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GitHub Actions Tutorial: Development Automation

This intermediate GitHub training teaches learners how to use GitHub Actions to automate workflows, speed up development, and reduce errors. Perfect for experienced GitHub users, this course focuses on real-world projects that streamline deployment and minimize workflow issues. Ideal for onboarding new cloud engineers and DevOps professionals or as a GitHub reference resource for teams.

Trevor SullivanDevOps & Cloud Engineering

Updated May 2023

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8Skills
41Videos
8hTotal

Who This Course Is For

This GitHub training is considered intermediate-level training, which means it was designed for professionals with at least one year of experience. This GitHub course is valuable for new or aspiring IT professionals, experienced cloud engineers or DevOps professionals looking to validate their skills.

Skills Your Team Will Gain

  • Creating GitHub Actions Workflows in order to publish modules
  • Creating databases and using MySQL Service Container
  • Using GitHub Actions and GitHub Packages in tandem
  • Developing projects by using GitHub Codespaces

Course Curriculum

One skill is free to watch — no signup needed. The other 7 premium skills unlock for your whole team with a CBT Nuggets plan.

Free skill preview

Developing Projects with GitHub Codespaces

Trevor SullivanDuration: 1h12 videos

Watch this complete skill free — the same trainer, videos, and labs your team gets with a plan.

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  • Developing Projects with GitHub CodespacesFree1h · 12 videos
  • Premium skill.Automatically Publish PowerShell Modules from GitHub Actions53m · 10 videos
  • Premium skill.Working with Environment Variables in GitHub Actions1h 2m · 12 videos
  • Premium skill.Use Service Containers in GitHub Actions1h 4m · 12 videos
  • Premium skill.Using GitHub Actions Workflow Commands59m · 12 videos
  • Premium skill.Manage GitHub Actions Workflows with Deployments and Environments1h · 14 videos
  • Premium skill.Automatically Publish Container Images with GitHub Packages and Actions1h 3m · 12 videos
  • Premium skill.Execute GitHub Actions Workflows on Self-hosted Runners1h 2m · 14 videos
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Every plan includes this course plus the full library, virtual labs, and practice exams — or talk it through with sales.

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For IT leaders

What IT leaders need to know before assigning this course

Manual release steps and inconsistent developer environments create avoidable deployment risk for DevOps teams. This intermediate course is best assigned to experienced GitHub users, cloud engineers, DevOps professionals, and IT Practitioners with at least one year of experience who need to standardize GitHub Actions usage across projects. The course is roughly 8 hours per learner, making it realistic for onboarding sprints or as a reference path for teams adopting automation.

IT Directors and Team Leads can use this training to support change management around automated publishing, environment variables, service containers, workflow commands, deployments and environments, GitHub Packages, and self-hosted runners. CBT Nuggets Playlists can help structure the rollout by role or project need, while Team Reporting helps Training Managers verify completion across assigned team members.

Team Impact

How this training helps your team succeed

IT teams complete this GitHub Actions training to turn repeatable development tasks into managed workflows that reduce manual effort and workflow errors.

  • Standardize development environments by using GitHub Codespaces to support faster onboarding and more consistent project setup.
  • Automate publishing tasks for PowerShell modules and container images, reducing handoffs and repeat manual release steps.
  • Improve workflow reliability by using environment variables, service containers, and workflow commands in GitHub Actions.
  • Support controlled deployments with GitHub Actions deployments, environments, GitHub Packages, and self-hosted runners for teams that need more control over where automation runs.

After completion

Capabilities your team walks away with

Knowledge

  • How GitHub Codespaces supports project development workflows.
  • How GitHub Actions can publish PowerShell modules and container images.
  • How environment variables are used inside GitHub Actions workflows.
  • How service containers fit into automated workflow scenarios.
  • How deployments, environments, GitHub Packages, and self-hosted runners extend GitHub Actions.

Ability

  • Build GitHub Actions workflows that automate common development tasks.
  • Configure workflows that use environment variables and workflow commands.
  • Use service containers to support workflow execution needs.
  • Publish PowerShell modules and container images through automated workflows.
  • Run GitHub Actions workflows on self-hosted runners when team or infrastructure requirements call for it.

Readiness check

Confirm prerequisite knowledge before training begins

A short placement assessment on the CBT Nuggets assessments platform measures whether a learner already has the foundation this course assumes. IT Directors use it to put the right people in the right training — and any learner can take it right now to make sure they'll get full value from day one.

  • Questions generated from this course's own video transcripts — what gets measured is exactly what gets taught
  • Instant, per-learner results that show whether the prerequisite foundation is in place
  • Results roll up into team readiness reporting, so training hours go where they change outcomes
Take the placement assessmentHow assessments work
Runs on assessments.cbtnuggets.com — sign in with an Adept account so results roll up into team readiness reporting. Need one?
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GitHub Tutorial for Beginners

This beginner GitHub training gives learners an understanding of GitHub and how to use it at a foundational level. Familiarity with GitHub is a prerequisite for many developer and DevOps positions, and this course prepares you to use GitHub and becom...

~5h

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is GitHub Actions and what is it best for?

GitHub Actions is an automation tool and feature of GitHub that streamlines software development workflows. With GitHub, developers can automate tasks like building, testing, and deploying code, directly from their GitHub repositories. Developers who understand how to use GitHub Actions can create custom workflows that get triggered by various events, like pushes, pull requests, or scheduled tasks. GitHub Actions is best for CI/CD and automating repetitive tasks in development.

Can continuous integration and continuous deployment be automated with GitHub Actions?

Yes, one of the things GitHub Action is best known for is automating continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) processes. Developers who know how to use GitHub Actions can set up CI/CD workflows that automatically build and test code according to your triggers. With GitHub Actions, it's possible to automatically deploy code to production after successful tests. Learning to use GitHub Actions accelerates development and makes update delivery faster.

What are the differences between Jenkins pipeline and GitHub Actions?

The key difference between Jenkins Pipeline and GitHub Actions lies in where they're integrated. GitHub Actions is tightly integrated with GitHub repos, making it very easy to set up and manage your workflows inside the GitHub ecosystem. Jenkins Pipeline would have to be part of an entirely separate CI/CD server, and although its scripted and declarative syntax allows for greater flexibility and its feature set is more extensible, the configurations are more complex.

What are the different types of GitHub Actions?

There are many different types of actions you can take with GitHub Actions in automating workflows, including actions related to Setup, Build and Test, Deployment, Notifications, and Utility. The different types of GitHub Actions allow you to configure the runtime environment for workflows, compile code and run tests, automate deployment processes to staging or production environments, send notifications and status updates via messaging services, or perform miscellaneous tasks like data processing.

Who should take this GitHub Actions course?

Software development professionals – including developers, DevOps engineers, and release managers – would benefit the most from a course like this that covers development automation using GitHub Actions. If you have anything to do with building, testing, or deploying software, this course can help you expand your career with a better understanding of streamlining workflows, reliable software releases and better overall efficiency. For many developers, GitHub Actions is the key to successful CI/CD.

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