#2 Git Automate email event Processing

Automate Email-Like Event Processing with Git Actions

Automating tasks based on incoming communications is a powerful way to streamline workflows. While directly "reading" a live email inbox with Git Actions is not straightforward due to security and architectural considerations, we can effectively process email-like events by simulating their arrival and then applying Git Actions' automation capabilities.

This tutorial will show you how to set up a Git Action workflow that:

1. Accepts "email" details as input.
2. Parses and processes these details.
3. Performs conditional actions based on the "email" content.

Let's get started!

Module 1: Setting up an Email Event Processor Workflow

In this module, we'll create a basic Git Action workflow that simulates receiving an email. We'll use workflow_dispatch to allow manual triggering and define inputs for the "email's" subject, sender, and body.

Key Concepts:

• workflow_dispatch with inputs: This trigger allows you to manually run a workflow from the GitHub Actions tab and pass custom input parameters. This is perfect for simulating incoming email data.
• github.event.inputs: This context object allows your workflow to access the values provided through the workflow_dispatch trigger.

Steps:

1. Create the Workflow File: In your repository, create a directory named .github/workflows if it doesn't exist. Inside it, create a new file named process-email-event.yml.
2. Add Workflow Content: Paste the following YAML into process-email-event.yml:

process-email-event.yml (Module 1)

name: Process Email Event

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      sender_email:
        description: 'Sender Email Address'
        required: true
        default: 'noreply@example.com'
      subject:
        description: 'Email Subject'
        required: true
        default: 'Automated Report'
      body_content:
        description: 'Email Body Content (first few lines)'
        required: false
        type: string
        default: 'This is an automated report from our system.'
jobs:
  log_email_details:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Log Incoming Email Details
        run: |
          echo "--- Incoming Email Event ---"
          echo "Sender: ${{ github.event.inputs.sender_email }}"
          echo "Subject: ${{ github.event.inputs.subject }}"
          echo "Body Preview: ${{ github.event.inputs.body_content }}"
          echo "----------------------------"
            

3. Commit and Push: Commit this file to your repository and push it to GitHub.

Expected Outcome:

Navigate to the "Actions" tab in your GitHub repository. You should now see a workflow named "Process Email Event" with a "Run workflow" button. Click this button, and you'll see a form where you can input values for sender_email, subject, and body_content. Fill them out and run the workflow. The output in the log_email_details job will display the information you entered.

---

Module 2: Conditional Actions Based on Email Content

Now that we can "receive" email details, let's make our workflow smarter by performing different actions based on the subject or sender of the "email." We'll use conditional logic (if statements) in our job steps.

Key Concepts:

• if conditions: You can apply if conditions to individual steps or entire jobs to control when they run. These conditions use GitHub's expression syntax.
• String manipulation: You can use functions like contains(), startsWith(), endsWith(), equals() to check for specific text within your inputs.

Steps:

1. Modify process-email-event.yml: Update your existing workflow file as follows:

process-email-event.yml (Module 2 Update)

name: Process Email Event

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      sender_email:
        description: 'Sender Email Address'
        required: true
        default: 'noreply@example.com'
      subject:
        description: 'Email Subject'
        required: true
        default: 'Automated Report'
      body_content:
        description: 'Email Body Content (first few lines)'
        required: false
        type: string
        default: 'This is an automated report from our system.'
jobs:
  log_email_details:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Log Incoming Email Details
        run: |
          echo "--- Incoming Email Event ---"
          echo "Sender: ${{ github.event.inputs.sender_email }}"
          echo "Subject: ${{ github.event.inputs.subject }}"
          echo "Body Preview: ${{ github.event.inputs.body_content }}"
          echo "----------------------------"
      - name: Handle Critical Alert (if subject contains 'Critical')
        if: contains(github.event.inputs.subject, 'Critical')
        run: |
          echo "!!! CRITICAL ALERT DETECTED !!!"
          echo "Triggering high-priority notification..."
          # In a real scenario, this could trigger a Slack alert, PagerDuty, etc.

      - name: Process Support Request (if sender is 'support@example.com')
        if: github.event.inputs.sender_email == 'support@example.com'
        run: |
          echo "New Support Request from support@example.com"
          echo "Logging details to a specific support channel..."
          # This could post to a CRM, create a GitHub Issue, etc.

      - name: Acknowledge General Email
        if: ${{ !contains(github.event.inputs.subject, 'Critical') && github.event.inputs.sender_email != 'support@example.com' }}
        run: |
          echo "Received a general email, acknowledging..."
          # This might trigger a generic response or simply log.
            

