How do I run my CI steps in a specific folder in github action

Question

I have a golang repo with a react client. I want to setup up CI using github actions for my client. The React client is inside the client folder in the workspace. I have written the following workflow

name : Node.js CI

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:

  build:
    name: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:

    - uses: actions/checkout@v2 
      with:
        path: client
    - name: Set up Node.js
      uses: actions/setup-node@v1
      with:
        node-version: 12.x

    - run: yarn install

    - run: yarn build

But on committing it shows the following error

 Run yarn build1s
##[error]Process completed with exit code 1.
Run yarn build
yarn run v1.21.1
error Couldn't find a package.json file in "/home/runner/work/evential/evential"
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/run for documentation about this command.
##[error]Process completed with exit code 1

The snippet

- uses: actions/checkout@v2 
      with:
        path: client

doesn't make the steps following run inside the client folder.

Need help. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can use the working-directory keyword in a run step. See the documentation here .

    - run: yarn install
      working-directory: client

    - run: yarn build
      working-directory: client

Answer 2

Assuming your repository structure looks like this:

.
├── README.md
├── client
│   └── ... # your source files
└── workflows
    └── example-ci.yml

You can also set the default working directory for multiple steps using:

defaults:
  run:
    working-directory: client # The working directory path

This way you don't need to specify it for each steps. You can also adjust the scope depending on where you put the above snippet, either for:

• All steps of all jobs: put it at the base of your workflow.
• All steps of one job: put it within the job in the jobs attribute of your workflow so it applies to the steps of that job.