composite github action, automatically cd into actions directory? - github-actions

Question

I am trying to setup a github actions bot that uses composite to build when the action runs. Notably, this isn't required, and I know that ncc would also achieve the same thing, but I'm curious if it's possible to make this work in a sustainable way.
For some context, I'm trying to run my alita-moore/EIP-Bot private action with the yaml script being...
name: "Auto Merge EIP"
description: "A bot that lints EIP edits, finds common errors, and can auto-merge"
inputs:
GITHUB-TOKEN:
description: |-
The Github token to be used by this bot when merging, posting comments, or requesting reviewers
required: true
VERSION:
description: version of the action; this is required because of how actions work
required: true
runs:
using: "composite"
steps:
- run: cd /home/runner/work/_actions/alita-moore/EIP-Bot/${{ inputs.VERSION }} && npm ci && npm run build && GITHUB_TOKEN=${{ inputs.GITHUB-TOKEN }} node build/index.js
shell: bash
And this currently runs with a given repo's workflow yaml being
on: [pull_request]
jobs:
auto_merge_bot:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
name: EIP Auto-Merge Bot
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout#v2
- name: Setup Node.js Enviornment
uses: actions/setup-node#v2
with:
node-version: '14'
- name: auto-merge-bot
uses: alita-moore/EIP-Bot#1.0.8
id: auto-merge-bot
with:
GITHUB-TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TOKEN }}
VERSION: 1.0.8
You may have noticed that before the npm ci && npm run build I first had to cd /home/runner/work/_actions/alita-moore/EIP-Bot/${{ inputs.VERSION }}
If you don't do this it'll throw the following error
Run alita-moore/EIP-Bot#1.0.1
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! syscall open
npm ERR! path /home/runner/work/EIPs/EIPs/package.json
npm ERR! errno -2
npm ERR! enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/home/runner/work/EIPs/EIPs/package.json'
npm ERR! enoent This is related to npm not being able to find a file.
npm ERR! enoent
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /home/runner/.npm/_logs/2021-03-14T09_02_26_002Z-debug.log
Error: Process completed with exit code 254.
Is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

You can use ${{github.action_path}} for the path of the directory containing the action definition file action.yaml:
[...]
runs:
using: "composite"
steps:
- run: cd ${{github.action_path}} && npm ci && npm run build && GITHUB_TOKEN=${{ inputs.GITHUB-TOKEN }} node build/index.js
shell: bash
github.action_path | string | The path where your action is located. You can use this path to easily access files located in the same repository as your action. This attribute is only supported in composite run steps actions.
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/context-and-expression-syntax-for-github-actions#github-context

Answer 2

The value for ${{ github.action_path }} is also available by default as the environment variable GITHUB_ACTION_PATH, so something like this is also an option:
[...]
- uses: actions/setup-python#v4
with:
python-version: '3.9'
- name: install-dependencies
run: pip install -r $GITHUB_ACTION_PATH/requirements.txt
shell: bash
This assumes the requirements.txt file is at the root of my composite actions directory.