Variables

Environment variables

These environment variables are set automatically in every workflow run and can be accessed directly (e.g. $CI in shell scripts).

Name	Description	Example
CI	Always set to true.	true
GITEA_ACTIONS	Always set to true. Useful to distinguish Gitea Actions from other CI systems.	true
GITEA_ACTIONS_RUNNER_VERSION	The version of the runner executing the workflow.	1.0.8
GITEA_ENV GITHUB_ENV	Path to the file that sets environment variables for subsequent steps.	/home/runner/work/_temp/_runner_file_commands/set_env_***
GITEA_OUTPUT GITHUB_OUTPUT	Path to the file that sets step output parameters.	/home/runner/work/_temp/_runner_file_commands/set_output_***
GITEA_PATH GITHUB_PATH	Path to the file that adds system PATH entries for subsequent steps.	/home/runner/work/_temp/_runner_file_commands/add_path_***
GITEA_STATE GITHUB_STATE	Path to the file that sets step state variables.	/home/runner/work/_temp/_runner_file_commands/save_state_***
GITEA_STEP_SUMMARY GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY	Path to the file for writing job summaries.	/home/runner/work/_temp/_runner_file_commands/step_summary_***
GITHUB_ACTIONS	Always set to true.	true
GITHUB_ACTION	The name of the action currently running, or the step id.	__run
GITHUB_ACTION_PATH	The path where the action is located.	/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/checkout/v4
GITHUB_ACTION_REF	The ref of the action being executed.	v4
GITHUB_ACTION_REPOSITORY	The owner and repository of the action.	actions/checkout
GITHUB_ACTOR	The username of the user that triggered the workflow.	silverwind
GITHUB_API_URL	The URL of the REST API.	https://gitea.com/api/v1
GITHUB_BASE_REF	The target branch of a pull request.	main
GITHUB_EVENT_NAME	The name of the event that triggered the workflow.	push
GITHUB_EVENT_PATH	Path to the file containing the event webhook payload.	/home/runner/work/_temp/_github_workflow/event.json
GITHUB_GRAPHQL_URL	Empty in Gitea (GraphQL is not supported).	(empty)
GITHUB_HEAD_REF	The source branch of a pull request.	feature-branch
GITHUB_JOB	The job_id of the current job.	build
GITHUB_REF	The fully-formed ref that triggered the workflow.	refs/heads/main
GITHUB_REF_NAME	The short ref name.	main
GITHUB_REF_TYPE	The type of ref: branch or tag.	branch
GITHUB_REPOSITORY	The owner and repository name.	gitea/docs
GITHUB_REPOSITORY_OWNER	The repository owner’s username.	gitea
GITHUB_RETENTION_DAYS	The number of days that workflow run logs and artifacts are kept.	90
GITHUB_RUN_ATTEMPT	The attempt number of the workflow run.	1
GITHUB_RUN_ID	A unique number for each workflow run.	1234
GITHUB_RUN_NUMBER	A unique number for each run of a particular workflow.	42
GITHUB_SERVER_URL	The URL of the Gitea instance.	https://gitea.com
GITHUB_SHA	The commit SHA that triggered the workflow.	a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2
GITHUB_WORKFLOW	The name of the workflow.	CI
GITHUB_WORKSPACE	The default working directory on the runner.	/workspace/gitea/docs

Runner environment variables

Name	Description	Example
RUNNER_ARCH	The architecture of the runner.	X64
RUNNER_OS	The operating system of the runner.	Linux
RUNNER_TEMP	Path to a temporary directory on the runner.	/tmp
RUNNER_TOOL_CACHE	Path to the tool cache directory on the runner.	/opt/hostedtoolcache

Internal environment variables

These are used internally by the runner and actions. They are typically not needed in workflows directly.

Name	Description	Example
ACTIONS_CACHE_URL	URL for the actions cache service.	http://192.168.1.10:8088/
ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_TOKEN	Token for OIDC requests. Only set when configured.	***
ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_URL	URL to request OIDC tokens. Only set when configured.	https://gitea.com/login/oauth/access_token
ACTIONS_RESULTS_URL	URL for storing artifacts.	https://gitea.com
ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN	Authentication token for the Actions pipeline API.	***
ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL	URL for the Gitea Actions pipeline API.	https://gitea.com/api/actions_pipeline/

Context variables

These variables are available in workflow expressions via ${{ gitea.<name> }}. For compatibility, ${{ github.<name> }} works as an alias.

