Deploying with GitHub Actions

This article shows you how to set up GitHub Actions to check your Email Design System (EDS) when a pull request is opened, and deploy it to EmailShepherd when the pull request is merged.

Keeping your EDS in Git means changes can be reviewed before they reach your emails. With these workflows, nothing is deployed until it’s been checked and merged.

Before you begin

• Set up a repository for your EDS and push it to GitHub. See The EDS SDK.
• Find your workspace ID and EDS ID. They’re in the .env file in your repository, as EMAILSHEPHERD_WORKSPACE_ID and EMAILSHEPHERD_EDS_ID.

Add your API key to GitHub

1. Create an API key with the Email design systems: Read and Write and Workspaces: Read scopes. See How to create an API key.
2. In your GitHub repository, add it as a repository secret called EMAILSHEPHERD_API_KEY.

Caution

Always store the API key as a secret. Never write it into a workflow file.

Check pull requests

Create .github/workflows/validate.yml with the following, replacing the workspace and EDS IDs with your own:

name: Validate EDS

on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  validate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: lts/*
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
      - name: Validate EDS
        run: npx emailshepherd validate
        env:
          EMAILSHEPHERD_WORKSPACE_ID: 'your-workspace-id'
          EMAILSHEPHERD_EDS_ID: 'your-email-design-system-id'
          EMAILSHEPHERD_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.EMAILSHEPHERD_API_KEY }}

Every pull request to main is now checked for errors.

Deploy when changes are merged

Create .github/workflows/deploy.yml:

name: Deploy EDS

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: lts/*
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
      - name: Validate EDS
        run: npx emailshepherd validate
        env:
          EMAILSHEPHERD_WORKSPACE_ID: 'your-workspace-id'
          EMAILSHEPHERD_EDS_ID: 'your-email-design-system-id'
          EMAILSHEPHERD_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.EMAILSHEPHERD_API_KEY }}
      - name: Deploy EDS
        run: npx emailshepherd deploy
        env:
          EMAILSHEPHERD_WORKSPACE_ID: 'your-workspace-id'
          EMAILSHEPHERD_EDS_ID: 'your-email-design-system-id'
          EMAILSHEPHERD_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.EMAILSHEPHERD_API_KEY }}

When changes are merged into main, the EDS is checked again and then deployed. See Deploy your changes for what deploying does.