Portainer Stack Deploy Action

• Features
• Inputs
• Outputs
• Examples
• Troubleshooting
• Tags
• Support
• Contributing

Deploy, Update or Create a Portainer Stack from a Repository or Compose File. Supports both Swarm and Standalone Docker deployments for Portainer Community and Business Enterprise Edition. Includes most features including file or repo deploy, deploy from other repo, custom headers, and much more...

This action is written from the ground up in Vanilla JavaScript and is not a fork/clone of existing actions. You can view an Action Comparison of all available actions on the website.

Tip

▶️ View the Getting Started Guide on the website.

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    name: stack-name
    file: docker-compose.yaml
    url: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_URL }}
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}

Make sure to review the Inputs and checkout additional Examples.

This is a fairly simple action, for more details see src/index.js and src/portainer.js.

No Portainer? You can deploy directly to Docker Swarm or Compose over SSH with: cssnr/stack-deploy-action or cssnr/docker-context-action.

Features

• Deploy or re-deploy an existing stack otherwise create a new stack.
• Deploy from a repository or a compose file, see type.
• Deploy from a different repo than the current one.
• Provide environment variables in JSON/YAML or file format.
• Automatically parse Endpoint ID if only one endpoint.
• Supports Docker Swarm and Docker Standalone.
• Supports custom headers for services like Cloudflare Zero Trust.
• To view all features see the Inputs Documentation.

You can get started here or view workflow examples.

Inputs

Important

Visit the Documentation Site for comprehensive, up-to-date documentation.

Input	Default Value	Description of the Input
name	Required	Stack Name ⤵️
url	Required	Portainer URL ⤵️
token	Required	Portainer Token ⤵️
file	docker-compose.yaml	Compose File ⤵️
endpoint	endpoints[0].Id	Portainer Endpoint ⤵️
ref	current reference	Repository Ref ⤵️
repo	current repository	Repository URL ⤵️
tlsskip	false	Skip Repo TLS Verify
prune	true	Prune Services
pull	true	Pull Images
type	repo	Type [repo, file] ⤵️
standalone	false	Deploy Standalone Stack
env_data	-	Env JSON/YAML Data ⤵️
env_json	DEPRECATED	This has changed to env_data
env_file	-	Dotenv File Path ⤵️
merge_env	false	Merge Env Vars ⤵️
username	-	Repository Username ⤵️
password	-	Repository Password ⤵️
fs_path	-	Relative Path (BE) ⤵️
headers	-	Custom Headers JSON/YAML ⤵️
summary	true	Add Summary to Job ⤵️

For more details, see the Inputs Documentation and Portainer API Documentation.

name

Swarm sack name or Compose project name.

Example: cool-stack

url

Portainer URL.

This is the base url to your Portainer instance.

Example: https://portainer.example.com:9443

token

Portainer API token.

For Instructions to create an API token visit: https://docs.portainer.io/api/access

file

The Docker compose file. This path is relative to your working directory.

If you check out your repository to the root, and the compose file is called docker-compose.yaml, and is in the app directory, set file to: app/docker-compose.yaml

Default: docker-compose.yaml

endpoint

If endpoint is not provided the first endpoint returned by the API will be used. If you only have one endpoint, this will work as expected, otherwise, you should provide an endpoint.

Example: 1

Default: ${endpoints[0]}

ref

This defaults to the reference that triggered the workflow.

If deploying from a different repository than the current one, you may want to specify the ref of that repository to deploy from.

Example: refs/heads/master

Default: ${{ github.ref }}

repo

This defaults to the repository running the action.

If you want to deploy a different repository, put the full http URL to that repository.

Example: https://github.com/cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action

Default: ${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}

tlsskip

Skips SSL verification when cloning the Git repository. Set to true to enable.

Default: false

prune

Prune services that are no longer referenced (only available for Swarm stacks). Set to false to disable.

Default: true

pull

Pull latest image before deploy. Set to false to disable.

Default: true

type

Type of Deployment. Supports either repo or file.

Default: repo

standalone

Deploy a compose stack instead of swarm. Set to true to enable.

Default: false

env_data

Optional environment variables used when creating the stack.

These can be provided in JSON or YAML format and can be used with env_file. Values in env_file take precedence over these values.

👀 View Example JSON/YAML Data Format

These examples are identical, just different ways of passing the input.

data: |
  {
    "key1": "value1",
    "key2": "value2"
  }

data: |
  key1: value1
  key2: value2

Warning

Inputs are NOT secure unless using secrets or secure output. Using env_data on a public repository will otherwise expose this data. To securely pass an environment use the env_file option.

env_file

Environment File in dotenv format, parsed using dotenv.

This can be used with env_data. Values in this file take precedence over env_data.

