mattermost/plugins/dev-workflows/skills/update-github-actions

Update GitHub Actions Dependencies

Scan all .github/workflows/*.yml files, find every uses: reference, resolve the latest release for each action, and update in place. All actions are migrated to SHA pinning with a version comment (e.g. @abc123 # v4.1.0) for supply-chain security.

Instructions

Phase 0: Prepare

1. Confirm the working tree is clean: git status. If there are uncommitted changes, stop and ask the user how to proceed.
2. Create a new branch: git switch -c update-github-actions.

Phase 1: Collect all action references

Find all workflow files:

find .github/workflows -name '*.yml' -o -name '*.yaml'

Extract every uses: line. Each reference has one of these forms:

• uses: owner/[email protected] — pinned to a semver tag
• uses: owner/repo@vX — pinned to a major-version tag
• uses: owner/repo@<sha> # vX.Y.Z — already SHA-pinned with version comment
• uses: owner/repo@<sha> — SHA-pinned with no comment (treat as unknown version)
• uses: ./.github/actions/local — local action (skip)

Deduplicate the list. For each unique owner/repo reference, record the current version string.

Phase 2: Resolve latest versions

For each owner/repo, fetch the latest release from GitHub:

https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/releases/latest

If the action does not publish GitHub Releases, fall back to the latest tag:

https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/tags

Record the latest version tag (e.g. v4.1.0).

Phase 3: Resolve commit SHAs

For every action (regardless of how it is currently pinned), fetch the commit SHA for the latest release tag:

https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/git/ref/tags/{latest-tag}

If the tag is an annotated tag (type tag), follow the object.url to get the underlying commit SHA. If it is a lightweight tag (type commit), use the SHA directly.

The target format for every action reference is:

uses: owner/repo@<full-commit-sha> # vX.Y.Z

Phase 4: Determine changes

For each reference, compare the current state to the target SHA-pinned form:

• Currently @vX.Y.Z → migrate to @<sha> # vX'.Y'.Z'
• Currently @vX → migrate to @<sha> # vX'.Y'.Z'
• Currently @<sha> # vX.Y.Z → update SHA and version tag to latest
• Currently @<sha> with no comment → update to @<sha> # vX'.Y'.Z' using the resolved latest release

Report any major-version bumps separately — these may have breaking changes.

Phase 5: Update workflow files

For each workflow file, replace every action reference with its SHA-pinned form using exact string replacement.

Examples:

# before (semver tag)
uses: actions/checkout@v3
# after
uses: actions/checkout@11bd71901bbe5b1630ceea73d27597364c9af683 # v4.1.0

# before (major-version tag)
uses: actions/setup-go@v4
# after
uses: actions/setup-go@d35c59abb061a4a6fb18e82ac0862c26744d6ab5 # v5.5.0

# before (SHA-pinned, stale)
uses: actions/download-artifact@9782bd6a9848b53b110e712e20e42d89988822b7 # v3.0.1
# after
uses: actions/download-artifact@d3f86a106a0bac45b974a628896c90dbdf5c8093 # v4.1.0

Phase 6: Summarise and commit

1. Print a table of all changes: | Action | Old version | New version | Major bump? | |--------|-------------|-------------|-------------|

2. If any major-version bumps are present, note that the action's changelog should be reviewed for breaking changes and provide the GitHub releases URL.

3. Stage only .github/workflows/ files.

4. Commit:

chore(ci): update GitHub Actions to latest versions

<paste summary table>

5. Ask the user if they want to push or open a PR.

Notes

• Every action is migrated to @<sha> # vTag format — this is the target state regardless of how the action was previously pinned.
• If an action's latest release is a pre-release (-beta, -rc), skip it and use the latest stable release instead.
• Some actions (e.g. github/codeql-action) release very frequently — confirm the version looks sane before committing.