GitHub Actions & CI/CD Integration
Manage GitHub Actions workflows directly from VS Code — view run status, trigger runs, debug failures, and write new workflow files with full IntelliSense.
1GitHub Actions Extension
Install GitHub Actions (by GitHub) from the marketplace. After authenticating, a new Actions panel appears in the Activity Bar showing your repo's workflows, recent runs, and their statuses.
2Writing Workflow Files with IntelliSense
VS Code provides full schema validation and IntelliSense for .github/workflows/*.yml files. Press Ctrl+Space to see all available actions, events, and inputs as you type.
on: [push, pull_request] jobs: test: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 - run: npm ci && npm test
3Viewing Run Results
The Actions panel shows each workflow run with its status. Click a run to see the job log streamed to VS Code. Failed steps show the exact error inline. You can re-run failed jobs directly from the panel.
4Act — Running Actions Locally
Install act (brew install act / choco install act-cli) to run GitHub Actions locally using Docker. The VS Code extension integrates with act so you can test workflow changes before pushing.
5Secrets & Environment Variables
Never hardcode secrets in workflow files. Add them via GitHub repo Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions. Reference them as ${{ secrets.MY_SECRET }}. The GitHub Actions extension auto-completes secret names in .yml files.