GitHub Actions Just Got Smarter: New Native AI Support and What It Means for Automation

Aleksander Fidelus — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 17:43:07 +0000

The Announcement

GitHub has made a groundbreaking announcement, introducing native AI capabilities directly into GitHub Actions, through GitHub Models!

This update fundamentally changes how we can use AI in our workflows, eliminating the need for third party AI service integrations.

Announcement Blog Post

Key Points

New Permissions

To use GitHub Models in your workflows, you'll need to add a new permission block:

permissions:
  models: read

Use provided token

No external API keys are needed! The ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} that's available in your workflow now can be used to call the inference API when the models permissions are set.

Usage Examples

I've created two GitHub Actions that showcase the practical applications of this new functionality:

1. Prompt Action (GitHub Repo)

The most basic action you could think of. Prompt about anything.

The output text can be used in combination with other actions for any automation you can imagine.

- name: Prompt
  uses: FidelusAleksander/prompt-action@v1
  with:
    prompt: |
      Modify this PR title to match conventional commit styling:

      ${{ github.event.pull_request.title }}

Check out the repository for example usages

2. AI Translate Action (GitHub Repo)

This action provides AI-powered text translation directly in your workflows.

- uses: FidelusAleksander/ai-translate-action@v1
  with:
    text: "Hello, world!"
    target-language: "Spanish"

A real-world example: I use this action to automatically translate the README file into multiple languages whenever changes are made to the English version:

See full version here

- uses: FidelusAleksander/ai-translate-action@v1
  with:
    text-file: "README.md"
    target-language: ${{ matrix.language }}
    custom-instructions: "Keep technical terms in English. Don't translate code blocks"

The Possibilities Are Endless

These are just two examples of what's possible with AI in GitHub Actions.

Now that GitHub opened the gates, expect many new actions to be created!

DEV Community: Aleksander Fidelus