👀 View Environment File Example

- uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    env_file: .env

KEY="Value"
KEY_2="Value 2"

Note: Additional inputs are excluded for brevity.

merge_env

Set this to true to merge the current environment variables from the existing stack with any newly provided variables in the env_data or env_file inputs.

When not providing the env_data or env_file inputs the current environment variables from the existing stack are always used.

When deploying a new stack, there are no current environment variables to merge, and this has no effect.

Default: false

username/password

Username for private repository authentication when type is set to repo.

This is NOT your Portainer username, see token for Portainer authentication.

fs_path

Relative Path Support for Portainer BE. Set this to enable relative path volumes support for volume mappings in your compose file.

For more info see the Portainer Documentation - Relative Path Support.

headers

Custom Headers in JSON or YAML format for services like Cloudflare Zero Trust.

The headers are parsed with JSON.parse or yaml.load and passed directly to axios.

👀 View Custom Headers Example

YAML

- uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    env_data: |
      CF-Access-Client-Id: ${{ secrets.CF_CLIENT_ID }}
      CF-Access-Client-Secret: ${{ secrets.CF_CLIENT_SECRET }}

Multi-Line JSON

- uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    env_data: |
      {
        "CF-Access-Client-Id": "${{ secrets.CF_CLIENT_ID }}",
        "CF-Access-Client-Secret": "${{ secrets.CF_CLIENT_SECRET }}"
      }

toJSON Output

- uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    env_data: ${{ toJSON(steps.import-secrets.outputs) }}

summary

Write a Summary for the job. To disable this set to false.

To view a workflow run, click on a recent Test job (requires login).

👀 View Example Job Summary

---

🎉 Created New Stack 112: test_portainer-stack-deploy

Stack Details

Item	Value
ID	112
Name	test_portainer-stack-deploy
File	docker-compose.yml
Type	Swarm
Status	Active
Created	2/28/2025, 3:09:16 AM
Updated	-
Path	/data/compose/112
EndpointID	1
SwarmID	wr8i8agdr05n6wsf1tkcnhwik

---

Tip

View the Inputs Documentation for more details.

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
    url: https://portainer.example.com:9443
    name: stack-name
    file: docker-compose.yaml

Outputs

Output	Output Description
stackID	Resulting Stack ID
swarmID	Resulting Swarm ID
endpointID	Endpoint ID

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  id: stack
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
    url: https://portainer.example.com:9443
    name: stack-name

- name: 'Echo Output'
  run: |
    echo "stackID: '${{ steps.stack.outputs.stackID }}'"
    echo "swarmID: '${{ steps.stack.outputs.swarmID }}'"
    echo "endpointID: '${{ steps.stack.outputs.endpointID }}'"

Examples

View more Examples on the website.

💡 Click on an example heading to expand or collapse the example.

Deploy from a compose file

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
    url: https://portainer.example.com:9443
    name: stack-name
    file: docker-compose.yaml
    type: file

Deploy from the repository

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
    url: https://portainer.example.com:9443
    name: stack-name
    file: docker-compose.yaml

Deploy from a different repository

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
    url: https://portainer.example.com:9443
    name: stack-name
    file: docker-compose.yaml
    repo: https://github.com/user/some-other-repo
    ref: refs/heads/master

Specify environment variables

You can use env_data, env_file, or both.

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
    url: https://portainer.example.com:9443
    name: stack-name
    file: docker-compose.yaml
    type: file
    env_data: '{"KEY": "Value"}'
    env_file: .env

Merging existing environment variables

This will add the provided variables to the existing stack variables.

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
    url: https://portainer.example.com:9443
    name: stack-name
    file: docker-compose.yaml
    type: file
    env_data: |
      KEY: Value
    merge_env: true

Multiline JSON data input

Note: Secrets are secure in this context.

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
    url: https://portainer.example.com:9443
    name: stack-name
    file: docker-compose.yaml
    type: file
    env_data: |
      {
        "APP_PRIVATE_KEY": "${{ secrets.APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}",
        "VERSION": "${{ inputs.VERSION }}"
      }

Only run on release events

This is accomplished by adding an if to the step.

• if: ${{ github.event_name == 'release' }}

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  if: ${{ github.event_name == 'release' }}
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
    url: https://portainer.example.com:9443
    name: stack-name
    file: docker-compose.yaml

Deploy with relative path volumes

Portainer Business Edition Only.

