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Actionlint

Actionlint validates GitHub Actions workflow files.

It detects syntax errors, invalid expressions, incorrect event configurations, unsupported keys, and several common workflow mistakes before they reach GitHub.

Installation

Actionlint is installed through Homebrew:

brew install actionlint

It is part of the curated Homebrew environment; see Homebrew setup to install everything at once.

Verify the installation

Check that Actionlint is available:

actionlint --version

Analyze workflows

From the root of a repository, run:

actionlint

Actionlint verbose output showing two workflows with zero errors

By default, Actionlint searches for workflow files in:

.github/workflows/

A specific workflow can also be analyzed directly:

actionlint .github/workflows/ci.yml

Output

Actionlint reports:

  • the affected file;
  • the line and column;
  • a description of the problem;
  • the relevant workflow expression or YAML fragment.

A successful validation produces no output and returns a zero exit status.

ShellCheck integration

When ShellCheck is installed, Actionlint can use it to analyze shell commands embedded in GitHub Actions steps.

Both tools are included in this setup through Homebrew.

This provides additional validation for steps such as:

- name: Run checks
  run: |
    echo "$VALUE"
    ./scripts/check.sh

Workflow availability

The repository contains a GitHub Actions workflow under:

.github/workflows/ci.yml

Validate all workflows manually from the repository root:

actionlint

A successful validation produces no output and returns a zero exit status.

Pre-commit integration

Actionlint is integrated into the local pre-commit configuration.

The hook targets workflow files under:

.github/workflows/

Run the hook directly with:

pre-commit run actionlint --all-files

Homebrew manages the Actionlint executable, while pre-commit controls when validation is executed.

Because ShellCheck is also installed, Actionlint can analyze shell commands embedded in workflow steps.

Rollback

Remove Actionlint with:

brew uninstall actionlint

Then remove its entry from profiles/full/Brewfile.

Any related pre-commit hook must also be removed separately.

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