How to Deploy a Scheduled EventBridge Lambda With GitHub Actions

Update the function code, create or update an EventBridge schedule rule, and target the function with the right invoke permission.

After deploying code, define a schedule with aws events put-rule --schedule-expression, allow EventBridge to invoke the function with aws lambda add-permission, then attach the function as a target via put-targets.

Steps

Update the Lambda function code.
Create the rule with aws events put-rule --schedule-expression.
Grant invoke permission with aws lambda add-permission (idempotent statement id).
Attach the function with aws events put-targets.

Workflow

.github/workflows/deploy.yml

permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: zip -r function.zip index.js
      - uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4
        with:
          role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/gha-sched-deploy
          aws-region: us-east-1
      - run: |
          aws lambda update-function-code \
            --function-name nightly-job --zip-file fileb://function.zip
          aws events put-rule --name nightly \
            --schedule-expression 'cron(0 3 * * ? *)'
          aws lambda add-permission --function-name nightly-job \
            --statement-id nightly-evt --action lambda:InvokeFunction \
            --principal events.amazonaws.com \
            --source-arn arn:aws:events:us-east-1:123456789012:rule/nightly || true
          aws events put-targets --rule nightly \
            --targets 'Id=1,Arn=arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:123456789012:function:nightly-job'

Gotchas

EventBridge cron uses a 6-field expression with a ? in either day field, not standard 5-field cron.
add-permission fails if the statement id already exists; the || true keeps re-runs idempotent.

How to Deploy a Scheduled EventBridge Lambda With GitHub Actions

Steps

Workflow

Gotchas

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