation.

Source: Managing your personal access tokens

Next

Now you are ready to deep dive in the GitHub CLI manual to bring GH CLI commands in your actions.