Deploy an app from source (including the configuration) on commit, while allowing you to run tests or perform other operations as part of your CI/CD pipeline.

• Supports picking up an in-repository (or filesystem really) app.yaml (defaults to .do/app.yaml, configurable via the app_spec_location input) to create the app from instead of having to rely on an already existing app that's then downloaded (though that is still supported). The in-filesystem app spec can also be templated with environment variables automatically (see examples below).
• Prints the build and deploy logs into the Github Action log on demand (configurable via print_build_logs and print_deploy_logs) and surfaces them as outputs build_logs and deploy_logs.
• Provides the app's metadata as the output app.
• Supports a "preview mode" geared towards orchestrating per-PR app previews. It can be enabled via deploy_pr_review, see the Implementing Preview Apps example.

If you require assistance or have a feature idea, please create a support ticket at the official DigitalOcean Support.

• token: DigitalOcean Personal Access Token. See https://docs.digitalocean.com/reference/api/create-personal-access-token/ for creating a new token.
• app_spec_location: Location of the app spec file. Defaults to .do/app.yaml.
• project_id: ID of the project to deploy the app to. If not given, the app will be deployed to the default project.
• app_name: Name of the app to pull the spec from. The app must already exist. If an app name is given, a potential in-repository app spec is ignored.
• print_build_logs: Print build logs. Defaults to false.
• print_deploy_logs: Print deploy logs. Defaults to false.
• deploy_pr_preview: Deploy the app as a PR preview. The app name will be derived from the PR, the app spec will be modified to exclude conflicting configuration like domains and alerts and all Github references to the current repository will be updated to point to the PR's branch. Defaults to false.

• app: A JSON representation of the entire app after the deployment.
• build_logs: The builds logs of the deployment.
• deploy_logs: The deploy logs of the deployment.

• token: DigitalOcean Personal Access Token. See https://docs.digitalocean.com/reference/api/create-personal-access-token/ for creating a new token.
• app_id: ID of the app to delete.
• app_name: Name of the app to delete.
• from_pr_preview: Use this if the app was deployed as a PR preview. The app name will be derived from the PR and.
• ignore_not_found: Ignore if the app is not found.

As a prerequisite for all examples, you'll need a DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKENsecret in the respective repository. If not already done, get a DigitalOcean Personal Access token by following this instructions and declare it as that secret in the repository you're working with.

With the following contents of .do/app.yaml in the repository:

name: sample
services:
- name: sample
  envs:
  - key: SOME_SECRET
    value: ${SOME_SECRET_FROM_REPOSITORY}
    type: SECRET
  github:
    branch: main
    repo: digitalocean/sample-nodejs

The following action deploys the app whenever a new commit is pushed to the main branch. Note that deploy_on_push is not used here, since the Github Action is the driving force behind the deployment. Updates to .do/app.yaml will automatically be applied to the app.

In this case, a secret of the repository named SOME_SECRET_FROM_REPOSITORY will also be passed into the app via its environment variables as SOME_SECRET. It is passed to the action's environment via the ${{ secrets.KEY }} notation and then substituted into the spec itself via the environment variable reference in value. Make sure to define the respective env var's type as SECRET in the spec to ensure the value is stored in an encrypted way.

Note: APP_DOMAIN, APP_URL and APP_ID are predefined App-wide variables. Avoid overriding them in the action's environment to avoid the env-var-expansion process of the Github Action to interfere with that of the platform itself.

name: Update App

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  deploy-app:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Deploy the app
        uses: digitalocean/app_action/deploy@v2
        env:
          SOME_SECRET_FROM_REPOSITORY: ${{ secrets.SOME_SECRET_FROM_REPOSITORY }}
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN }}

With the following contents of .do/app.yaml in the repository:

name: sample
services:
- name: sample
  image:
    registry_type: GHCR
    registry: YOUR_ORG
    repository: YOUR_REPO
    digest: ${SAMPLE_DIGEST}

The following action builds a new image from a Dockerfile in the repository and deploys the respective app from it. The build in App Platform is automatically bypassed. The built image is deployed from its digest, avoiding any inconsistencies around mutable tags and guaranteeing that exactly this image is deployed.

