ghalint

GitHub Actions linter

Policies

• job_permissions: All jobs should have permissions
  • Why: For least privilege
  • Exceptions
    • workflow's permissions is empty {}
    • workflow has only one job and the workflow has permissions
• workflow_secrets: Workflow should not set secrets to environment variables
  • How to fix: set secrets to jobs
  • Why: To limit the scope of secrets
  • Exceptions
    • workflow has only one job
• job_secrets: Job should not set secrets to environment variables
  • How to fix: set secrets to steps
  • Why: To limit the scope of secrets
  • Exceptions
    • job has only one step

job_permissions

❌

permissions:
  contents: read
jobs:
  foo:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    # Without permissions
    steps:
      - run: echo hello
  bar:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    # Without permissions
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

⭕

jobs:
  foo:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions: {} # Set permissions
    steps:
      - run: echo hello
  bar:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions: # Set permissions
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

Or

permissions: {} # empty permissions
jobs:
  foo:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: echo hello
  bar:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions: # Set permissions
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

workflow_secrets

❌

name: test
env:
  GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{github.token}}
  DATADOG_API_KEY: ${{secrets.DATADOG_API_KEY}}
jobs:
  foo:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions: {}
    steps:
      - run: echo foo
  bar:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions: {}
    steps:
      - run: echo bar

⭕

name: test
jobs:
  foo:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions: {}
    env:
      GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{github.token}}
    steps:
      - run: echo foo
  bar:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions: {}
    env:
      DATADOG_API_KEY: ${{secrets.DATADOG_API_KEY}}
    steps:
      - run: echo bar

job_secrets

❌

jobs:
  foo:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      issues: write
    env:
      GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{github.token}} # secret is set in job
    steps:
      - run: echo foo
      - run: gh label create bug

⭕

jobs:
  foo:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      issues: write
    steps:
      - run: echo foo
      - run: gh label create bug
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{github.token}} # secret is set in step

How to install

• Download a pre-built binary from GitHub Releases and locate an executable binary ghalint in PATH
• Homebrew: brew install suzuki-shunsuke/ghalint/ghalint
• aqua: aqua g -i suzuki-shunsuke/ghalint

How to use

$ ghalint run

$ ghalint run
ERRO[0000] read a workflow file                          error="parse a workflow file as YAML: yaml: line 10: could not find expected ':'" program=ghalint version= workflow_file_path=.github/workflows/release.yaml
ERRO[0000] github.token should not be set to workflow's env  env_name=GITHUB_TOKEN policy_name=workflow_secrets program=ghalint version= workflow_file_path=.github/workflows/test.yaml
ERRO[0000] secret should not be set to workflow's env    env_name=DATADOG_API_KEY policy_name=workflow_secrets program=ghalint version= workflow_file_path=.github/workflows/test.yaml

Configuration file

Configuration file path: ^\.?ghalint\.ya?ml$

You can exclude the policy job_secrets.

e.g.

excludes:
  - policy_name: job_secrets
    workflow_file_path: .github/workflows/actionlint.yaml
    job_name: actionlint

• policy_name: Only job_secrets is supported

Environment variables

• GHALINT_LOG_COLOR: Configure log color. One of auto (default), always, and never.

💡 If you want to enable log color in GitHub Actions, please try GHALINT_LOG_COLOR=always

env:
  GHALINT_LOG_COLOR: always

AS IS

TO BE

How does it works?

ghalint reads GitHub Actions Workflows ^\.github/workflows/.*\.ya?ml$ and validates them. If there are violatation ghalint outputs error logs and fails. If there is no violation ghalint succeeds.

Why not actionlint?

We develop ghalint to support our policies that actionlint doesn't cover. We don't aim to replace actionlint to ghalint. We use both actionlint and ghalint.

LICENSE

MIT