Name	Description	Example
gitea.action github.action	The name of the action currently running, or the id of a step.	__run
gitea.action_path github.action_path	The path where an action is located. Only supported in composite actions.	/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/checkout/v4
gitea.action_ref github.action_ref	The ref of the action being executed.	v4
gitea.action_repository github.action_repository	The owner and repository name of the action.	actions/checkout
gitea.action_status github.action_status	The current result of a composite action.	success
gitea.actor github.actor	The username of the user that triggered the initial workflow run.	silverwind
gitea.api_url github.api_url	The URL of the REST API.	https://gitea.com/api/v1
gitea.base_ref github.base_ref	The target branch of a pull request. Only set for pull_request and pull_request_target events.	main
gitea.env github.env	Path on the runner to the file that sets environment variables from workflow commands. Unique to each step.	/home/runner/work/_temp/_runner_file_commands/set_env_***
gitea.event github.event	The full event webhook payload as an object. See Event payload.	{...}
gitea.event_name github.event_name	The name of the event that triggered the workflow run.	push
gitea.event_path github.event_path	Path on the runner to the file containing the full event webhook payload.	/home/runner/work/_temp/_github_workflow/event.json
gitea.head_ref github.head_ref	The source branch of a pull request. Only set for pull_request and pull_request_target events.	feature-branch
gitea.job github.job	The job_id of the current job.	build
gitea.ref github.ref	The fully-formed ref that triggered the workflow.	refs/heads/main
gitea.ref_name github.ref_name	The short ref name.	main
gitea.ref_protected github.ref_protected	true if branch protections are configured for the ref that triggered the workflow run.	true
gitea.ref_type github.ref_type	The type of ref: branch or tag.	branch
gitea.path github.path	Path on the runner to the file that sets system PATH variables from workflow commands. Unique to each step.	/home/runner/work/_temp/_runner_file_commands/add_path_***
gitea.repository github.repository	The owner and repository name.	gitea/docs
gitea.repository_owner github.repository_owner	The repository owner’s username.	gitea
gitea.repositoryUrl github.repositoryUrl	The HTML URL to the repository.	https://gitea.com/gitea/docs
gitea.retention_days github.retention_days	The number of days that workflow run logs and artifacts are kept.	90
gitea.run_id github.run_id	A unique number for each workflow run within a repository. Does not change on re-run.	1234
gitea.run_number github.run_number	A unique number for each run of a particular workflow. Starts at 1 and increments with each new run.	42
gitea.run_attempt github.run_attempt	A unique number for each re-run attempt. Starts at 1 and increments with each re-run.	1
gitea.secret_source github.secret_source	The source of a secret used in a workflow. Always Actions in Gitea.	Actions
gitea.server_url github.server_url	The URL of the Gitea instance.	https://gitea.com
gitea.sha github.sha	The commit SHA that triggered the workflow.	a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2
gitea.token github.token	A token to authenticate on behalf of the Gitea App installed on the repository. See Token permissions.	ghs_***
gitea.triggering_actor github.triggering_actor	The username of the user that initiated the workflow run. May differ from actor on re-runs.	silverwind
gitea.workflow github.workflow	The name of the workflow. If unnamed, the full path of the workflow file.	CI
gitea.workspace github.workspace	The default working directory on the runner and the default location of your repository when using the checkout action.	/workspace/gitea/docs
gitea.gitea_default_actions_url	The default URL for downloading actions. Gitea-specific.	https://github.com

Event payload

gitea.event is the webhook payload of the event that triggered the run, so which fields exist depends on gitea.event_name. The same payload is written as JSON to the file at gitea.event_path.

Payloads use Gitea’s webhook format, which is close to GitHub’s but not identical. Differences are noted below. Reading a field that the payload does not have returns an empty value instead of failing, so ${{ gitea.event.pull_request.number }} is empty on a push run.

These fields exist in almost every payload:

Name	Description	Example
gitea.event.action	The activity type. Only set for events that have activity types, see supported events.	opened
gitea.event.repository.full_name	The owner and name of the repository.	gitea/docs
gitea.event.repository.default_branch	The default branch of the repository.	main
gitea.event.repository.private	Whether the repository is private.	false
gitea.event.repository.html_url	The HTML URL of the repository.	https://gitea.com/gitea/docs
gitea.event.sender.login	The username of the user that triggered the event. Also available as sender.username.	silverwind

The remaining fields are specific to one or a few events:

