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docs: clarify definition of GitHub Actions #41035
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The previous definition incorrectly stated that an action is 'a pre-defined, reusable set of jobs or code.' This was misleading because actions are not sets of jobs—they are reusable units of code used as steps within jobs. Updated the definition to accurately describe actions as custom applications that perform specific tasks, aligning with GitHub's official terminology.
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Key: fpt: Free, Pro, Team; ghec: GitHub Enterprise Cloud; ghes: GitHub Enterprise Server 🤖 This comment is automatically generated. |
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@DanielDerefaka Thanks for the PR! This looks like a good update, with one little tweak to make it more general. We have a deploy freeze for GitHub Universe this week, but I'll get this merged once that's lifted. |
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@DanielDerefaka An engineer came and weighed in on this, and they aren't in favor of the change in definition, feeling that it would be confusing to use "application" when we also have GitHub and OAuth apps, and also that the term itself was too broad. It's possible the definition could use an update, but after their breakdown of what they didn't like about this definition, I can see why it is what it is. We would need one of our engineers to work with a writer to rewrite it so they could help pick and choose specific terminology that's not being used extensively elsewhere to mean other things. All that is to say, I'm afraid I'm going to have to reject this one after all. I'm sorry about that! Some of the other people on my team are very familiar with Actions, so I thought it would be enough to ask them, but our actual engineers had the opposite opinion. |
What
Clarified the definition of "action" in the Understanding GitHub Actions guide.
Why
The previous definition incorrectly described actions as "a set of jobs or code," which is misleading. Actions are custom applications used as steps within jobs, not collections of jobs themselves.
Changes