DEV Community: Luan Erasmus

Are GitHub Actions still worth it in the age of agentic workflows?

Luan Erasmus — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 13:45:31 +0000

GitHub Actions are still worth investing in—even as agentic workflows become more capable. Required checks and deployment gates shouldn’t depend on a model deciding to run them.

The distinction isn’t YAML versus AI: GitHub Agentic Workflows run inside Actions. Traditional workflows enforce known steps; agents can investigate failures, gather evidence, and suggest what to do next.

A useful approach is to combine them: Actions run the checks, an agent investigates the failure, and an engineer reviews the evidence. Any proposed fix goes through the same checks again.

Use deterministic automation when you know the steps. Consider an agent when the path requires investigation—with permissions and approval boundaries enforced outside the prompt.

Are you using Agentic workflows yet and what is your thoughts about it?

Read the full post: Are GitHub Actions still worth it in the age of agentic workflows?

Do our private GitHub repositories need a CODEOWNERS file?

Luan Erasmus — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 13:43:56 +0000

Private repositories don’t automatically need a CODEOWNERS file. It helps when multiple teams contribute, specialist areas need review, or people regularly ask, “Who should review this?”

Review ownership isn’t service ownership, and automatic review requests don’t make approval mandatory—that requires branch protection or a ruleset.

Two details are easy to miss: the last matching pattern wins, and listing multiple owners doesn’t require approval from all of them.

Start with narrow rules, agree responsibilities, and verify that reviews reach the right people without creating unnecessary backlogs.

What is your thoughts about CODEOWNERS in a Private GitHub repository?

Read the full post: Do our private repositories need a CODEOWNERS file?

Reusable GitHub Agentic Workflows for everyday repo tasks

Luan Erasmus — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 13:36:05 +0000

I’ve been building Agentic Blueprints: nine reusable workflows inspired by the GitHub Agentic Workflows gallery, adapted into smaller, single-repository versions.

I wanted to go beyond PR reviews. The collection includes issue help, weekly summaries, plain-language release notes, CI failure explanations, documentation checks, and more.

One example is Dependabot Readiness. It detects dependency ecosystems and proposes grouped Dependabot configuration in a draft PR. You review it; Dependabot handles the updates. It doesn’t upgrade packages or merge anything itself.

Each blueprint comes with a Markdown workflow and a README. Copy it into your repository, compile it with gh aw, and commit the generated workflow. Automatic triggers are included and can be adjusted.

Most produce one comment or issue rather than changing code. Check the docs before running: the current authentication setup requires an eligible organisation Copilot plan.

Browse the blueprints on GitHub. Feedback and contributions are welcome.