GitHub Actions

Add one step to a workflow and a failed run, or a finished deploy, arrives on your devices with a button that opens the run on GitHub.

This uses an API Source, with curl and jq, which GitHub’s hosted runners have. shell: bash makes the step run the same on Windows runners.

Set it up

1. In the Pocketbell app, create a Source named GitHub, choose API, and copy its key.

2. In the repository on GitHub, open Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions, click New repository secret, name it POCKETBELL_KEY, paste the key, and click Add secret.

3. Add this as the last step of the job you want to hear about:

   - name: Tell Pocketbell
     if: failure()
     shell: bash
     env:
       POCKETBELL_KEY: ${{ secrets.POCKETBELL_KEY }}
       WORKFLOW: ${{ github.workflow }}
       REPO: ${{ github.repository }}
       BRANCH: ${{ github.ref_name }}
       RUN_URL: ${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}
     run: |
       jq -n --arg title "$WORKFLOW failed" --arg message "$REPO on $BRANCH" --arg url "$RUN_URL" \
         '{title: $title, message: $message, priority: "important", tags: ["github"],
           url: $url, url_title: "Open run"}' |
       curl --fail-with-body -sS https://api.pocketbell.dev/v1/messages \
         -H "Authorization: Bearer $POCKETBELL_KEY" \
         -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
         --data @-

4. Push, and the next failed run sends it.

Other moments

• Every run, pass or fail: change if: failure() to if: always(), add STATUS: ${{ job.status }} under env:, and use "$WORKFLOW: $STATUS" as the title.
• A deploy finished: if: success() at the end of the deploy job, with priority: "normal".
• A failure that must wake you: priority: "critical" repeats until you acknowledge it. See Critical notifications.

Why env: and jq

Values such as a branch name, a pull request title or a commit message are written by whoever pushed them. Passed through env:, they reach the script as plain data and can’t run as commands, which is GitHub’s own advice. jq --arg turns each one into a JSON string, so quotes and line breaks in them can’t break the request.

If nothing arrives

The step’s log shows Pocketbell’s answer, since --fail-with-body prints it and fails the step:

• 401 invalid_api_key: the secret is missing or wrong. Secrets aren’t passed to workflows run from forks.
• 400 invalid_request: details in the answer names the field.