Using GitHub actions in action flows

All Suites

Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus

Support

Team, Professional, or Enterprise

Summary: ◀▼

You can connect action flows to GitHub to automate tasks like creating, updating, and commenting on issues and pull requests. Use a dedicated service account for connections and review permissions carefully. Available actions include searching and looking up issues, pull requests, and users, helping you integrate GitHub workflows into your support processes for better collaboration and tracking.

By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as GitHub, admins can integrate Zendesk with external systems in automated workflows, improving collaboration and maintaining a seamless experience across multiple platforms.

Note: The steps associated with external systems in action flows are referred to collectively as external actions.

This article contains the following topics:

Connecting GitHub to action builder
Using GitHub actions in action flows

Connecting GitHub to action builder

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

When connecting to external systems for use in action flows, the following best practices are recommended:

All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it's a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.
All integrations request access to necessary scopes. However, it's important that you review and validate the scopes before authorizing the connection to the external system.
When managing credentials for API key-based tools, such as OpenAI, it's best to store keys in a secure vault or credential manager.

To connect action builder to GitHub

In Admin Center, click Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action flows.
Create or edit an action flow.
Open the step sidebar.
Under External actions, click GitHub.
Click Connect.
Follow GitHub's prompts to authenticate and complete the connection.
The GitHub connection uses OAuth 2.0 authentication with the authorization code grant type. When you connect GitHub to action builder, you will be redirected to GitHub to authorize the connection. The connector will receive an access token that allows action flows to perform operations on your behalf.

Review the requested permissions carefully before authorizing the connection. The connector will request access to your repositories, issues, and pull requests based on your account permissions.

Note: All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.

After you've connected to the system, you'll see an indicator that it's connected and details about the instance you're connected to, as well as the actions available for GitHub.

Using GitHub actions in action flows

The following GitHub actions are available:

Create issue
Update issue
Add comment to issue
Search issues
Lookup issue
Create a pull request
Update pull request
Add comment to pull request
Search pull requests
Lookup pull request
Lookup user

Creating an issue

Use the Create issue action to create a new issue in a GitHub repository.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

Variables

Inputs

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Owner`, `Repository`, `Title` Owner is the account owner (user or organization) of the repository. Optional: `Body`, `Assignees`, `Labels`, `Milestone` Assignees and Labels should be comma-separated lists.
Output	Issue details including ID, number, URL, state, creation timestamp, and user.

Required: Owner, Repository, Title

Owner is the account owner (user or organization) of the repository.

Optional: Body, Assignees, Labels, Milestone

Assignees and Labels should be comma-separated lists.

Output Issue details including ID, number, URL, state, creation timestamp, and user.

Updating an issue

Use the Update issue action to update an existing issue's fields or state.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

Variables

Inputs

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Owner`, `Repository`, `Issue` State can be "open" or "closed." Only provided fields will be updated. Optional: `Title`, `Body`, `State`, `Assignees`, `Labels`
Output	Updated issue details including ID, number, URL, state, and update timestamp.

Required: Owner, Repository, Issue

State can be "open" or "closed." Only provided fields will be updated.

Optional: Title, Body, State, Assignees, Labels

Output Updated issue details including ID, number, URL, state, and update timestamp.

Adding a comment to an issue

Use the Add comment to issue action to add a comment to an existing GitHub issue.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Owner`, `Repository`, `Issue`, `Body` Body supports GitHub Flavored Markdown formatting.
Output	Comment details including ID, URL, creation timestamp, user, and body text.

Searching for issues

Use the Search issues action to find issues matching search criteria across GitHub repositories.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

Variables

Inputs

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Query` Optional: `Sort by`, `Per page`, `Page` Query uses GitHub search syntax (for example, "repo:owner/repo is:open label:bug"). Sort by options include Best match, Newest, Oldest, Most commented, Least commented, Recently updated, and Least recently updated. Per page maximum is 100, default is 30.
Output	Array of issues with total count, containing issue numbers, titles, states, URLs, and timestamps.

