Claude Code GitHub Actions

Learn about integrating Claude Code into your development workflow with Claude Code GitHub Actions

Claude Code GitHub Actions brings AI-powered automation to your GitHub workflow. With a simple @claude mention in any PR or issue, Claude can analyze your code, create pull requests, implement features, and fix bugs - all while following your project's standards.

Why use Claude Code GitHub Actions?

• Instant PR creation: Describe what you need, and Claude creates a complete PR with all necessary changes
• Automated code implementation: Turn issues into working code with a single command
• Follows your standards: Claude respects your CLAUDE.md guidelines and existing code patterns
• Simple setup: Get started in minutes with our installer and API key
• Secure by default: Your code stays on Github's runners

What can Claude do?

Claude Code provides a powerful GitHub Action that transforms how you work with code:

Claude Code Action

This GitHub Action allows you to run Claude Code within your GitHub Actions workflows. You can use this to build any custom workflow on top of Claude Code.

View repository →

Setup

Quick setup

The easiest way to set up this action is through Claude Code in the terminal. Just open claude and run /install-github-app.

This command will guide you through setting up the GitHub app and required secrets.

Manual setup

If the /install-github-app command fails or you prefer manual setup, please follow these manual setup instructions:

1. Install the Claude GitHub app to your repository: https://github.com/apps/claude

   The Claude GitHub app requires the following repository permissions:

   • Contents: Read & write (to modify repository files)
   • Issues: Read & write (to respond to issues)
   • Pull requests: Read & write (to create PRs and push changes)

   For more details on security and permissions, see the security documentation.

2. Add ANTHROPIC_API_KEY to your repository secrets (Learn how to use secrets in GitHub Actions)

3. Copy the workflow file from examples/claude.yml into your repository's .github/workflows/

Upgrading from Beta

If you're currently using the beta version of Claude Code GitHub Actions, we recommend that you update your workflows to use the GA version. The new version simplifies configuration while adding powerful new features like automatic mode detection.

Essential changes

All beta users must make these changes to their workflow files in order to upgrade:

1. Update the action version: Change @beta to @v1
2. Remove mode configuration: Delete mode: "tag" or mode: "agent" (now auto-detected)
3. Update prompt inputs: Replace direct_prompt with prompt
4. Move CLI options: Convert max_turns, model, custom_instructions, etc. to claude_args

Breaking Changes Reference

Before and After Example

Beta version:

- uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@beta
  with:
    mode: "tag"
    direct_prompt: "Review this PR for security issues"
    anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
    custom_instructions: "Follow our coding standards"
    max_turns: "10"
    model: "claude-sonnet-4-6"

GA version (v1.0):

- uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
  with:
    prompt: "Review this PR for security issues"
    anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
    claude_args: |
      --append-system-prompt "Follow our coding standards"
      --max-turns 10
      --model claude-sonnet-4-6

Example use cases

Claude Code GitHub Actions can help you with a variety of tasks. The examples directory contains ready-to-use workflows for different scenarios.

Basic workflow

name: Claude Code
on:
  issue_comment:
    types: [created]
  pull_request_review_comment:
    types: [created]
jobs:
  claude:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
        with:
          anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
          # Responds to @claude mentions in comments

Using skills

name: Code Review
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize]
jobs:
  review:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
        with:
          anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
          prompt: "/review"
          claude_args: "--max-turns 5"

Custom automation with prompts

name: Daily Report
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 9 * * *"
jobs:
  report:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
        with:
          anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
          prompt: "Generate a summary of yesterday's commits and open issues"
          claude_args: "--model opus"

Common use cases

In issue or PR comments:

@claude implement this feature based on the issue description
@claude how should I implement user authentication for this endpoint?
@claude fix the TypeError in the user dashboard component

Claude will automatically analyze the context and respond appropriately.

Best practices

CLAUDE.md configuration

Create a CLAUDE.md file in your repository root to define code style guidelines, review criteria, project-specific rules, and preferred patterns. This file guides Claude's understanding of your project standards.

Security considerations

For comprehensive security guidance including permissions, authentication, and best practices, see the Claude Code Action security documentation.

Always use GitHub Secrets for API keys:

• Add your API key as a repository secret named ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
• Reference it in workflows: anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
• Limit action permissions to only what's necessary
• Review Claude's suggestions before merging

Always use GitHub Secrets (for example, ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}) rather than hardcoding API keys directly in your workflow files.

Optimizing performance

Use issue templates to provide context, keep your CLAUDE.md concise and focused, and configure appropriate timeouts for your workflows.

CI costs

When using Claude Code GitHub Actions, be aware of the associated costs:

GitHub Actions costs:

• Claude Code runs on GitHub-hosted runners, which consume your GitHub Actions minutes
• See GitHub's billing documentation for detailed pricing and minute limits

API costs:

• Each Claude interaction consumes API tokens based on the length of prompts and responses
• Token usage varies by task complexity and codebase size
• See Claude's pricing page for current token rates

Cost optimization tips:

• Use specific @claude commands to reduce unnecessary API calls
• Configure appropriate --max-turns in claude_args to prevent excessive iterations
• Set workflow-level timeouts to avoid runaway jobs
• Consider using GitHub's concurrency controls to limit parallel runs

Configuration examples

The Claude Code Action v1 simplifies configuration with unified parameters:

- uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
  with:
    anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
    prompt: "Your instructions here" # Optional
    claude_args: "--max-turns 5" # Optional CLI arguments

Key features:

• Unified prompt interface - Use prompt for all instructions
• Commands - Prebuilt prompts like /review or /fix
• CLI passthrough - Any Claude Code CLI argument via claude_args
• Flexible triggers - Works with any GitHub event

Visit the examples directory for complete workflow files.

