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Chapter 04 · Section IV · 10 min read

4.4 GitHub Actions: @claude, workflows, env

Wire Claude Code into your CI: the @claude mention in PRs, the workflow YAML shape, and how secrets and env vars flow into the job.

The GitHub Actions integration is Claude Code’s answer to “how do I run this in CI, on PRs, on issues, without maintaining bespoke shell glue?” It ships as a reusable action that responds to @claude mentions or fires on standard events, with a small YAML surface.

The @claude mention

The most common shape: a workflow that watches for @claude in PR comments and reviews.

# .github/workflows/claude.yml
name: Claude
on:
  issue_comment:
    types: [created]
  pull_request_review_comment:
    types: [created]
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize]

jobs:
  claude:
    if: contains(github.event.comment.body, '@claude') || github.event_name == 'pull_request'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
      pull-requests: write
      issues: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
        with:
          anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}

The action reads the mention, opens Claude Code inside the workflow’s workspace, and responds — comments back on the PR, opens sub-PRs, or performs whatever action was asked for.

The workflow-level env

For anything beyond the vanilla example, you will want to pass config through env:

      - uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
        with:
          anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
          model: claude-opus-4-7
          permission_mode: acceptEdits
          additional_directories: |
            packages/shared
            docs
        env:
          MY_INTERNAL_API: ${{ secrets.MY_INTERNAL_API }}
  • with: — inputs to the action itself.
  • env: — regular workflow env, available to any Bash tool Claude runs.

Permissions on the GitHub token

The action needs a token scoped for whatever it should be able to do:

    permissions:
      contents: write        # push commits, open PRs
      pull-requests: write   # comment on PRs, edit descriptions
      issues: write          # comment on issues

Do not over-grant. If Claude only comments, do not give contents: write.

Scheduled runs

The action is not limited to comment triggers. Schedule Claude to run periodic tasks:

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 9 * * 1'  # Monday 9am UTC

Combined with a prompt file, this lets you run a weekly digest, an audit, or a health check without a human trigger.

Check your understanding

Quick check

—

You configure the Claude Code GitHub Action to comment on PRs. You forget to grant `permissions.pull-requests: write`. What happens?