Log into Github CI server using SSH

Have you ever needed to log into your Github CI run? Is it a flaky test that's hard to reproduce, and the logging output could be more helpful?

You can log into the CI run while it's going. Try out the Github action Debugging with SSH. Utilizing upterm and Tmux, allows for a session that can be logged into.

Add a step like this to your workflow:

name: CI
on: [push]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Setup upterm session
      uses: lhotari/action-upterm@v1

A cool feature is that it lets you lock down who can log in via SSH keys. Add a limit-access-to-* declaration like so:

name: CI
on: [push]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Setup upterm session
      uses: lhotari/action-upterm@v1
      with:
        ## limits ssh access and adds the ssh public key for the user which triggered the workflow
        limit-access-to-actor: true
        ## limits ssh access and adds the ssh public keys of the listed GitHub users
        limit-access-to-users: githubuser1,githubuser2

Then, you can log in via your workflow's 'checks' panel.

h/t JackC

Tweet