Using with AWS Bedrock & Google Vertex AI

For enterprise environments, you can use Claude Code GitHub Actions with your own cloud infrastructure. This approach gives you control over data residency and billing while maintaining the same functionality.

Prerequisites

Before setting up Claude Code GitHub Actions with cloud providers, you need:

For Google Cloud Vertex AI:

1. A Google Cloud Project with Vertex AI enabled
2. Workload Identity Federation configured for GitHub Actions
3. A service account with the required permissions
4. A GitHub App (recommended) or use the default GITHUB_TOKEN

For AWS Bedrock:

1. An AWS account with Amazon Bedrock enabled
2. GitHub OIDC Identity Provider configured in AWS
3. An IAM role with Bedrock permissions
4. A GitHub App (recommended) or use the default GITHUB_TOKEN

name: Claude PR Action

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write
  issues: write
  id-token: write

on:
  issue_comment:
    types: [created]
  pull_request_review_comment:
    types: [created]
  issues:
    types: [opened, assigned]

jobs:
  claude-pr:
    if: |
      (github.event_name == 'issue_comment' && contains(github.event.comment.body, '@claude')) ||
      (github.event_name == 'pull_request_review_comment' && contains(github.event.comment.body, '@claude')) ||
      (github.event_name == 'issues' && contains(github.event.issue.body, '@claude'))
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      AWS_REGION: us-west-2
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Generate GitHub App token
        id: app-token
        uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v2
        with:
          app-id: ${{ secrets.APP_ID }}
          private-key: ${{ secrets.APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}

      - name: Configure AWS Credentials (OIDC)
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
        with:
          role-to-assume: ${{ secrets.AWS_ROLE_TO_ASSUME }}
          aws-region: us-west-2

      - uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
        with:
          github_token: ${{ steps.app-token.outputs.token }}
          use_bedrock: "true"
          claude_args: '--model us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-6 --max-turns 10'

name: Claude PR Action

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write
  issues: write
  id-token: write

on:
  issue_comment:
    types: [created]
  pull_request_review_comment:
    types: [created]
  issues:
    types: [opened, assigned]

jobs:
  claude-pr:
    if: |
      (github.event_name == 'issue_comment' && contains(github.event.comment.body, '@claude')) ||
      (github.event_name == 'pull_request_review_comment' && contains(github.event.comment.body, '@claude')) ||
      (github.event_name == 'issues' && contains(github.event.issue.body, '@claude'))
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Generate GitHub App token
        id: app-token
        uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v2
        with:
          app-id: ${{ secrets.APP_ID }}
          private-key: ${{ secrets.APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}

      - name: Authenticate to Google Cloud
        id: auth
        uses: google-github-actions/auth@v2
        with:
          workload_identity_provider: ${{ secrets.GCP_WORKLOAD_IDENTITY_PROVIDER }}
          service_account: ${{ secrets.GCP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT }}

      - uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
        with:
          github_token: ${{ steps.app-token.outputs.token }}
          trigger_phrase: "@claude"
          use_vertex: "true"
          claude_args: '--model claude-sonnet-4@20250514 --max-turns 10'
        env:
          ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_PROJECT_ID: ${{ steps.auth.outputs.project_id }}
          CLOUD_ML_REGION: us-east5
          VERTEX_REGION_CLAUDE_3_7_SONNET: us-east5

Troubleshooting

Claude not responding to @claude commands

Verify the GitHub App is installed correctly, check that workflows are enabled, ensure API key is set in repository secrets, and confirm the comment contains @claude (not /claude).

CI not running on Claude's commits

Ensure you're using the GitHub App or custom app (not Actions user), check workflow triggers include the necessary events, and verify app permissions include CI triggers.

Authentication errors

Confirm API key is valid and has sufficient permissions. For Bedrock/Vertex, check credentials configuration and ensure secrets are named correctly in workflows.

Advanced configuration

Action parameters

The Claude Code Action v1 uses a simplified configuration:

*Prompt is optional - when omitted for issue/PR comments, Claude responds to trigger phrase
**Required for direct Claude API, not for Bedrock/Vertex

Pass CLI arguments

The claude_args parameter accepts any Claude Code CLI arguments:

claude_args: "--max-turns 5 --model claude-sonnet-4-6 --mcp-config /path/to/config.json"

Common arguments:

• --max-turns: Maximum conversation turns (default: 10)
• --model: Model to use (for example, claude-sonnet-4-6)
• --mcp-config: Path to MCP configuration
• --allowed-tools: Comma-separated list of allowed tools
• --debug: Enable debug output

Alternative integration methods

While the /install-github-app command is the recommended approach, you can also:

• Custom GitHub App: For organizations needing branded usernames or custom authentication flows. Create your own GitHub App with required permissions (contents, issues, pull requests) and use the actions/create-github-app-token action to generate tokens in your workflows.
• Manual GitHub Actions: Direct workflow configuration for maximum flexibility
• MCP Configuration: Dynamic loading of Model Context Protocol servers

See the Claude Code Action documentation for detailed guides on authentication, security, and advanced configuration.

Customizing Claude's behavior

You can configure Claude's behavior in two ways:

1. CLAUDE.md: Define coding standards, review criteria, and project-specific rules in a CLAUDE.md file at the root of your repository. Claude will follow these guidelines when creating PRs and responding to requests. Check out our Memory documentation for more details.
2. Custom prompts: Use the prompt parameter in the workflow file to provide workflow-specific instructions. This allows you to customize Claude's behavior for different workflows or tasks.

Claude will follow these guidelines when creating PRs and responding to requests.