Required: Query

Optional: Sort by, Per page, Page

Query uses GitHub search syntax (for example, "repo:owner/repo is:open label:bug"). Sort by options include Best match, Newest, Oldest, Most commented, Least commented, Recently updated, and Least recently updated. Per page maximum is 100, default is 30.

Output Array of issues with total count, containing issue numbers, titles, states, URLs, and timestamps.

Looking up an issue

Use the Lookup issue action to retrieve complete details for a specific GitHub issue.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Owner`, `Repository`, `Issue`
Output	Complete issue details including ID, number, title, body, state, URL, user, assignees, labels, milestone, comment count, and timestamps.

Creating a pull request

Use the Create pull request action to create a new pull request in a GitHub repository.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

Variables

Inputs

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Owner`, `Repository`, `Title`, `Head branch`, `Base branch` Head branch is the branch to merge from, Base branch is the branch to merge into (for example, main). Optional: `Body`, `Draft`, `Maintainer can modify` Draft and Maintainer can modify fields accept true or false values.
Output	Pull request details including ID, number, URL, state, draft status, creation timestamp, user, head ref, and base ref.

Required: Owner, Repository, Title, Head branch,

Base
                                            branch

Head branch is the branch to merge from, Base branch is the branch to merge into (for example, main).

Optional: Body, Draft, Maintainer can modify

Draft and Maintainer can modify fields accept true or false values.

Output Pull request details including ID, number, URL, state, draft status, creation timestamp, user, head ref, and base ref.

Updating a pull request

Use the Update pull request action to update an existing pull request's fields or state.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

Variables

Inputs

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Owner`, `Repository`, `Pull request` Optional: `Title`, `Body`, `State`, `Base branch` State can be "open" or "closed." Only provided fields will be updated.
Output	Updated pull request details including ID, number, URL, state, and update timestamp.

Required: Owner, Repository,

Pull
                                            request

Optional: Title, Body, State, Base branch

State can be "open" or "closed." Only provided fields will be updated.

Output Updated pull request details including ID, number, URL, state, and update timestamp.

Adding a comment to a pull request

Use the Add comment to pull request action to add a review comment to an existing GitHub pull request.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Owner`, `Repository`, `Pull request`, `Body` Body supports GitHub Flavored Markdown formatting.
Output	Comment details including ID, URL, creation timestamp, user, and body text.

Searching for pull requests

Use the Search pull requests action to find pull requests matching search criteria across GitHub repositories.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

Variables

Inputs

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Query` Optional: `Sort by`, `Per page`, `Page` Query uses GitHub search syntax (e.g., "repo:owner/repo is:open"). Sort by options include Best match, Newest, Oldest, Most commented, Least commented, Recently updated, and Least recently updated. Per page maximum is 100, default is 30.
Output	Array of pull requests with total count, containing PR numbers, titles, states, URLs, and timestamps.

Required: Query

Optional: Sort by, Per page, Page

Query uses GitHub search syntax (e.g., "repo:owner/repo is:open"). Sort by options include Best match, Newest, Oldest, Most commented, Least commented, Recently updated, and Least recently updated. Per page maximum is 100, default is 30.

Output Array of pull requests with total count, containing PR numbers, titles, states, URLs, and timestamps.

Looking up a pull request

Use the Lookup pull request action to retrieve complete details for a specific GitHub pull request.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Owner`, `Repository`, `Pull request`
Output	Complete issue details including ID, number, title, body, state, URL, user, head ref, base ref, draft status, mergeable status, and timestamps.

Looking up a user

Use the Lookup user action to retrieve GitHub user information by username or email.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: `Lookup by`, `Value` Lookup by can be "Username" or "Email." Email search only finds users who have made their email public on GitHub.
Output	User details including ID, login, name, email, bio, avatar URL, profile URL, type, and timestamps.