github-actions-catalog

GitHub Actions Catalog

A catalog of 4,600+ GitHub Actions — search by keyword, topic, or language, look up the latest release version, and upgrade your CI/CD workflows. Updated weekly.

When to Use

• User asks "what's the latest version of actions/checkout?"
• User wants to upgrade or pin an action to a specific version
• User asks to batch-check all action versions used in a repo
• User needs to find an action: "a GitHub Action for deploying to AWS"
• User asks "what's a good docker lint action?" or "best TypeScript action for XYZ"
• User mentions an action that may be out of date

Current Versions

The latest versions of 4,600+ GitHub Actions (stars >= 10) are tracked in actions-versions.json, sourced from the full Marketplace validation dataset. Always read this file first before answering a version question — it is auto-refreshed weekly.

Plain JSON — works with jq for structured queries or grep for quick searches.

Workflow

1. Look up the target action

If the user names a specific action (e.g. actions/setup-go), start by reading actions-versions.json for the cached latest version.

# With jq (recommended):
jq -r '.actions[] | select(.action | test("setup-go")) |
  "\(.action) → latest: \(.tag) (major: \(.major), released: \(.released))"' actions-versions.json

# Without jq — grep the compact JSON directly:
grep '"setup-go"' actions-versions.json

If the action is not in the cache, fetch it live:

gh release view -R <owner>/<repo> --json tagName -q '.tagName'

2. Find where it's used

grep -rn "uses: <owner>/<repo>@" .github/workflows/

3. Apply the update

Replace the @<old-version> with @<new-major-version> in each workflow file, then verify the YAML is still valid.

Example

# 1. Query cached versions
jq -r '.actions[] | select(.action == "actions/setup-go")' actions-versions.json
# → {"action":"actions/setup-go","stars":1722,"major":"6","tag":"v6.5.0","released":"2026-06-24"}

# 2. Find usages
grep -rn "uses: actions/setup-go@" .github/workflows/
# → .github/workflows/ci.yml:15: uses: actions/setup-go@v5

# 3. Edit: v5 → v6

Version Pinning Reference

Pattern	Upgrade behavior	Risk
@v4	Auto within major	Medium — safe for most cases
@v4.2.0	Manual, exact minor	Low — pinned to release
@11bd719...	Manual, commit SHA	Lowest — supply-chain safe
@main	Always bleeding edge	High — breaks on upstream changes

Recommendation: Use @v4 style for dev/CI, pin to SHA in production.

Smart Search

Find the right action from the cached dataset without browsing Marketplace:

# Search by name + description (keyword in either field)
jq -r '.actions[] | select(.action + " " + .desc | test("lint"; "i")) |
  "\(.action)  ⭐\(.stars)  \(.desc)"' actions-versions.json

# Search by topic tag
jq -r '.actions[] | select(.topics[]? | test("docker")) |
  "\(.action)  ⭐\(.stars)"' actions-versions.json

# Top 20 by stars
jq -r '.actions[:20][] | "\(.action)  ⭐\(.stars)  \(.desc)"' actions-versions.json

# Filter by language (TypeScript / Docker / Composite actions)
jq -r '.actions[] | select(.lang == "TypeScript") |
  "\(.action)  ⭐\(.stars)"' actions-versions.json | head -20

If jq is not available, grep the compact JSON directly:

grep -i lint actions-versions.json
grep -i docker actions-versions.json

Batch Check

To check every action used across a repo's workflows:

grep -rohP 'uses:\s*\K[^@]+' .github/workflows/ | sort -u |
  while read action; do
    latest=$(jq -r --arg a "$action" '.actions[] | select(.action == $a) | .tag' actions-versions.json)
    [[ -n "$latest" ]] && echo "$action → $latest" || echo "$action → N/A"
  done

Dependabot — Recommended for Ongoing Automation

Strongly recommend adding .github/dependabot.yml to every repo. Dependabot automatically opens PRs when new versions of your actions are released — no manual checking needed.

This Skill vs Dependabot

	This Skill	Dependabot
Use case	On-demand lookup / batch check	Ongoing automated updates
Trigger	You ask in conversation	New release published
Output	Answer + inline edit	Automatic PR
When to use	"What's latest setup-go?" / "Upgrade all my actions"	Set once, forget

They solve different problems — use both.

Setup

# .github/dependabot.yml
version: 2
updates:
  - package-ecosystem: "github-actions"
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      interval: "weekly"

After Setting Up Dependabot

• Dependabot keeps your actions up to date via automated PRs.
• When you need a quick answer ("what's the latest version of X?"), this skill gives you an instant response from the cached actions-versions.json (4,600+ actions).