action-go-shim

Shim for downloading binaries from Github Releases for use in Github Actions. Specifically designed for Golang actions.

Usage

There are three methods of using this action.

Pass-through

Caveats: Does not support inputs.

steps:
- uses: rgst-io/action-go-shim@v0
  with:
    action_ref: <version>
    action_repo: your-org/your-repo

Composite Actions

Create a composite action:

# Due to a bug in Github Actions, you must set these inputs.
# See: https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/2473
inputs:
  action_ref:
    description: "[INTERNAL USAGE ONLY] `github.action_ref`"
    default: ${{ github.action_ref }}
  action_repo:
    description: "[INTERNAL USAGE ONLY] `github.action_repository`"
    default: ${{ github.action_repository }}

  # Your action's inputs go here
  # ...

runs:
  using: composite
  steps:
    - uses: rgst-io/action-go-shim@v0
      with:
        action_ref: ${{ inputs.action_ref }}
        action_repo: ${{ inputs.action_repo }}

Binary

You can ship this action in Git with your action. This action shouldn't change a lot, so it should be a minor amount of space used. Example:

1. Download entire release contents into <repo root>/shim.
2. Create an action consuming it

inputs:
  # Your action's inputs here
  # ...

runs:
  using: node24
  main: shim/shim.js

Configure the action by adding a shim/shim-config.yml.

Configuration

Configuration is done three different ways based on how you've set up the action.

Methods

Configuration Method	Pass-through	Composite	Binary
Github Actions inputs	✓	✓	—
Environment variables	✓	✓	✓
YAML config file	—	—	✓

Fields

Field	Github Actions	Environment Variable	YAML
CacheDirectory	—	ACTION_GO_SHIM_CACHE_DIR	—
GithubToken	github_token	GH_TOKEN	—
GithubActionRef	action_ref	GITHUB_ACTION_REF	action_ref
GithubActionRepository	action_repo	GITHUB_ACTION_REPOSITORY	action_repo
Pattern	pattern	—	pattern
ValidateAttestations	validate_attestations	ACTION_GO_SHIM_VALIDATE_ATTESTATIONS	—

How it Works

This action takes the repo and ref portion of a Github Action "uses" string (e.g., rgst-io/stencil-action@v1 -> rgst-io/stencil-action, v1) and downloads binaries from Github Releases.

This works by using git ls-remote on the repository and finding either a direct tag match (e.g., @v1.1.1) or looking up the best match (v1 -> v1.1.1). In the case of commit (action pins), this will attempt to find the greatest semantic version that has the same commit. Branches cannot have Github Releases, so they are converted to a commit and looked up the same way.

License

LGPL-3.0