Download Artifact Action

The bffless/download-artifact action downloads previously deployed artifacts from BFFless back into your workflow.

Use Cases

• Comparing coverage between PRs and production
• Deploying the same build to multiple environments
• Running tests against a deployed build
• Sharing builds across repositories

Quick Start

- uses: bffless/download-artifact@v1
  with:
    source-path: dist
    api-url: ${{ vars.BFFLESS_URL }}
    api-key: ${{ secrets.BFFLESS_API_KEY }}
    alias: staging

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
api-url	Yes	-	BFFless platform URL
api-key	Yes	-	API key for authentication
source-path	Yes	-	Path of files to download (e.g., dist, apps/frontend/dist)
alias	No	-	Deployment alias to download from
commit-sha	No	-	Specific commit SHA to download
branch	No	-	Branch to download from (gets latest)
output-path	No	Same as source-path	Where to save downloaded files
repository	No	Current repo	Repository in owner/repo format
overwrite	No	false	Overwrite existing files at output-path
summary	No	true	Write GitHub Step Summary

note

You must specify one of alias, commit-sha, or branch to identify which deployment to download.

Outputs

Output	Description
file-count	Number of files downloaded
total-size	Total bytes downloaded
commit-sha	Commit SHA of downloaded deployment
files	JSON array of downloaded file paths

Examples

Compare Coverage Between PR and Production

Download the production coverage baseline to compare against PR coverage:

- name: Download production coverage
  uses: bffless/download-artifact@v1
  continue-on-error: true  # Don't fail if no baseline exists yet
  with:
    alias: coverage-production
    source-path: coverage
    output-path: ./coverage-production
    api-url: ${{ vars.BFFLESS_URL }}
    api-key: ${{ secrets.BFFLESS_API_KEY }}

- name: Compare coverage
  run: |
    PR_COV=$(jq '.total.lines.pct' ./coverage/coverage-summary.json)
    PROD_COV=$(jq '.total.lines.pct' ./coverage-production/coverage-summary.json)
    echo "PR: $PR_COV% | Production: $PROD_COV%"

For a complete implementation with PR comments, see the Coverage Comparison recipe.

Download Specific Commit

Download a deployment by commit SHA:

- uses: bffless/download-artifact@v1
  with:
    source-path: dist
    api-url: ${{ vars.BFFLESS_URL }}
    api-key: ${{ secrets.BFFLESS_API_KEY }}
    commit-sha: abc123def456

Download to Different Directory

Download to a different output path:

- uses: bffless/download-artifact@v1
  with:
    source-path: dist
    output-path: ./downloaded-build
    api-url: ${{ vars.BFFLESS_URL }}
    api-key: ${{ secrets.BFFLESS_API_KEY }}
    alias: production

Cross-Repository Download

Download artifacts from a different repository:

- uses: bffless/download-artifact@v1
  with:
    source-path: dist
    api-url: ${{ vars.BFFLESS_URL }}
    api-key: ${{ secrets.BFFLESS_API_KEY }}
    repository: myorg/shared-components
    alias: latest

Run E2E Tests Against Deployed Build

Download a deployment and run tests against it:

name: E2E Tests

on:
  deployment_status:

jobs:
  test:
    if: github.event.deployment_status.state == 'success'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: bffless/download-artifact@v1
        id: download
        with:
          source-path: dist
          api-url: ${{ vars.BFFLESS_URL }}
          api-key: ${{ secrets.BFFLESS_API_KEY }}
          alias: preview

      - name: Run E2E tests
        run: |
          npx serve dist &
          npx playwright test

Download Latest from Branch

Download the most recent deployment from a branch:

- uses: bffless/download-artifact@v1
  with:
    source-path: dist
    api-url: ${{ vars.BFFLESS_URL }}
    api-key: ${{ secrets.BFFLESS_API_KEY }}
    branch: feature/new-ui

Troubleshooting

"No deployment found"

• Verify the alias, commit-sha, or branch exists
• Check the repository is correct
• Ensure the deployment hasn't been deleted

"Output path already exists"

Set overwrite: true to replace existing files:

- uses: bffless/download-artifact@v1
  with:
    source-path: dist
    api-url: ${{ vars.BFFLESS_URL }}
    api-key: ${{ secrets.BFFLESS_API_KEY }}
    alias: production
    overwrite: true

Download Failed - 401 Unauthorized

• Verify your API key is correct
• Check the key hasn't been revoked
• Ensure BFFLESS_API_KEY secret is set

Download Failed - 404 Not Found

• Verify BFFLESS_URL is correct
• Check your BFFless instance is running
• Ensure the URL includes the protocol (https://)