How to set a default value for a workflow_dispatch variable?

[kaihendry]

I see people using workflow_dispatch github.event.inputs as I am here: ltabus/up.yml at 8e896bb75330757e440fe7f429aaa9ead7cfd90e · kaihendry/ltabus · GitHub

But how do you set a default if the job is run on a push?!

[wechuli]

Unfortunately, this is not possible. There is no way for you to define inputs on a push event. The github.event.inputs context will contain key value pairs only if the workflow was triggered by a workflow_dispatch event.

docs.github.com

Events that trigger workflows - GitHub Docs

//docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/events-that-trigger-workflows

docs.github.com

Events that trigger workflows - GitHub Docs

//docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/events-that-trigger-workflows

[kaihendry]

I keep on getting bitten by this issue. I want to deploy to staging by default. And then

github.com

Build software better, together

ndry/ltabus/runs/2267270022

GitHub is where people build software. More than 56 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 100 million projects.

And then run production once I’ve manually tested staging:

I’m really tired of:

image865×266 16.7 KB

Is there no sane workaround?

[cotyhamilton]

@kaihendry Have an approval on production environment. Then staging deploys and waits for production to be approved

[Simran-B]

While not DRY, this is a possible workaround:

stage: ${{ github.event.inputs.stage || 'staging' }}

Or like this, using a pseudo-ternary operator:

stage: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' && 'staging' || github.event.inputs.stage }}

[andy-brainome]

I just ran across this issue myself. I want to define inputs as per workflow_dispatch with default values that are defined when using other event triggers.

[rokeno]

I guess you are not alone. I need this too, in case i have branch push and i would like the values to be there.
How is Github Actions going to replace Azure DevOps with so many lacking features? I wonder…

From official documentation:
Events that trigger workflows - GitHub Docs (check the picture and see the first entry)

You can see above a default and i should be to use that as default value, no matter what!

[IanTaylor-catapult]

Ran into the same issue. Wasted a couple hours trying to figure out why inputs weren't passing. This should really be a feature request. Default values for inputs should persist across event types.

[ndom91]

Came across this via Google and just wanted to chime in that workflow_dispatch inputs do now have defaults available, see: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#example-of-onworkflow_dispatchinputs

Ex:

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      logLevel:
        description: 'Log level'
        required: true
        default: 'warning'
        type: choice
        options:
          - info
          - warning
          - debug

[ifeomaro]

The default inputs are null for the push event, but they work as expected for the workflow_dispatch event.

[ndom91]

Yeah, good clarification. These defaults are only applied when triggered via workflow_dispatch