Tool Open source
actions/checkout is a GitHub Actions action that checks a repository out into the workflow’s `$GITHUB_WORKSPACE` directory for use by subsequent steps. It can select a repository and ref, perform shallow or complete-history fetches, sparse or partial checkouts, and fetch submodules, Git LFS files, tags, and authenticated content. By default, it fetches only the commit for the event’s triggering ref or SHA; `fetch-depth: 0` retrieves all branches and tags. Authentication can use a token or SSH key configured in the local Git configuration and removed during post-job cleanup; recent releases store persisted credentials in a separate file under `$RUNNER_TEMP`. If Git 2.18 or newer is unavailable, the action falls back to the GitHub REST API to download files.
Checkout v7 migrates the action to ESM, updates direct and transitive dependencies, and refuses fork pull-request code by default for workflows triggered by `pull_request_target` or `workflow_run`, which have access to the base repository’s token, secrets, and runner. Reviewed exceptions can opt in with `allow-unsafe-pr-checkout: true`.
1 use taken from transcripts — each links to the moment in the video.
A GitHub Actions step that checks a repository out into a workflow workspace for later steps to use. It supports options including full, sparse, and partial history, submodules, Git LFS, multiple repositories, and credential cleanup.
1 in the library.