How to Use GitHub Actions Importer to Migrate Pipelines

GitHub Actions Importer is a gh CLI extension that audits your existing CI and generates draft Actions workflows you review before committing.

Install the actions-importer gh extension, run audit to see how much converts automatically, then dry-run to generate draft workflows. It supports Jenkins, GitLab, CircleCI, Azure DevOps, Travis, and Bitbucket.

Concept mapping

Install and dry-run

gh extension install github/gh-actions-importer
gh actions-importer configure
gh actions-importer dry-run gitlab \
  --gitlab-url https://gitlab.example.com \
  --namespace my-group/my-project \
  --output-dir ./out

What does not map cleanly

• The importer converts the common cases; it marks unsupported items with TODO comments you must finish by hand.
• Custom plugins, orbs, and shared libraries usually need manual replacement.
• Always review the generated workflow; treat it as a draft, not a finished pipeline.

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