GitHub Actions: Install Released silk

This guide shows how to install the released Silk CLI in another GitHub Actions workflow without rebuilding the compiler from source.

:

• runner OS/arch:
• linux-x86_64,
• macos-arm64,
• source of truth: GitHub Release assets uploaded from the repo’s release distribution target,
• installed payload: the staged-prefix distribution tarball (bin/, lib/, include/, share/).

Basic Usage#

Pin the action to a released Silk tag:

jobs:
  use-silk:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: oro-computer/silk@v0.1.0
        with:
          github-token: ${{ github.token }}
      - run: silk --version

When the action ref is a v* tag and version is omitted, the action installs that same release tag.

Select a Different Version#

If you use a floating action ref (for example @main) or want to install a different release than the action ref, set version explicitly:

- uses: oro-computer/silk@main
  with:
    version: v0.1.0
    github-token: ${{ github.token }}

Accepted version values:

• v0.1.0
• 0.1.0 (normalized to v0.1.0)
• latest

Inputs#

• version
• optional,
• release tag to install,
• defaults to the action ref when it is a v* tag, otherwise latest.
• repository
• optional,
• release repository in owner/repo form,
• defaults to the action repository.
• github-token
• optional,
• bearer token used for the GitHub release API and asset downloads,
• recommended: ${{ github.token }}.
• install-dir
• optional,
• installation root for the extracted staged prefix,
• default: ${RUNNER_TEMP}/silk/<tag>/<platform>, where <platform> is the current runner platform tag.
• add-to-path
• optional,
• when true (default), appends <install-dir>/bin to PATH.

Outputs#

• version — resolved release tag that was installed.
• root — installed staged-prefix root.
• bin — installed bin/ directory.
• silk — absolute path to the installed silk binary.

Example:

- id: setup-silk
  uses: oro-computer/silk@v0.1.0
  with:
    github-token: ${{ github.token }}

- run: |
    "${{ steps.setup-silk.outputs.silk }}" --version
    ls "${{ steps.setup-silk.outputs.root }}/share"

Integrity and Failure Modes#

The action downloads both:

• silk-<tag>-<platform>.tar.gz
• silk-<tag>-<platform>.tar.gz.sha256

Where <platform> is one of:

• linux-x86_64
• macos-arm64

It verifies the archive with sha256sum -c when available and falls back to shasum -a 256 -c on macOS runners before extracting it.

The action fails when:

• it is run on an unsupported runner platform,
• the target release does not exist,
• the expected release assets are missing,
• or checksum verification fails.

Producing Release Assets#

Run the release distribution target on each supported native host before uploading assets to a GitHub Release:

make dist

The target builds a size-optimized staged prefix with ReleaseSmall and stripped binaries, then writes upload-ready assets under build/release/:

• silk-v<toolchain-version>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz on Linux x86_64,
• silk-v<toolchain-version>-macos-arm64.tar.gz on Apple Silicon macOS,
• and the matching .sha256 checksum files.

For a release tag that intentionally differs from src/version.zig, override the asset tag explicitly:

DIST_VERSION=v0.1.1 make dist

Default branch CI does not publish GitHub Release assets. Its scheduled nightly path may upload short-retention distribution artifacts for inspection, but those artifacts are separate from release publication.

The archive contains the release-required installed bin/, lib/, include/, and share/ prefix payloads, plus a dedicated release-root Makefile that supports make install PREFIX=/usr/local, staged DESTDIR=/tmp/pkgroot installs, and make uninstall for the files owned by that release archive. Its install path removes previously installed owned files from the installed receipt before copying the new payload, so upgrades can remove files that were owned by an older release but are no longer shipped. Uninstall is idempotent for missing prefixes and tolerates stale or malformed receipt entries, missing owned files, and unreadable installed receipts by falling back to the current archive's owned file list when necessary. It also includes curated editor/syntax files under share/silk/editor/ for Highlight.js, Vim, Sublime Text, TextMate, VS Code, and coc.nvim. Development-only payloads such as source tests, intermediate object files, source-only Markdown manpage copies, editor build metadata, cache directories, dependency build trees, node_modules, and editor scratch files are not included.

Relationship to This Repo’s CI#

This action does not build Silk. It consumes the same staged-prefix tarball that the Silk compiler repository publishes as release assets.

The default CI workflow keeps artifact publication on the scheduled nightly path only. Pull requests, branch pushes, tag pushes, and manual dispatches run correctness checks without uploading staged-prefix artifacts. Release publication should use the same make dist outputs described above and publish them deliberately to GitHub Releases; macOS release packages are built from the macOS-native dependency layout instead of reusing Linux dependency archives.