GitHub Action

The poof GitHub Action lets you bootstrap poof on any GitHub-hosted (or self-hosted) runner and optionally install a list of pre-built binaries from GitHub Releases, all in a single workflow step.

The action is available in the GitHub Actions Marketplace.

Usage

Setup only

Add poof to the runner PATH without installing any packages:

- name: Setup poof
  uses: pirafrank/poof@main

Setup and install packages

Bootstrap poof and install one or more tools at once:

- name: Setup poof and install packages
  uses: pirafrank/poof@main
  with:
    packages: |
      pirafrank/vault-conductor
      ms-jpq/[email protected]

Pin a specific poof version

- name: Setup poof and install packages
  uses: pirafrank/poof@main
  with:
    version: v0.6.0
    packages: pirafrank/vault-conductor
    token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Inputs

Input	Description	Default
packages	Newline or comma-separated list of USERNAME/REPO (or USERNAME/REPO@TAG) entries to install. Leave empty to skip package installation.	-
version	Version of poof to bootstrap (e.g. v0.6.0). Use latest to always install the most recent release (recommended).	latest
token	GitHub token used for API requests inside poof to avoid rate limiting.	${{ github.token }}

Package format

Packages are specified as USERNAME/REPO GitHub slugs, optionally pinned to a specific release tag with @TAG:

pirafrank/vault-conductor         # latest release
pirafrank/[email protected]  # specific tag
ms-jpq/sad

Multiple packages can be separated by newlines or commas.

info

When writing @TAGNAME use the actual tag name, not the release name!

You can find it in the GitHub release page, on the left side, under the release date.

Rate limiting

poof makes GitHub API calls to resolve releases. Without a token these calls are unauthenticated and subject to GitHub's rate limit (60 requests/hour per IP). The action defaults to the workflow's built-in GITHUB_TOKEN, which raises the limit to 5,000 requests/hour. You can supply a different token via the token input.

How it works

1. Downloads and places poof in $HOME/.local/bin, then adds that directory to $GITHUB_PATH so subsequent steps can call poof directly.
2. Adds poof's bin directory (where installed tools land) to $GITHUB_PATH as well, so installed binaries are immediately available to all later steps.
3. If packages is set, iterates over each entry and runs poof install USER/REPO [--tag TAG].

The action is idempotent: if poof is already present in the install directory it skips re-downloading it.

Supported platforms

OS	Architecture
Linux (glibc)	x86_64, aarch64, armv7, i686
Linux (musl)	x86_64, aarch64, armv7, i686
macOS	x86_64 (Intel), aarch64 (Apple Silicon)