CI / GitHub Actions

In CI, changes are already committed. Use --base-ref to specify what to diff against — typically the PR base branch.

Basic setup

- name: Check README staleness
  run: readme-drift --base-ref origin/${{ github.base_ref }}

Do not pass --staged in CI — there is no staging area in a CI environment.

Full workflow example

name: CI

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [master]

jobs:
  readme-drift:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0  # full history required for git diff

      - name: Install readme-drift
        run: pip install readme-drift

      - name: Check README staleness
        run: readme-drift --base-ref origin/${{ github.base_ref }}

Using the bundled GitHub Action

Instead of hand-rolling the install-and-run steps above, use the composite action bundled in this repo:

name: CI

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [master]

jobs:
  readme-drift:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0  # required so origin/<base-branch> is fetchable

      - uses: sachn1/readme-drift@v3.2.0
        with:
          warn-only: "true"  # drop once you trust the signal

On pull_request events, base-ref auto-resolves to origin/<base-branch> if left unset. On other event types (e.g. push), set it explicitly via the base-ref input. See action.yml for the full list of inputs (base-ref, warn-only, include-private, exclude, readme-paths, version).

Warn-only in CI

To surface findings without failing the build:

- name: Check README staleness
  run: readme-drift --base-ref origin/${{ github.base_ref }} --warn-only

Diffing against a fixed ref

# Always diff against main, regardless of PR base
readme-drift --base-ref origin/main

# Diff against a specific commit SHA
readme-drift --base-ref abc1234