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CI and GitHub Actions

Using wailsrel in CI​

wailsrel is GitHub Actions aware:

  • build and release write step outputs when GITHUB_OUTPUT is available
  • release publishes GitHub release assets with GITHUB_TOKEN
  • delta reuses GITHUB_TOKEN when it needs to fetch old artifacts from GitHub releases

To keep those GitHub Actions outputs enabled, leave this on in wailsrel.yaml:

ci:
  provider: github
  artifacts:
    upload: true

wailsrel runs every target listed in the selected config file. In CI, keep each job aligned with the targets that runner can actually satisfy. For multi-platform releases, use one job or config file per runner instead of asking one runner to build every OS.

This example shows a Linux release job:

name: Release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - "v*"

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  release-linux:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version: "1.25"

      - name: Install wailsrel
        run: go install github.com/Eriyc/wailsrel/cmd/wailsrel@latest

      - name: Install Wails
        run: go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/cmd/wails3@latest

      - name: Validate environment
        run: wailsrel --config ci/linux.yaml doctor

      - name: Publish release
        id: release
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        run: wailsrel --config ci/linux.yaml release

      - name: Upload staged artifacts
        if: ${{ steps.release.outputs.artifact_count != '0' }}
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: wailsrel-linux-${{ steps.release.outputs.version }}
          path: |
            ${{ steps.release.outputs.artifact_dir }}
            ${{ steps.release.outputs.manifest_path }}

Required env and secrets​

wailsrel still expands ${NAME} placeholders from the environment when it loads YAML config, but native signing and packaging credentials now belong to your Wails project and its build/ tooling.

In practice:

  • wailsrel itself needs GITHUB_TOKEN for GitHub Releases publishing and for delta.old_artifacts.source: github-release
  • your Wails tasks may need additional secrets, certificates, SDK paths, or signing credentials
  • those native inputs must be provisioned before doctor, build, or release, because wailsrel now invokes your configured Wails-owned hooks rather than signing or packaging itself
env:
  GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

GitHub Actions step outputs​

When build or release runs inside GitHub Actions, wailsrel writes these outputs to the current step:

  • artifact_dir: directory containing the staged files for actions/upload-artifact
  • artifact_count: number of staged artifacts
  • version: resolved release version
  • manifest_path: generated release manifest path

release populates all four values. build mainly exposes artifact_dir and artifact_count; the version and manifest path may be empty.

CI notes​

  • Use actions/checkout with fetch-depth: 0 when version.source: git depends on local tags.
  • Set GITHUB_TOKEN for release jobs, otherwise publishing to GitHub releases will fail.
  • If you do not want GitHub Actions outputs or staged upload directories, set ci.artifacts.upload: false.
  • Run doctor on each runner before build or release so missing Wails toolchain requirements fail early.