Dispatch a GitHub Action workflow with script action

You can use the GitHub Actions workflow repository_dispatch event trigger to start a workflow by triggering a webhook.

I use this event trigger to start a workflow for building my website when I create or update content in my blog repository. Because my website and the blog content are two separate repositories, I must use the repository_dispatch event to trigger the website build workflow. Another use case is to start my E2E tests when I deploy a new application version.

Configure the workflow to trigger

In the workflow file you want to trigger, you must add the repository_dispatch event with a types key. The types key is an array of event types that you can define to limit your workflow to run on those specific types.

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name: Playwright Tests
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on:
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  repository_dispatch:
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    types: [trigger-e2e-tests]

How to trigger the workflow

You can start the workflow by making a POST request to the dispatches endpoint of the GitHub API. The endpoint is POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/dispatches.

The request body should contain the event_type key with the event name you want to trigger. You can also add a client_payload key with additional data you wish to send to the workflow.

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POST https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/dispatches HTTP/1.1
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Content-Type: application/json
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Authorization: Bearer <PAT>
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X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28
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{
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  "event_type": "trigger-e2e-tests",
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}

Trigger the workflow with the GitHub script action

A helpful workflow action is the GitHub script action. This action allows you to use the Octokit/rest.js library to interact with the GitHub API and trigger the repository_dispatch event.

Here is an example of how you can trigger the repository_dispatch event with the GitHub script action:

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jobs:
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  build:
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    steps:
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      # All your other steps
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      - name: Start E2E tests
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        uses: actions/github-script@v7
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        with:
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          github-token: ${{ secrets.REPO_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
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          script: |
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            await github.rest.repos.createDispatchEvent({
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              owner: context.repo.owner,
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              repo: "<your repo name>",
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              event_type: "trigger-e2e-tests"
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            });

In the script, you need to replace <your repo name> with the repository’s name where you want to trigger the workflow.