About GitHub Actions Importer
You can use GitHub Actions Importer to plan and automatically migrate your CI/CD supported pipelines to GitHub Actions.
GitHub Actions Importer is distributed as a Docker container, and uses a GitHub CLI extension to interact with the container.
Any workflow that is converted by the GitHub Actions Importer should be inspected for correctness before using it as a production workload. The goal is to achieve an 80% conversion rate for every workflow, however, the actual conversion rate will depend on the makeup of each individual pipeline that is converted.
Supported CI platforms
You can use GitHub Actions Importer to migrate from the following platforms:
- Azure DevOps
- Bamboo
- Bitbucket Pipelines
- CircleCI
- GitLab
- Jenkins
- Travis CI
Prerequisites
GitHub Actions Importer has the following requirements:
-
An environment where you can run Linux-based containers, and can install the necessary tools.
- Docker is installed and running.
- GitHub CLI is installed.
Note: The GitHub Actions Importer container and CLI do not need to be installed on the same server as your CI platform.
Installing the GitHub Actions Importer CLI extension
-
Install the GitHub Actions Importer CLI extension:
Bash gh extension install github/gh-actions-importer
gh extension install github/gh-actions-importer -
Verify that the extension is installed:
$ gh actions-importer -h Options: -?, -h, --help Show help and usage information Commands: update Update to the latest version of GitHub Actions Importer. version Display the version of GitHub Actions Importer. configure Start an interactive prompt to configure credentials used to authenticate with your CI server(s). audit Plan your CI/CD migration by analyzing your current CI/CD footprint. forecast Forecast GitHub Actions usage from historical pipeline utilization. dry-run Convert a pipeline to a GitHub Actions workflow and output its yaml file. migrate Convert a pipeline to a GitHub Actions workflow and open a pull request with the changes.
Updating the GitHub Actions Importer CLI
To ensure you're running the latest version of GitHub Actions Importer, you should regularly run the update command:
gh actions-importer update
Authenticating at the command line
You must configure credentials that allow GitHub Actions Importer to communicate with GitHub and your current CI server. You can configure these credentials using environment variables or a .env.local file. The environment variables can be configured in an interactive prompt, by running the following command:
gh actions-importer configure
Using the GitHub Actions Importer CLI
Use the subcommands of gh actions-importer to begin your migration to GitHub Actions, including audit, forecast, dry-run, and migrate.
Auditing your existing CI pipelines
The audit subcommand can be used to plan your CI/CD migration by analyzing your current CI/CD footprint. This analysis can be used to plan a timeline for migrating to GitHub Actions.
To run an audit, use the following command to determine your available options:
$ gh actions-importer audit -h
Description:
Plan your CI/CD migration by analyzing your current CI/CD footprint.
[...]
Commands:
azure-devops An audit will output a list of data used in an Azure DevOps instance.
bamboo An audit will output a list of data used in a Bamboo instance.
circle-ci An audit will output a list of data used in a CircleCI instance.
gitlab An audit will output a list of data used in a GitLab instance.
jenkins An audit will output a list of data used in a Jenkins instance.
travis-ci An audit will output a list of data used in a Travis CI instance.
Forecasting usage
The forecast subcommand reviews historical pipeline usage to create a forecast of GitHub Actions usage.
To run a forecast, use the following command to determine your available options:
$ gh actions-importer forecast -h
Description:
Forecasts GitHub Actions usage from historical pipeline utilization.
[...]
Commands:
azure-devops Forecasts GitHub Actions usage from historical Azure DevOps pipeline utilization.
bamboo Forecasts GitHub Actions usage from historical Bamboo pipeline utilization.
jenkins Forecasts GitHub Actions usage from historical Jenkins pipeline utilization.
gitlab Forecasts GitHub Actions usage from historical GitLab pipeline utilization.
circle-ci Forecasts GitHub Actions usage from historical CircleCI pipeline utilization.
travis-ci Forecasts GitHub Actions usage from historical Travis CI pipeline utilization.
github Forecasts GitHub Actions usage from historical GitHub pipeline utilization.
Testing the migration process
The dry-run subcommand can be used to convert a pipeline to its GitHub Actions equivalent, and then write the workflow to your local filesystem.
To perform a dry run, use the following command to determine your available options:
$ gh actions-importer dry-run -h
Description:
Convert a pipeline to a GitHub Actions workflow and output its yaml file.
[...]
Commands:
azure-devops Convert an Azure DevOps pipeline to a GitHub Actions workflow and output its yaml file.
bamboo Convert a Bamboo pipeline to GitHub Actions workflows and output its yaml file.
circle-ci Convert a CircleCI pipeline to GitHub Actions workflows and output the yaml file(s).
gitlab Convert a GitLab pipeline to a GitHub Actions workflow and output the yaml file.
jenkins Convert a Jenkins job to a GitHub Actions workflow and output its yaml file.
travis-ci Convert a Travis CI pipeline to a GitHub Actions workflow and output its yaml file.
Migrating a pipeline to GitHub Actions
The migrate subcommand can be used to convert a pipeline to its GitHub Actions equivalent and then create a pull request with the contents.
To run a migration, use the following command to determine your available options:
$ gh actions-importer migrate -h
Description:
Convert a pipeline to a GitHub Actions workflow and open a pull request with the changes.
[...]
Commands:
azure-devops Convert an Azure DevOps pipeline to a GitHub Actions workflow and open a pull request with the changes.
bamboo Convert a Bamboo pipeline to GitHub Actions workflows and open a pull request with the changes.
circle-ci Convert a CircleCI pipeline to GitHub Actions workflows and open a pull request with the changes.
gitlab Convert a GitLab pipeline to a GitHub Actions workflow and open a pull request with the changes.
jenkins Convert a Jenkins job to a GitHub Actions workflow and open a pull request with the changes.
travis-ci Convert a Travis CI pipeline to a GitHub Actions workflow and and open a pull request with the changes.
Performing self-serve migrations using IssueOps
You can use GitHub Actions and GitHub Issues to run CLI commands for GitHub Actions Importer. This allows you to migrate your CI/CD workflows without installing software on your local machine. This approach is especially useful for organizations that want to enable self-service migrations to GitHub Actions. Once IssueOps is configured, users can open an issue with the relevant template to migrate pipelines to GitHub Actions.
For more information about setting up self-serve migrations with IssueOps, see the actions/importer-issue-ops template repository.
Using the GitHub Actions Importer labs repository
The GitHub Actions Importer labs repository contains platform-specific learning paths that teach you how to use GitHub Actions Importer and how to approach migrations to GitHub Actions. You can use this repository to learn how to use GitHub Actions Importer to help plan, forecast, and automate your migration to GitHub Actions.
To learn more, see the GitHub Actions Importer labs repository.
Legal notice
Portions have been adapted from https://github.com/github/gh-actions-importer/ under the MIT license:
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2022 GitHub
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.