GitHub Releases to Discord Action

Easily notify your Discord community about new GitHub releases! This GitHub Action automatically sends a beautifully formatted Discord embed message with your release notes whenever you publish a release on GitHub.

Main Benefits:

• Instantly share release changelogs with your Discord server.
• Highly customizable message appearance and content.
• Simple setup—no coding required.
• Supports advanced formatting and filtering for professional notifications.

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Features

• Automatic Release Notifications: Sends a Discord embed when a GitHub release is published.
• Clean Formatting:
  • Removes carriage returns and HTML comments.
  • Optimizes whitespace and paragraph spacing.
• Mention & Link Handling:
  • Converts @mentions to clickable GitHub profile links.
  • Converts PR, issue, and changelog URLs to Markdown links.
  • Optionally removes PR, commit, and issue links for cleaner messages.
• Heading Reduction:
  • Optionally reduces heading sizes for compact display.
• Custom Embed Appearance:
  • Set color, username, avatar, footer, and more.
• Length Management:
  • Ensures messages fit Discord's embed limits, trimming and linking as needed.
• Error Handling:
  • Clear errors for missing or invalid inputs.
• Easy Integration:
  • Works with any public or private repository.

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Quick Start

1. Create a Discord Webhook

• Go to your Discord server settings → Integrations → Webhooks.
• Click Create Webhook and copy the webhook URL.

2. Add the Action to Your Workflow

Create (or update) .github/workflows/github-releases-to-discord.yml:

on:
  release:
    types: [published]

jobs:
  github-releases-to-discord:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: GitHub Releases to Discord
        uses: SethCohen/github-releases-to-discord@v1
        with:
          webhook_url: ${{ secrets.WEBHOOK_URL }}
          color: "2105893"
          username: "Release Changelog"
          avatar_url: "https://cdn.discordapp.com/avatars/487431320314576937/bd64361e4ba6313d561d54e78c9e7171.png"
          content: "||@everyone||"
          footer_title: "Changelog"
          reduce_headings: true

3. Add Your Webhook URL as a Secret

• In your GitHub repo, go to Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions.
• Add a new secret named WEBHOOK_URL and paste your Discord webhook URL.

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Configuration Options

Input Name	Required	Default	Description
webhook_url	✔		Discord webhook URL (use a GitHub secret).
color	❌	2105893	Embed color (decimal).
username	❌		Webhook username.
avatar_url	❌		Webhook avatar image URL.
custom_html_url	❌		Custom URL for the embed title (overrides GitHub release URL).
content	❌		Additional message content (e.g., @everyone).
footer_title	❌		Footer title.
footer_icon_url	❌		Footer icon image URL.
footer_timestamp	❌	false	Show timestamp in footer (true/false).
max_description	❌	4096	Max description length (Discord limit: 4096).
remove_github_reference_links	❌	false	Remove PR, commit, and issue links from the description.
reduce_headings	❌	false	Reduce heading sizes for compact display.

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Example Output

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Best Practices & Notes

• Use Secrets for Webhook URLs: Never commit your Discord webhook URL directly to your repository.
• Discord Embed Limits:
  • Title: 256 characters max
  • Description: 4096 characters max
  • The action will trim and link if limits are exceeded.
• Release Body Formatting:
  • Use Markdown in your release notes for best results.
• Private Repos:
  • The action works for both public and private repositories.

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Troubleshooting & FAQ

Q: The action didn't post to Discord!

• Check that your webhook URL is correct and not expired.
• Ensure the webhook_url secret is set in your repository.
• Review the Actions log for error messages.

Q: My message is cut off.

• Discord has strict embed limits. The action trims long messages and adds a link if needed.

Q: How do I customize the embed?

• Use the configuration options above to set color, username, avatar, footer, and more.

Q: Can I mention everyone or specific roles?

• Use the content input (e.g., content: "@everyone").

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Contributing

We welcome contributions! To get started:

1. Fork this repository.

2. Clone your fork and run npm install.

3. Create a test release payload:

   • Copy tests/sample-test-release.json and edit as needed.

4. Create a .env file in the root with your webhook and config (see below):

   INPUT_WEBHOOK_URL=your_webhook_url
   INPUT_COLOR=2105893
   ...

5. Test locally with act:

   act release -e tests/sample-test-release.json

6. Make your changes and commit using Conventional Commits.

7. Open a pull request with a clear description of your changes.

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License

MIT License

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Support & Feedback

• Issues: Open an issue for bugs, questions, or feature requests.
• Pull Requests: Contributions are welcome—see above!

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Acknowledgements

• Inspired by the needs of open source maintainers and Discord communities.
• Built and maintained by SethCohen.