- name: 'Portainer Deploy'
  uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
  with:
    token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
    url: https://portainer.example.com:9443
    name: stack-name
    file: docker-compose.yaml
    fs_path: /mnt

Full build and deploy workflow

This example builds an image, pushes to a registry, then deploys to Portainer.

name: 'Portainer Stack Deploy'

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      tags:
        description: 'Tags: comma,separated'
        required: true
        default: 'latest'

env:
  REGISTRY: 'ghcr.io'

permissions:
  contents: read

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  build:
  name: 'Build'
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  timeout-minutes: 15
  permissions:
    packages: write

  steps:
    - name: 'Checkout'
      uses: actions/checkout@v5

    - name: 'Setup Buildx'
      uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3
      with:
        platforms: 'linux/amd64,linux/arm64'

    - name: 'Docker Login'
      uses: docker/login-action@v3
      with:
        registry: $${{ env.REGISTRY }}
        username: ${{ secrets.GHCR_USER }}
        password: ${{ secrets.GHCR_PASS }}

    - name: 'Generate Tags'
      id: tags
      uses: cssnr/docker-tags-action@v1
      with:
        images: $${{ env.REGISTRY }}/${{ github.repository }}
        tags: ${{ inputs.tags }}

    - name: 'Build and Push'
      uses: docker/build-push-action@v6
      with:
        context: .
        platforms: 'linux/amd64,linux/arm64'
        push: true
        tags: ${{ steps.tags.outputs.tags }}
        labels: ${{ steps.tags.outputs.labels }}

  deploy:
    name: 'Deploy'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 5
    needs: build

    steps:
      - name: 'Checkout'
        uses: actions/checkout@v5

      - name: 'Portainer Deploy'
        uses: cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action@v1
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.PORTAINER_TOKEN }}
          url: https://portainer.example.com
          name: stack-name
          file: docker-compose-swarm.yaml

  cleanup:
    name: 'Cleanup'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 5
    needs: deploy

    steps:
      - name: 'Purge Cache'
        uses: cssnr/cloudflare-purge-cache-action@v2
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN }}
          zones: cssnr.com

For more examples, you can check out other projects using this action:
https://github.com/cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action/network/dependents

Troubleshooting

• No such image: ghcr.io/user/repo-name:tag

Make sure your package is not private. If you intend to use a private package, then:
Go to Portainer Registries: https://portainer.example.com/#!/registries/new
Choose Custom registry, set ghcr.io for Registry URL, enable authentication, and add your username/token.

• Error: Resource not accessible by integration

Only applies to build-push-action or bake-action type actions, not this action.
Permissions can be added on the job or step level with:

permissions:
  packages: write

Permissions documentation for Workflows and Actions.

Tags

The following rolling tags are maintained.

Version Tag	Rolling	Bugs	Feat.	Name	Target	Example
	✅	✅	✅	Major	vN.x.x	vN
	✅	✅	❌	Minor	vN.N.x	vN.N
	❌	❌	❌	Micro	vN.N.N	vN.N.N

You can view the release notes for each version on the releases page.

The Major tag is recommended. It is the most up-to-date and always backwards compatible. Breaking changes would result in a Major version bump. At a minimum you should use a Minor tag.

Support

For general help or to request a feature, see:

• Q&A Discussion: https://github.com/cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action/discussions/categories/q-a
• Request a Feature: https://github.com/cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action/discussions/categories/feature-requests

If you are experiencing an issue/bug or getting unexpected results, you can:

• Report an Issue: https://github.com/cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-action/issues
• Chat with us on Discord: https://discord.gg/wXy6m2X8wY
• Provide General Feedback: https://cssnr.github.io/feedback/

For more information, see the CSSNR SUPPORT.md.

Contributing

Contributions of all kinds are welcome, including updating this README.md. If you would like to submit a PR, please review the CONTRIBUTING.md.

To contribute to the documentation site go to cssnr/portainer-stack-deploy-docs.

Please consider making a donation to support the development of this project and additional open source projects.

Additionally, you can support other GitHub Actions I have published:

• Stack Deploy Action
• Portainer Stack Deploy Action
• Docker Context Action
• Actions Up Action
• VirusTotal Action
• Mirror Repository Action
• Update Version Tags Action
• Docker Tags Action
• Update JSON Value Action
• JSON Key Value Check Action
• Parse Issue Form Action
• Cloudflare Purge Cache Action
• Mozilla Addon Update Action
• Package Changelog Action
• NPM Outdated Check Action
• Label Creator Action
• Algolia Crawler Action
• Upload Release Action
• Check Build Action
• Web Request Action
• Get Commit Action

❔ Unpublished Actions

These actions are not published on the Marketplace, but may be useful.

• cssnr/create-files-action - Create various files from templates.
• cssnr/draft-release-action - Keep a draft release ready to publish.
• cssnr/env-json-action - Convert env file to json or vice versa.
• cssnr/push-artifacts-action - Sync files to a remote host with rsync.
• smashedr/update-release-notes-action - Update release notes.
• smashedr/combine-release-notes-action - Combine release notes.

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📝 Template Actions

These are basic action templates that I use for creating new actions.

• js-test-action - JavaScript
• py-test-action - Python
• ts-test-action - TypeScript
• docker-test-action - Docker Image

Note: The docker-test-action builds, runs and pushes images to GitHub Container Registry.

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For a full list of current projects visit: https://cssnr.github.io/