How to Set a Global Environment Variable for the Whole Workflow in GitHub Actions

A top-level env: block sets variables visible to every job and step in the workflow.

Declare env: at the workflow root for variables shared everywhere, at the job level for one job, or at the step level for one step. Inner scopes override outer ones.

Steps

• Add a top-level env: map above jobs:.
• Reference $NAME or ${{ env.NAME }} anywhere in the workflow.
• Override per job or per step by declaring env: there.

Workflow

env:
  NODE_ENV: test
  CI: 'true'
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      LOG_LEVEL: debug
    steps:
      - run: echo "env=$NODE_ENV level=$LOG_LEVEL"

Gotchas

• Static env: cannot reference secrets; pass those via step env: instead.
• A value written to $GITHUB_ENV at runtime overrides the static env: for later steps.

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