Name	Events	Description	Example
gitea.event.schedule	schedule	The cron expression that triggered the run.	*/5 * * * *
gitea.event.inputs.<name>	workflow_dispatch, workflow_call	A raw input value. Prefer ${{ inputs.<name> }}, which also applies the input’s default.	true
gitea.event.workflow	workflow_dispatch	The file name of the dispatched workflow.	ci.yaml
gitea.event.ref	push, create, delete, workflow_dispatch	The ref of the event. Unlike GitHub, create and delete use the full ref instead of the short name.	refs/heads/main
gitea.event.ref_type	create, delete	The type of ref: branch or tag.	tag
gitea.event.before gitea.event.after	push	The commit SHA before and after the push.	a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2
gitea.event.commits	push	The commits contained in the push, each with id, message, url, author, added, removed and modified.	[{...}]
gitea.event.head_commit.message	push	The message of the most recent commit of the push.	fix: broken link
gitea.event.total_commits	push	The number of commits in the push. Gitea-specific.	3
gitea.event.compare_url	push	The URL comparing before with after. GitHub names this field compare.	https://gitea.com/gitea/docs/compare/a1b2c3d...e5f6a1b
gitea.event.pusher.login	push	The username of the user that pushed.	silverwind
gitea.event.forkee.full_name	fork	The owner and name of the new fork.	silverwind/docs
gitea.event.page	gollum	The name of the wiki page.	Home
gitea.event.number	issues, pull_request, pull_request_target, pull_request_review, pull_request_review_comment	The index of the issue or pull request. Not set for issue_comment, use gitea.event.issue.number there.	386
gitea.event.issue.number gitea.event.issue.title gitea.event.issue.body gitea.event.issue.state gitea.event.issue.labels gitea.event.issue.user.login	issues, issue_comment	The issue the event happened on.	Expand gitea.event in actions docs
gitea.event.comment.body	issue_comment	The body of the comment.	LGTM
gitea.event.is_pull	issue_comment	Whether the comment was made on a pull request. Gitea-specific, GitHub sets issue.pull_request on the issue object instead.	true
gitea.event.pull_request.number gitea.event.pull_request.title gitea.event.pull_request.body gitea.event.pull_request.draft gitea.event.pull_request.merged gitea.event.pull_request.state gitea.event.pull_request.labels gitea.event.pull_request.user.login	pull_request, pull_request_target, pull_request_review, pull_request_review_comment	The pull request the event happened on.	Add caching to CI
gitea.event.pull_request.head.ref gitea.event.pull_request.head.sha gitea.event.pull_request.head.repo.full_name	pull_request, pull_request_target, pull_request_review, pull_request_review_comment	The source branch of the pull request.	feature-branch
gitea.event.pull_request.base.ref gitea.event.pull_request.base.sha	pull_request, pull_request_target, pull_request_review, pull_request_review_comment	The target branch of the pull request.	main
gitea.event.review.type	pull_request_review, pull_request_review_comment	The kind of review: pull_request_review_approved, pull_request_review_rejected or pull_request_review_comment. GitHub uses review.state with the values approved, changes_requested and commented.	pull_request_review_approved
gitea.event.review.content	pull_request_review, pull_request_review_comment	The body of the review. GitHub names this field review.body.	Ship it
gitea.event.changes.title.from gitea.event.changes.body.from	issues, issue_comment, pull_request	The previous value. Only set when action is edited.	Old title
gitea.event.release.tag_name gitea.event.release.name gitea.event.release.body gitea.event.release.draft gitea.event.release.prerelease	release	The release the event happened on.	v1.2.3
gitea.event.package.name gitea.event.package.type gitea.event.package.version	registry_package	The package the event happened on.	gitea
gitea.event.workflow_run.id gitea.event.workflow_run.event gitea.event.workflow_run.status gitea.event.workflow_run.conclusion gitea.event.workflow_run.head_branch gitea.event.workflow_run.head_sha	workflow_run	The workflow run that the event reports on.	success

schedule runs have no webhook of their own. Their payload is the payload of the push that registered the schedule, with schedule, repository, sender and, for organization-owned repositories, organization filled in. Only those fields are meaningful, and sender.login is always gitea-actions.

User-defined variables

You can create configuration variables on the user, organization and repository level. The level of the variable depends on where you created it. When creating a variable, the key will be converted to uppercase. You need use uppercase on the yaml file.

Naming conventions

The following rules apply to variable names:

• Variable names can only contain alphanumeric characters ([a-z], [A-Z], [0-9]) or underscores (_). Spaces are not allowed.
• Variable names must not start with the GITHUB_ and GITEA_ prefix.
• Variable names must not start with a number.
• Variable names are case-insensitive.
• Variable names must be unique at the level they are created at.
• Variable names must not start with CI.

Using variables

After creating configuration variables, they will be automatically filled in the vars context. They can be accessed through expressions like ${{ vars.VARIABLE_NAME }} in the workflow.

Precedence

If a variable with the same name exists at multiple levels, the variable at the lowest level takes precedence: A repository variable will always be chosen over an organization/user variable.