name: Build, Push and Deploy a Docker Image

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

permissions:
  contents: read
  packages: write

jobs:
  build-push-deploy-image:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Log in to the Container registry
        uses: docker/[email protected]
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      - name: Build and push Docker image
        id: push
        uses: docker/[email protected]
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}:latest
      - name: Deploy the app
        uses: digitalocean/app_action/deploy@v2
        env:
          SAMPLE_DIGEST: ${{ steps.push.outputs.digest }}
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN }}

With the following contents of .do/app.yaml in the repository:

name: sample
services:
- name: sample
  github:
    branch: main
    repo: digitalocean/sample-nodejs

The following 2 actions implement a "Preview Apps" feature, that provide a per-PR app to check if the deployment would work. If the deployment succeeds, a comment is posted with the live URL of the app. If the deployment fails, a link to the respective action run is posted alongside the build and deployment logs for quick debugging.

Once the PR is closed or merged, the respective app is deleted again.

name: App Platform Preview

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

permissions:
  contents: read
  pull-requests: write

jobs:
  test:
    name: preview
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Deploy the app
        id: deploy
        uses: digitalocean/app_action/deploy@v2
        with:
          deploy_pr_preview: "true"
          token: ${{ secrets.DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
      - uses: actions/github-script@v7
        env:
          BUILD_LOGS: ${{ steps.deploy.outputs.build_logs }}
          DEPLOY_LOGS: ${{ steps.deploy.outputs.deploy_logs }}
        with:
          script: |
            const { BUILD_LOGS, DEPLOY_LOGS } = process.env
            github.rest.issues.createComment({
              issue_number: context.issue.number,
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              body: `:rocket: :rocket: :rocket: The app was successfully deployed at ${{ fromJson(steps.deploy.outputs.app).live_url }}.`
            })
      - uses: actions/github-script@v7
        if: failure()
        with:
          script: |
            github.rest.issues.createComment({
              issue_number: context.issue.number,
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              body: `The app failed to be deployed. Logs can be found [here](https://github.com/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}).

              ## Logs
              <details>
              <summary>Build logs</summary>

              \`\`\`
              ${BUILD_LOGS}
              \`\`\`
              </details>

              <details>
              <summary>Deploy logs</summary>

              \`\`\`
              ${DEPLOY_LOGS}
              \`\`\`
              </details>`
            })

name: Delete Preview

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [ closed ]

jobs:
  closed:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: delete preview app
        uses: digitalocean/app_action/delete@v2
        with:
          from_pr_preview: "true"
          ignore_not_found: "true"
          token: ${{ secrets.DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN }}

It is strongly suggested to use image digests to identify a specific image like in the example above. If that is not possible, it is strongly suggested to use a unique and descriptive tag for the respective image (not latest).

The v1 branch of this action is no longer under active development. Its documentation is still available though.

To upgrade, the reference to the action has to be changed from digitalocean/[email protected] to digitalocean/app_action/[email protected] (note the new deploy part of the path).

The new deploy action does not support the images input from the old action. For in-repository app specs, it's suggested to use env-var-substitution as in the example above.

If the spec of an existing app should be updated via the backwards-compatible app_name input, the IMAGE_DIGEST_$component-name environment variable can be used to update the digest field and the IMAGE_TAG_$component-name environment variables can be used to update the tag field of a component's image reference.

name: sample-app
services:
- name: sample-service
  image:
    registry_type: GHCR
    registry: YOUR_ORG
    repository: YOUR_REPO
    tag: v1

- name: Deploy the app
  uses: digitalocean/app_action/deploy@v2
  env:
    IMAGE_TAG_SAMPLE_SERVICE: v2
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
    app_name: sample-app

In this example, the tag of the referenced image (hence the IMAGE_TAG_ prefix) of the sample-service will be updated from v1 to v2. Service names are translated to environment variable names by uppercasing them and by replacing dashes with underscores (service-name to SERVICE_NAME in this case).

• App Platform Guided App Spec Declaration
• App Platform App Spec Blog
• App Platform App Spec Components

This GitHub Action and associated scripts and documentation in this project are released under the MIT License.