GitHub Actions Overview

Quant Cloud provides a complete suite of official GitHub Actions to automate your deployment workflows. These actions work together to provide seamless CI/CD integration for containerized applications.

Available Actions

Core Workflow Actions

Action	Purpose	Repository
Init	Initialize deployment, authenticate registry, detect environment	quant-cloud-init-action
Compose	Translate docker-compose files	quant-cloud-compose-action
Environment	Create/update environments	quant-cloud-environment-action

Management Actions

Action	Purpose	Repository
Environment Vars	Manage environment variables and secrets	quant-cloud-environment-var-action
Sync	Sync databases and files between environments	quant-cloud-environment-sync-action
Backup	Create backups and manage retention	quant-cloud-environment-backup-action

Typical Workflow Pattern

Most deployments follow this pattern:

jobs:
 deploy:
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 steps:
 # 1. Initialize - Authenticate and detect environment
 - uses: quantcdn/quant-cloud-init-action@v1
 id: init
 with:
 quant_organization: ${{ secrets.QUANT_ORGANIZATION }}
 quant_api_key: ${{ secrets.QUANT_API_KEY }}
 
 # 2. Build and push images (Docker already logged in by init)
 - uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
 with:
 push: true
 tags: ${{ steps.init.outputs.stripped_endpoint }}/...
 
 # 3. Translate compose file (if using docker-compose)
 - uses: quantcdn/quant-cloud-compose-action@v1
 id: compose
 with:
 compose_file: docker-compose.yml
 
 # 4. Deploy environment
 - uses: quantcdn/quant-cloud-environment-action@v1
 with:
 operation: update
 compose_spec: ${{ steps.compose.outputs.translated_compose }}

Getting Started

Prerequisites

GitHub Repository with your application code
Quant Cloud Account with:
- Organization ID
- API Key (from dashboard)
Docker Images or docker-compose.yml file

Setup Steps

Add secrets to your repository:
- QUANT_ORGANIZATION - Your org ID
- QUANT_API_KEY - Your API key
Create workflow file: .github/workflows/deploy.yml
Choose your workflow pattern:
- Using docker-compose.yml
- Direct image deployment

Action Categories

Deployment Actions

Essential for getting your code deployed:

Init Action - Start here, required for all workflows
Compose Action - For docker-compose based deployments
Environment Action - Create and manage environments

Operational Actions

For ongoing management and operations:

Environment Vars Action - Configure runtime variables
Sync Action - Sync data between environments
Backup Action - Automate backups and retention

Common Use Cases

Production Deployment

Deploy to production when code is merged to main branch. See workflow example →

PR Preview Environments

Automatically create preview environments for pull requests. See workflow example →

Feature Branch Environments

Deploy feature branches to isolated environments. See workflow example →

Database Sync

Sync production database to staging for testing. See workflow example →

Scheduled Backups

Automate daily backups with retention policies. See workflow example →

Best Practices

Always start with Init Action - It handles authentication and environment detection
Use image suffixes - Leverage image_suffix output from init for consistent tagging
Validate before deploy - Use compose validation for complex configurations
Protect production - Use GitHub environment protection rules
Clean up previews - Remove PR environments when PRs are closed
Monitor workflows - Set up notifications for deployment failures