The GitHub Actions Language: Usage, Evolution, and Workflow Reliability
8 hours ago
- #GitHub Actions
- #Workflow Reliability
- #Software Engineering
- Study empirically explores GitHub Actions language adoption and evolution impacts on workflow reliability.
- Analyzes 260K workflows from 49K GitHub repositories from July 2019 to August 2025.
- Identifies 197 language constructs grouped into 14 features reflecting workflow capabilities.
- Observes limited use of constructs; larger, complex workflows correlate with higher failure rates and maintenance.
- Specific features linked to reliability and maintainability risks identified to aid practitioners and researchers.