# GitHub Action Legion Studios uses GitHub Actions to automate our publish of the mod to the Steam WorkShop. This allows us to create & publish releases in Github and go hands off for the rest of the process. ## Workflow File ```yaml name: Release on: release: types: [published] workflow_dispatch: jobs: build: runs-on: windows-latest steps: # THIS IS JUST HOW WE DOWNLOAD BINARIZE. YOU CAN HOST IT ANYWHERE AND DOWNLOAD IT HOWEVER YOU WANT, AS LONG AS IT'S AVAILABLE DURING THE WORKFLOW. - name: Configure AWS credentials uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v5 with: aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }} aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }} aws-region: us-east-2 - name: Checkout the source code uses: actions/checkout@v4 with: # this is required for our workflow because we have a translations submodule. If you don't have any submodules, you can delete the line submodules: true - name: Setup HEMTT uses: arma-actions/hemtt@v1 - name: Setup Binarize # I want to credit the persons work I referenced for this but I can't remember who it was. If it's you, please let me know so I can credit you properly. The code is based on the way they downloaded and set up Binarize in their workflow. run: | $presignedUrl = aws s3 presign {redacted for privacy} --expires-in 3600 curl -L -o legionstudios-tools.zip "$presignedUrl" Expand-Archive legionstudios-tools.zip -DestinationPath ci echo "Check Binarize: $(Test-Path .\\ci\\binarize\\binarize_x64.exe)" echo "Install Binarize dependencies" cp .\ci\binarize\X3DAudio1_7.dll,.\ci\binarize\XAPOFX1_5.dll C:\Windows\System32\ echo "::group::Verify Binarize dependencies installed" Get-ChildItem C:\Windows\System32\X3DAudio1_7.dll, C:\Windows\System32\XAPOFX1_5.dll echo "::endgroup::" echo "Dependencies installed" New-Item "HKCU:\\Software\\Bohemia Interactive\\binarize" -Force | New-ItemProperty -Name path -Value "${{ github.workspace }}\ci\binarize" echo "Binarize configured" - name: Test Binarize run: | echo "::group::Run Binarize without arguments (look for missing DLLs)" ./ci/binarize/binarize_x64.exe || true # binarize exits with 1 if no file given echo "::endgroup::" shell: bash # outputs missing dll information - name: Build (HEMTT) run: | hemtt release --no-archive - name: Rename build folder run: mv .hemttout/release .hemttout/@Legion-Core - name: Upload Artifacts uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4 with: name: legionstudios path: .hemttout/@* retention-days: 1 include-hidden-files: true # this is a wrapper of a tool to convert markdown to steam's format, its public feel free to use generate-steam-md: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: Convert Release to Steam uses: legion-studios/markdown-to-steam@v1 id: generate-steam-md with: markdown: ${{ github.event.release.body }} outputs: steammd: ${{ steps.generate-steam-md.outputs.steammd }} publish: needs: [build, generate-steam-md] runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: Download Artifacts uses: actions/download-artifact@v4 with: name: legionstudios - name: Upload to Steam (Legion Studios Core) uses: arma-actions/workshop-upload@v1 with: appId: '107410' # Arma 3 App ID itemId: 'your steam workshop item id here' # you can find this in the url of your workshop item page contentPath: '@Legion-Core' changelog: ${{ needs.generate-steam-md.outputs.steammd }} env: STEAM_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.STEAM_USERNAME }} STEAM_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.STEAM_PASSWORD }} notify-discord: needs: [publish] runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: Send Discord Notification uses: tsickert/discord-webhook@v7.0.0 with: webhook-url: ${{ secrets.DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL }} content: ${{ github.event.release.body }} # this will be the formatted markdown ``` ## Explanation The workflow consists of three jobs: `build`, `publish`, and `notify-discord`. * The `build` job runs on a Windows runner and performs the following steps: * Configures AWS credentials to download Binarize from a private S3 bucket. * You do not need to use an S3 bucket for Binarize. You can host it wherever you want, as long as the action can download it during the workflow. * Checks out the source code, including submodules. * We have a translations submodule, which is why we need to include submodules in the checkout step. If you don't have any submodules, you can delete ``` with: submodules: true ``` * Sets up HEMTT and Binarize. * Builds the mod using HEMTT. * Renames the build folder to `@Legion-Core` for Steam compatibility. * Uploads the built mod as an artifact for use in later jobs. * Our artifacts are ungodly large because we have a lot of p3d's, audio files, and other assets that are needed for the mod to function. If your mod is smaller, you will not experience as long of release times as we do. We have to use a Windows runner for the build job because Binarize is a Windows executable and HEMTT relies on it for packing the pbo files. I haven't tested this yet but if you don't need to binarize any files then you may be able to skip that step and use a Linux runner for the build job, which may speed up the workflow significantly. If you do need to use Binarize but want to use a Linux runner, you could look into using Wine to run Binarize on Linux, but I haven't tested this and can't guarantee it will work. * The `generate-steam-md` job runs on an Ubuntu runner and converts the release body markdown into a format suitable for Steam using a custom action. * The `publish` job depends on both the `build` and `generate-steam-md` jobs. It downloads the built mod artifact and uploads it to the Steam Workshop using another custom action `arma-actions/workshop-upload`. The changelog for the Steam upload is set to the formatted markdown from the previous job. You have to disable Steam Guard for the account you are using to upload to the Workshop. This is problematic because recent Steam Changes force workshop uploads to be friends-only if Steam Guard is disabled. We're currently working on a solution to this. An immediate solution would be to use another account with Steam Guard disabled that has access to the mod but does not own it. * The `notify-discord` job depends on the `publish` job and sends a notification to a Discord channel using a webhook, with the content set to the release body markdown. ![github action workflow run](https://1920332750-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FbhcmVZV7rvBPYuSMbc4u%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-9cc121d1d44368e30639b585ad5d58bd60733241%2Faction.png?alt=media) ## Secrets The workflow uses the following secrets, which need to be configured in the GitHub repository settings: * `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`: AWS access key ID for downloading Binarize from the S3 bucket. * Optional depending on how you choose to host the zip file. * `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`: AWS secret access key for downloading Binarize from the S3 bucket. * Optional depending on how you choose to host the zip file. * `STEAM_USERNAME`: Steam username for uploading to the Steam Workshop. * `STEAM_PASSWORD`: Steam password for uploading to the Steam Workshop. * `DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL`: Webhook URL for sending notifications to Discord. ## Notes * This workflow is incredibly slow for us as seen in the pictures because the free Github runners are not very powerful and our mod is quite large. If your mod is smaller, you will likely see much faster build and upload times. If you want to speed up the workflow, you can consider using self-hosted runners with more powerful hardware. If you look in the image below, you'll see we're not being billed for this compute time even though we ocasionally exhaust the free minutes. ![2025 usage stats](https://1920332750-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FbhcmVZV7rvBPYuSMbc4u%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-bd3feb8bc4769ea03d3f68cc89918160de407fcb%2Fusage.png?alt=media)