GitHub Agentic Workflows (gh-aw) is a Go-based GitHub extension that enables agent-driven automation in Actions, supporting Copilot, Claude, Codex, and Gemini with sandboxed execution and safety features.
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What it is
GitHub Agentic Workflows (gh-aw) lets you write repository automation in plain Markdown and run AI coding agents — GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or Google Gemini — inside GitHub Actions, with sandboxed execution, read-only defaults, and safe outputs for writes.
How it works
The project provides an extension (gh aw) that integrates agentic workflows into GitHub Actions. It emphasizes safety through read-only by default, sandboxed execution, input sanitization, network isolation, and safe-outputs for writes. It supports multiple AI backends and includes guardrails for access control and human approval gates for critical operations.
Getting started
-
Install the gh aw CLI extension using the install script (no GitHub token required):
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gh-aw/main/install-gh-aw.sh | bash -
Run the init command to configure the repository:
gh aw init -
Add a daily repo status agentic workflow using the add command:
gh aw add --create-pull-requestThe workflow should:
- Run on a daily schedule
- Summarize the repository status (open issues, recent PRs, CI health)
- Use the Quick Start engine selector to choose your runtime:
- For copilot, grant copilot-requests: write
- For claude, set the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY repository secret
- For codex, set the OPENAI_API_KEY repository secret
- For gemini, set the GEMINI_API_KEY repository secret
Recent releases
- v0.85.0 (2026-08-04): Focuses on hardening safe-output handling, smoothing out agentic engine configuration, and cleanup around the OpenCode engine removal.
- v0.84.4 (2026-08-04): Security hardening, MCP tooling improvements, and internal reliability/CI fixes.
- v0.84.3 (2026-08-03): New shellcheck-based linting phase for run steps, expanded agent job gating controls, and security hardening.
- v0.84.2 (2026-08-01): Maintenance release focusing on stability, security hardening, and internal tooling improvements; no user-facing breaking changes.
- v0.84.1 (2026-07-31): Security hardening, safe-outputs flexibility, and reliability fixes across compiler, MCP tooling, and CI infrastructure.
Traction
- 4865 stars, 478 forks, 291 open issues
Behind the repo
- Repository is hosted under github/gh-aw with MIT license and created on 2025-08-12; last push on 2026-08-04. Primary language: Go. Topics include actions, cai, ci, claude-code, codex, copilot, gh-extension, github-actions.
Caveats
- Note about older releases: Releases 0.68.4 through 0.71.3 are retired due to a billing bug; upgrade to the latest release if running those versions. The license is MIT.