2. Commit and Push: Commit and push these changes.

Expected Outcome:

Run the workflow manually multiple times with different inputs:

• Scenario 1: Subject: Critical System Failure → You should see both "Log Incoming Email Details" and "Handle Critical Alert" steps run.
• Scenario 2: Sender Email Address: support@example.com → You should see "Log Incoming Email Details" and "Process Support Request" steps run.
• Scenario 3: Subject: Daily Report, Sender Email Address: analytics@example.com → Only "Log Incoming Email Details" and "Acknowledge General Email" should run.

This demonstrates how you can create branching logic in your automation based on the parsed "email" content.

---

Module 3: Simulating External Integration (Sending "Responses")

Finally, let's explore how our email processing workflow could trigger external actions or "send" a response. Since Git Actions cannot directly send emails without external services, we'll simulate this by creating a GitHub Issue or commenting on an existing one. This demonstrates the principle of integrating with other services.

Key Concepts:

• GitHub Actions Marketplace Actions: For interacting with GitHub features (like issues), there are excellent pre-built actions. We'll use peter-evans/create-or-update-issue@v3.
• Secrets: If you were to integrate with actual external services (e.g., a Slack webhook, an email API), you would store sensitive credentials securely as GitHub Secrets.

Steps:

1. Add repo permission to your workflow: To create issues, your workflow needs permission. Add this to the job:

Adding permissions to jobs

jobs:
  log_email_details:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      issues: write # Add this line
    steps:
      # ... existing steps ...
            

2. Modify process-email-event.yml: Add a new input and a new step to your log_email_details job:

process-email-event.yml (Module 3 Update)

name: Process Email Event

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      sender_email:
        description: 'Sender Email Address'
        required: true
        default: 'noreply@example.com'
      subject:
        description: 'Email Subject'
        required: true
        default: 'Automated Report'
      body_content:
        description: 'Email Body Content (first few lines)'
        required: false
        type: string
        default: 'This is an automated report from our system.'
      create_issue: # New input to control issue creation
        description: 'Create GitHub Issue for this email event?'
        required: true
        type: boolean
        default: false

jobs:
  log_email_details:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      issues: write # Grant permission to create/update issues
    steps:
      - name: Log Incoming Email Details
        run: |
          echo "--- Incoming Email Event ---"
          echo "Sender: ${{ github.event.inputs.sender_email }}"
          echo "Subject: ${{ github.event.inputs.subject }}"
          echo "Body Preview: ${{ github.event.inputs.body_content }}"
          echo "----------------------------"
      - name: Handle Critical Alert (if subject contains 'Critical')
        if: contains(github.event.inputs.subject, 'Critical')
        run: |
          echo "!!! CRITICAL ALERT DETECTED !!!"
          echo "Triggering high-priority notification..."
          # In a real scenario, this could trigger a Slack alert, PagerDuty, etc.
      - name: Process Support Request (if sender is 'support@example.com')
        if: github.event.inputs.sender_email == 'support@example.com'
        run: |
          echo "New Support Request from support@example.com"
          echo "Logging details to a specific support channel..."
          # This could post to a CRM, create a GitHub Issue, etc.
      - name: Acknowledge General Email
        if: ${{ !contains(github.event.inputs.subject, 'Critical') && github.event.inputs.sender_email != 'support@example.com' }}
        run: |
          echo "Received a general email, acknowledging..."
          # This might trigger a generic response or simply log.
      - name: Create GitHub Issue for Email Event
        if: ${{ github.event.inputs.create_issue == true }}
        uses: peter-evans/create-or-update-issue@v3
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          title: 'Email Event: ${{ github.event.inputs.subject }}'
          body: |
            An email event was processed by Git Actions:
            - **Sender:** `${{ github.event.inputs.sender_email }}`
            - **Subject:** `${{ github.event.inputs.subject }}`
            - **Body Preview:**
            ```
            ${{ github.event.inputs.body_content }}
            ```
          labels: |
            email-event
            automation
            

3. Commit and Push: Commit and push these changes.

Expected Outcome:

Run the workflow manually again. This time, set create_issue to true. After the workflow completes, navigate to the "Issues" tab in your GitHub repository. You should see a new issue created with the "email" details and specific labels.

---

Further Enhancements (Beyond this Tutorial)

• Real Email Integration: To genuinely "read" emails, you would typically use an external service (like Zapier, IFTTT, AWS SES with Lambda, or a custom webhook server) that can:
  1. Monitor an email inbox.
  2. Parse incoming emails.
  3. Trigger your Git Action workflow via a repository_dispatch event (sending the email details as the event payload) or by directly calling the GitHub API with a Personal Access Token.
• More Complex Parsing: For richer email content (HTML, attachments), you'd need a more sophisticated external parsing service.
• Dynamic Response: Instead of just creating an issue, your workflow could trigger other automations, deploy code, update databases (via APIs), or even send an actual email using a third-party email API and GitHub Secrets for authentication.

This tutorial provides a solid foundation for understanding how to process external, event-driven data using Git Actions, even when direct integration isn't feasible.