GitHub Actions — FAQ¶
Who is this course for?¶
DevOps, Cloud, Platform, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), DevSecOps, and software engineers who need production GitHub Actions skills — from first workflow through enterprise CI/CD, OIDC, Terraform, security scanning, and operations.
Do I need prior experience?¶
Complete Git first. Modules 1–2 assume beginner Continuous Integration (CI) knowledge. Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform are required from Module 7 onward. Basic cloud familiarity helps from Module 10.
Where are the tutorials?¶
Open Module 1–16 in the sidebar, or use the modules table.
How do labs work?¶
Labs live under ~/rebash-github-actions/module-NN (for example module-09 for Terraform, module-14 for composite actions). Each tutorial includes copy-paste tasks you can validate offline with local CLI tools (Terraform, pytest, PyYAML) before pushing to a test repository. Later modules include OIDC and cloud deploy stubs — replace placeholders with your sandbox trust policies; never commit real credentials.
Do I need a paid GitHub plan?¶
Public repositories include generous Actions minutes. Private repositories need a plan with Actions minutes; some security features (dependency review on private repos) require GitHub Advanced Security. Labs are designed to pass local validation without spending minutes where possible.
How does OIDC work in this course?¶
Module 5 introduces OpenID Connect (OIDC) concepts; Module 10 provides AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud YAML stubs. GitHub mints a short-lived JSON Web Token (JWT) per job when permissions: id-token: write is set; your cloud trust policy maps repository, ref, and environment to a role. Prefer OIDC over static access keys in repository secrets.
Can I use self-hosted runners?¶
Yes — Module 3 covers hosted vs self-hosted runners, labels, and groups. Production teams use self-hosted pools for larger builds, private network access, or GPU workloads. Keep runner VMs patched and isolate untrusted pull request jobs.
Why wrap Actions expressions in docs?¶
This site uses MkDocs macros (Jinja). GitHub Actions expressions (dollar-brace-brace) look like macro syntax and break the docs build unless tutorial fences wrap them in raw Jinja blocks. Lab workflow YAML examples use that wrapping; tutorial prose should describe expressions in words or keep them inside those blocks.
Do diagrams use D2 or Mermaid?¶
No. This course uses Excalidraw SVGs under docs/assets/excalidraw/. Regenerate with:
How do interview questions work?¶
In-tutorial sections include 6–8 topic-specific questions, each with a collapsible ??? success "Reveal answer" block. Standalone interview prep lives under Interview.
What changed in the 2026-08-03 rewrite?¶
Modules 9–16 and hub pages were rewritten to the Linux/Jenkins quality bar: full tutorial sections (Overview through References), topic-specific labs, Excalidraw architecture diagrams, British English, and production judgement (environment gates, SHA pinning, plan-before-apply).
Is progress tracked?¶
Learner progress tracking is planned — the course structure and labs are ready today.
Where should I start after finishing the course?¶
Build the Capstone platform (reusable workflows, OIDC, multi-cloud stubs, security scanning, releases), then compare with Jenkins or GitLab CI/CD for interview breadth.