How to test unpublished GitHub action?

Problem

When developing a new GitHub Action, then you may want to test it continuously without publishing it first. The UI isn't too helpful here.

Solution

You can easily test your in development GitHub Actions by referring to them (in {{repository}}/.github/workflows/deploy.yml file) in the following format:

uses: {{USER}}/{{REPOSITORY}}@{{SHA}}

Here is an example deploy.yaml file:

name: Build and Deploy
on: [push]
jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Deploy
        uses: poseen/github-pages-blog-action@959661a660b9bd37e689c795a417a45966a466f3
        with:
          branch: gh-pages # Optional branch for GitHub Pages

Notes

Further reading