GitHub Action¶

Run Bernstein from GitHub Actions to orchestrate coding agents in CI.

Quick setup¶

Add a step that uses this action with task: fix-ci, set the appropriate API key secret, and you're done. When CI fails on your default branch, Bernstein will attempt to fix it automatically.

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: sipyourdrink-ltd/bernstein@v4
  with:
    task: "fix-ci"
  env:
    ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}

Inputs¶

Outputs¶

Modes¶

Fix-CI mode (task: fix-ci)¶

When task is the literal string "fix-ci", the action:

1. Downloads failed job logs from the triggering workflow run (via gh run view --log-failed).
2. Passes the logs as context to bernstein -g "<goal>" --headless.
3. Retries up to max-retries times if the fix attempt fails.
4. Commits and pushes any resulting changes.

This mode is designed for workflow_run triggers so it can react to CI failures from another workflow.

Plan mode (plan: <path>)¶

When plan is set instead of task, the action runs:

bernstein run <plan> --budget <budget> --quiet

--quiet is what makes this mode usable in CI. The run subcommand renders a dashboard on a TTY and otherwise detaches, leaving the run going in the background; --quiet instead waits for the run to reach a terminal state and prints only the final summary. The step therefore blocks until the run really finishes, its exit code reflects the run's outcome rather than whether the launch succeeded, and .sdd/run-summary.json exists by the time the step reads it for the tasks-completed and total-cost outputs.

Note that --headless is an option of the root bernstein group, not of bernstein run. Passing it after the run subcommand makes the CLI exit 2 at option parsing without starting anything.

Normal mode¶

When task is anything other than "fix-ci", the action runs:

bernstein -g "<task>" --budget <budget> --headless

Use this for ad-hoc tasks like generating tests, refactoring, or applying a migration.

Example - run a task on push:

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  update-docs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: sipyourdrink-ltd/bernstein@v4
        with:
          task: "Update API docs to match current source"
          budget: "2.00"
        env:
          ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}

Required secrets¶

The action needs an API key for whichever agent CLI you use:

Set the secret in your repo settings under Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions.

How it works¶

The action is a composite action (action.yml + action/entrypoint.sh). Steps:

1. Install Python and uv.
2. Install bernstein via uv tool install bernstein.
3. Create a minimal bernstein.yaml if one doesn't exist.
4. Run bernstein in headless mode with the specified task and budget.
5. If any files changed, commit and push them.

Limitations¶

• Agent CLI must be available. The action installs bernstein, but selected CLIs still need to be available/authenticated for your chosen mode.
• Budget is advisory. The budget cap relies on bernstein's cost tracking, which depends on the agent CLI reporting costs accurately.
• Fix-CI mode is best-effort. Complex failures (infra issues, flaky tests, missing credentials) may not be fixable by an agent.
• Concurrency. The example workflow uses concurrency to prevent multiple fix attempts from racing. If you run bernstein in other workflows, consider adding similar guards.
• Permissions. The action needs contents: write to push commits and actions: read to download workflow logs in fix-ci mode.