GitHub Repository README to DEV Community Post

The enabler of the capability is a GitHub Action workflow contributed by the publish-devto project

Hence, the picture

which is the sample that comes with the publish-devto project.

Here I will simply show how I setup GitHub repo for automatically posting README (README.md) to DEV Community (dev.to).

On Dev Community Side

As expected, you will need some "access token" from dev.to for the workflow to work.

Indeed, you need to get an API token from dev.to -- Settings -> Extension -> DEV Community API Keys

On GitHub Side

GitHub also requires some [repository] settings for security measures.

Firstly, grant "read and write permissions" to "Workflow" -- Settings -> Actions | General -> Workflow permissions set to Read and write permissions

Secondly, setup DEVTO_TOKEN secret (the API token you acquired in previous step) -- Secret and variables | Actions new Repository secrets

It appears that the repository needs be a public one. Otherwise, dev.to will fail to acquire the images.

On Repo Source Side

Firstly, you will need .github/workflows/publish.yml that you can download here, which is one that I tailored from the one that comes with the publish-devto project

And importantly, make sure that the branch specified in publish.yml is indeed the actual branch you want the action be triggered on

...
name: publish
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
...
        # (Optional) The git branch to use. Default is 'main'.
        branch: main
...

Secondly, your README.md will need to have "headers" (starting from 1st line) like

---
title: GitHub Repository README to DEV Community Post
description: Setup GitHub repo for automatically posting README to DEV Community  
tags: 'github, readme, devto'
cover_image: ./assets/cat.jpg
published: false
---

Notes on the headers:

• title should be set correctly the first time, and should not be changed (unless you want to start a new post)
• description is optional (i.e can be missing)
• tags is optional, which is a list of comma-delimited single-words
• cover_image is optional
• published should be false until you want to publish the post
• the first successful trigger of the publish workflow, id will be added automatically (README.md modified in the repo, and need be pulled) without the id, post will be treated as a new post

Commit Repo

That is it!

Commit and push the changes to GitHub, you should see the running of the workflow publish.

If the workflow is successful, a new draft post will be created on Dev Community (dev.to)

Be reminded that the first time successful running of the workflow, id will be automatically added to the "headers" of README.md. Pull for the addition.

Hope this helps!

Enjoy!

Peace be with you!
May God bless you!
Jesus loves you!
Amazing Grace!