What Is GITHUB_REF_NAME?

GITHUB_REF_NAME is the short, human-friendly name of the branch or tag that triggered the run.

Where GITHUB_REF is the full ref, GITHUB_REF_NAME strips the prefix and gives you just main, feature/login, or v1.2.0 - what you usually want for naming and conditionals.

Common uses

Deploy only when the ref name is main
Name a release after the tag
Slugify the branch for a preview URL

Example

Gate a deploy job on the branch name.

yaml

if: ${{ github.ref_name == 'main' }}

Key takeaways

GITHUB_REF_NAME is the short branch/tag name.
It drops the refs/heads or refs/tags prefix.
Ideal for conditionals and naming.

Related guides

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