publish-branch-to-npm

GitHub action to publish a pre-release version of an npm package to the registry.

Inputs

github_token

A token that GitHub automatically creates and stores in a GITHUB_TOKEN secret to use in your workflow.

npm_token

An npm access token. See https://docs.npmjs.com/creating-and-viewing-access-tokens

dry_run

Does everything publish would do except actually publishing to the registry. Reports the details of what would have been published, see npm publish docs. dry_run is optional and defaults to false.

commit_hash

The SHA-1 hash of the commit to publish; this is set automatically and does not need to be provided, unless workflow_dispatch trigger is used (see below).

Usage

This action can be triggered by pull_request and workflow_dispatch event triggers:

pull_request

Add the following step to your workflow job (after repo checkout, node setup, etc):

- name: Publish branch package to npm
  uses: wistia/publish-branch-to-npm@v1.0.0
  with:
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    npm_token: ${{ secrets.NPM_AUTH_TOKEN }}

github_token and npm_token are required inputs and this action cannot work without them.

When the action completes, you should see a comment like this in new Pull Requests:

If new commits are pushed to to a pre-existing branch, the comment will update itself with the new version instructions.

workflow_dispatch

This action can also be triggered manually.

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      commit_hash:
        description: 'SHA-1 hash of the commit to publish'
        required: true
---
- name: Publish branch package to npm
  uses: wistia/publish-branch-to-npm@mew/debugging
  with:
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    npm_token: ${{ secrets.NPM_AUTH_TOKEN }}
    commit_hash: ${{ github.event.inputs.commit_hash }}

Now if you visit the Actions tab in GitHub, and click on your workflow, there should now be a Run workflow button:

As opposed to the pull_request event trigger which can derrive commit_hash, here it must be provided. The commit used does not need to be merged to the default branch (ie. main) but it does need to be present in a branch accessible to GitHub.

When the action completes, you should see an annotation that looks like this:

Development

Releasing new versions to GitHub Marketplace

It's easiest to just use npm to manage the versioning:

1. npm version [major, minor, patch]* (note: this will update the version field in package.json, create a tag with the new version number, run a build & commit those changes)
2. git push origin head --tags
3. visit the release page, click Draft new release and fill out form

Read more about publishing actions in GitHub Marketplace.