Contexts

These are the contexts available in expressions. They are referenced using the $\{\{ context.key \}\} format.

vars

References variables configured at the organization, repository, or environment level. Use this to manage non-secret configuration values such as deployment environments, regions, and URLs.

env:
  # Reference variables configured at the organization/repository level
  DEPLOY_ENV: "${{ vars.DEPLOY_ENV }}"         # production, staging, etc.
  AWS_REGION: "${{ vars.AWS_REGION }}"         # ap-northeast-2
  SLACK_CHANNEL: "${{ vars.SLACK_CHANNEL }}"   # #deploy-notifications

env

References environment variables defined with env in the workflow from within expressions.

env:
  APP_NAME: my-app
  APP_VERSION: "1.0.0"

jobs:
  build:
    steps:
      - name: build-image
        run: |
          # Reference via $env.APP_NAME
          docker build -t ${{ env.APP_NAME }}:${{ env.APP_VERSION }} .

You can also access them as regular environment variables ($APP_NAME) inside run. Expressions (${{ env.APP_NAME }}) are substituted at the YAML level, while shell variables ($APP_NAME) are substituted at runtime.

collabops

A built-in context that is automatically provided when a workflow runs.

collabops Context Keys

Key	Type	Example	Description
`collabops.ref`	string	`refs/heads/main`	Full Git ref path
`collabops.ref_name`	string	`main`	Branch or tag name (without path prefix)
`collabops.ref_type`	string	`branch`	Ref type (`branch` or `tag`)
`collabops.sha`	string	`abc123def456...`	Full SHA of the triggered commit
`collabops.event_name`	string	`push`	Trigger event name (`push`, `change_request`, `schedule`, `workflow_dispatch`)
`collabops.actor`	string	`username`	User who triggered the workflow
`collabops.commit_message`	string	`fix: login bug`	Commit message of the trigger commit
`collabops.head_ref`	string	`feature/login`	Source (head) branch name of the CR (for `change_request` events)
`collabops.workspace_id`	string	`ws-abc123`	Workspace identifier
`collabops.repository_id`	string	`repo-def456`	Repository identifier

Usage Examples

jobs:
  build:
    steps:
      - name: checkout
        uses: "collabops/checkout@v2"
        with:
          repo-url: "https://<collabops-host>/<workspace>/<repository>.git"

      - name: tag-image
        run: |
          # Use the commit SHA as the image tag
          IMAGE_TAG="${{ collabops.sha }}"
          echo "Building image with tag: $IMAGE_TAG"

          # Branch name based logic
          echo "Branch: ${{ collabops.ref_name }}"
          echo "Event: ${{ collabops.event_name }}"
          echo "Actor: ${{ collabops.actor }}"

Using in Conditional Execution

jobs:
  deploy-prod:
    # Deploy to production only on push to the main branch
    if: "collabops.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && collabops.event_name == 'push'"
    steps: [...]

  deploy-staging:
    # Deploy to staging on the develop branch or on CR events
    if: "collabops.ref_name == 'develop' || collabops.event_name == 'change_request'"
    steps: [...]