The Complete Guide to GitHub Actions AI Automation

GitHub Actions can call any HTTP API — which means you can add AI to every stage of your workflow. Here's how to automate the repetitive text work in your PR process.

What You Can Automate

• PR descriptions: Generate a structured description from the diff on every PR open/update
• Code review: Score and comment on code quality on every push
• Commit messages: Suggest conventional commits via a pre-commit hook
• README updates: Re-generate docs on every merge to main

All of these use the same pattern: call Runcept, poll for result, use the output.

Setup

Add a single repo secret: Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New secret Name: RUNCEPT_API_KEY Value: your key from runcept.com/dashboard

Reusable Helper

This shell snippet handles the full async job cycle:

run_runcept_agent() {
  local agent="$1"
  local input="$2"

  RESPONSE=$(curl -sS -X POST https://www.runcept.com/api/v1/run \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNCEPT_API_KEY" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data-raw "{\"agent\": \"$agent\", \"input\": $input}")

  JOB_ID=$(echo $RESPONSE | jq -r '.job_id')

  for i in {1..25}; do
    sleep 4
    RESULT=$(curl -sS "https://www.runcept.com/api/v1/jobs/$JOB_ID" \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNCEPT_API_KEY")
    STATUS=$(echo $RESULT | jq -r '.status')
    if [ "$STATUS" = "complete" ]; then echo $RESULT; return 0; fi
    if [ "$STATUS" = "failed" ]; then echo "Agent failed" >&2; return 1; fi
  done

  echo "Timeout" >&2 && return 1
}

PR Description Workflow

# .github/workflows/pr-description.yml
name: AI PR Description
on:
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize]

jobs:
  describe:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      pull-requests: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Generate and post PR description
        env:
          RUNCEPT_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.RUNCEPT_API_KEY }}
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
        run: |
          DIFF=$(git diff origin/${{ github.base_ref }}...HEAD | head -c 8000)
          INPUT=$(jq -n --arg diff "$DIFF" '{"diff": $diff}')

          RESULT=$(curl -sS -X POST https://www.runcept.com/api/v1/run \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNCEPT_API_KEY" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            -d "{\"agent\": \"pr-description\", \"input\": $INPUT}")
          JOB_ID=$(echo $RESULT | jq -r '.job_id')

          for i in {1..20}; do
            sleep 4
            JOB=$(curl -sS "https://www.runcept.com/api/v1/jobs/$JOB_ID" \
              -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNCEPT_API_KEY")
            if [ "$(echo $JOB | jq -r '.status')" = "complete" ]; then
              DESC=$(echo $JOB | jq -r '.output.description')
              gh pr edit ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} --body "$DESC"
              break
            fi
          done

Code Review Workflow

# .github/workflows/code-review.yml
name: AI Code Review
on: [pull_request]

jobs:
  review:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Review and gate
        env:
          RUNCEPT_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.RUNCEPT_API_KEY }}
        run: |
          DIFF=$(git diff origin/${{ github.base_ref }}...HEAD | head -c 10000)
          INPUT=$(jq -n --arg diff "$DIFF" '{"diff": $diff}')

          RESULT=$(curl -sS -X POST https://www.runcept.com/api/v1/run \
            -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNCEPT_API_KEY" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            -d "{\"agent\": \"code-reviewer\", \"input\": $INPUT}")
          JOB_ID=$(echo $RESULT | jq -r '.job_id')

          for i in {1..20}; do
            sleep 4
            JOB=$(curl -sS "https://www.runcept.com/api/v1/jobs/$JOB_ID" \
              -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNCEPT_API_KEY")
            if [ "$(echo $JOB | jq -r '.status')" = "complete" ]; then
              SCORE=$(echo $JOB | jq -r '.output.score')
              echo "Code quality score: $SCORE"
              [ "$SCORE" -ge 65 ] || (echo "Score below threshold" && exit 1)
              break
            fi
          done

Running Both in Parallel

jobs:
  describe:
    # PR description job
  review:
    # Code review job
    # Both start simultaneously — no 'needs' dependency

Next Steps

• PR descriptions detailed guide
• Code review CI guide
• Browse all code agents