How to Set Dynamic Release URLs in Environment with GitHub Actions

Introduction

This article explains how to dynamically set a release URL in an Environment using GitHub Actions.

Background

GitHub Actions has a feature for defining environments called Environment.
Using environments for deployment - GitHub

For example, by setting up environments like the following, it's possible to switch the release destination. (You can set any name you want.)

• Production environment
• Staging environment
• Testing environment
• Development environment

Among these, there is a function to display the URL of the release destination after releasing.

If there's only one fixed environment, it's not a problem. However, if the URL is determined dynamically during the release steps, it was unclear how to display it, so I'm documenting the method here.

If it's a single environment, you can set the URL as follows.

environment:

    name: production

    url: https://example.com

How To

The method is simple: save the value in an output during the step when the URL is confirmed, and then set that output as the environment's URL.

Here is a sample Yaml. You need to assign a reference ID to the step. The format for referencing the output is steps.[step_id].outputs.[output_name].

environment:

    name: development

    url: ${{ steps.get_release_url.outputs.release_url }}

steps:

    - name: Set release url

      id: get_release_url

      run: echo release_url=https://xxx.example.com >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

Conclusion

The method to dynamically set the URL of a release in GitHub Actions' Environment is to save a value in the output during the release step, and then set that output name as the URL in the environment.