Github Actions

The flag parser can be used with GitHub Actions to automate population of code references in LaunchDarkly.

Initial setup

1. GitHub Actions is currently in open beta. If you haven't signed up already, you may sign up here.
2. Create a LaunchDarkly personal access token with writer-level access, or access to the code-references custom role resource. Store this newly created access token as a secret titled LD_ACCESS_TOKEN in your GitHub repository: https://developer.github.com/actions/creating-workflows/storing-secrets/.
3. Create a new workflow in your selected Github repository. If you don't already have a workflow file, you'll need to create a new file titled main.workflow in the .github directory of your repository. The workflow should run on the push event, and contain an action which uses docker://launchdarkly/github-actions-flag-parser as its action provider. The LD_ACCESS_TOKEN configured in the previous step should be included as a secret, as well as a new environment variable containing your LaunchDarkly project key. Here's an example of a minimal workflow file configuration:

workflow "Find flag references" {
  on = "push"
  resolves = ["find_flags"]
}
action "find_flags" {
  secrets = [
    "LD_ACCESS_TOKEN",
  ]
  env = {
    LD_PROJ_KEY = "default"
  }
  uses = "docker://launchdarkly/github-actions-flag-parser:latest"
}

4. Once your workflow has been created, the best way to confirm that the workflow executing is to create a new pull request with the workflow file, and verify that the newly created action is succeeding. A failing action is indicative of an invalid configuration.

Workflow configuration

The github-actions-flag-parser may be configured with additional environment variables to enable more functionality.

Variable	Description	Default	Required
LD_ACCESS_TOKEN	A LaunchDarkly personal access token with admin-level access. Should be supplied as a GitHub secret.	n/a	yes
LD_PROJ_KEY	A LaunchDarkly project key. The flag parser will search this project for code references in this project.	n/a	yes
LD_EXCLUDE	A regular expression defining the files and directories which the flag parser should exclude.	""	no
LD_CONTEXT_LINES	The number of context lines above and below a code reference for the flag parser to send to LaunchDarkly. If < 0, no source code will be sent to LaunchDarkly. If 0, only the lines containing flag references will be sent. If > 0, will send that number of context lines above and below the flag reference. A maximum of 5 context lines may be provided.	"-1"	no
LD_BASE_URI	Set the base URL of the LaunchDarkly server for this configuration. Only necessary if using a private instance of LaunchDarkly.	"https://app.launchdarkly.com"	no

Here's an example of a workflow configured to exclude the vendor directory and send 1 line of context above and below each code reference for each flag in the "default" project:

workflow "Find flag references" {
  on = "push"
  resolves = ["find_flags"]
}
action "find_flags" {
  secrets = [
    "LD_ACCESS_TOKEN",
  ]
  env = {
    LD_PROJ_KEY = "default"
    LD_EXCLUDE = "vendor/.*"
    LD_CONTEXT_LINES = "1"
  }
  uses = "docker://launchdarkly/github-actions-flag-parser:latest"
}