actions-optimiser

This skill should be used when the user asks to "optimise GitHub Actions", "improve my workflow", "make actions better", "review workflow usage", "how are others using this action", "find best practices for GitHub Actions", or wants to gather real-world context on how GitHub Actions are used to improve their workflows.

GitHub Actions Optimiser

Mine real-world usage of a specific GitHub Action across public repos to inform optimisations to a workflow file.

The technique

When a workflow uses an action like uses: hashicorp/setup-terraform@v3, search public repos for working examples and decode them in parallel:

1. Find candidate workflows

gh search code "setup-terraform path:.github/workflows" --limit 20

2. Pull at least 5 in parallel and decode

The contents API returns base64-encoded YAML — decode in one pipeline:

gh api repos/Sofiane-Truman/cloud-foundation-fabric/contents/.github/workflows/linting.yml \
  | jq -r '.content' | base64 -d

Run several of these concurrently (one per candidate repo) so a survey takes one round-trip, not five.

3. Identify patterns worth borrowing

Look for: non-default inputs that recur across repos, caching setups, matrix patterns, version pins, permissions blocks, conditional steps. Single-occurrence quirks are noise; patterns repeated across 3+ unrelated repos are signal.

4. Apply

Edit the user's workflow file to incorporate the patterns. Cite the source repo for any non-trivial change so the user can verify context.