Build and deploy with GitHub Actions ¶

This how-to guide shows you how to build and deploy your application using GitHub Actions and the Nais CLI.

Prerequisites ¶

You're part of a Nais team
A Github repository where the Nais team has access
The repository contains a valid workload manifest

Authorize your Github repository for deployment ¶

Open Nais Console in your browser and select your team.
Select the Repositories tab
Input your repository (organization/repository) and press Add.

Create a Github workflow ¶

.github/workflows/main.yaml

yaml

name: Build and deploy
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
jobs:
  build:
    name: Build and push image
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      id-token: write
    outputs:
      image: ${{ steps.docker-build-push.outputs.image }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6 # Should be pinned
      - name: Build and push image and SBOM to OCI registry
        uses: nais/docker-build-push@v0 # Should be pinned
        id: docker-build-push
        with:
          team: <MY-TEAM> # Replace

  deploy:
    name: Deploy
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6 # Should be pinned
      - uses: nais/setup@v1 # Should be pinned
        with:
          team: <MY-TEAM> # Replace
      - name: Deploy to Nais
        run: |
          nais apply .nais/app.yaml \
            --environment <MY-ENV> \
            --set spec.image="${{ needs.build.outputs.image }}" \
            --wait

GitHub actions should be pinned to a SHA for better security. Read more in GitHub Secure use reference.

Environment is the Nais environment to deploy to. You can find available values in workloads/environments.

This example workflow is a minimal example that builds, signs, and pushes your container image to the image registry. It then deploys the app.yaml using the Nais CLI.

The freshly built image is passed to the deploy step with --set spec.image=<image>, which overrides the spec.image field in the manifest. For how Nais resolves the image, see Applying a manifest.

When this file is pushed to the main branch, the workflow will be triggered, and you are all set.

What's next ¶

This guide deploys to a single environment. To deploy to several environments and split manifest changes from code changes, see Set up a complete deploy pipeline.