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Workflow commands for GitHub Actions

You can use workflow commands when running shell commands in a workflow or in an action's code.

Note: GitHub-hosted runners are not currently supported on GitHub Enterprise Server. You can see more information about planned future support on the GitHub public roadmap.

About workflow commands

Actions can communicate with the runner machine to set environment variables, output values used by other actions, add debug messages to the output logs, and other tasks.

Most workflow commands use the echo command in a specific format, while others are invoked by writing to a file. For more information, see "Environment files."

Example of a workflow command

Bash
echo "::workflow-command parameter1={data},parameter2={data}::{command value}"
Write-Output "::workflow-command parameter1={data},parameter2={data}::{command value}"

Note: Workflow command and parameter names are not case-sensitive.

Warning: If you are using Command Prompt, omit double quote characters (") when using workflow commands.

Using workflow commands to access toolkit functions

The actions/toolkit includes a number of functions that can be executed as workflow commands. Use the :: syntax to run the workflow commands within your YAML file; these commands are then sent to the runner over stdout. For example, instead of using code to set an output, as below:

JavaScript
core.setOutput('SELECTED_COLOR', 'green');

Example: Setting a value

You can use the set-output command in your workflow to set the same value:

YAML
      - name: Set selected color
        run: echo '::set-output name=SELECTED_COLOR::green'
        id: random-color-generator
      - name: Get color

        run: echo