GitHub Actions
GitHub Actions is a popular continuous integration and delivery platform for automating your build, test, and deployment workflow. InstaWP allows you to auto-create new instances (and destroy them, optionally) when creating a new Pull Request (PR) on your GitHub repository.
In this documentation, we will explore the steps to:
Prerequisites Setup
Configure Advanced Options
Perform Github Actions
Let’s get started 🚀
Step 1: Create a new staging site. Sign in to your InstaWP account and click on Add Site.
Step 2: Fill out the options according to your preferences and click Next Step.
Step 3: Select plugins according to your preference and click Create Site.
Step 4: Once created, click the Magic Login button.
Here, you can add new page, post or categories to the site.
Step 5: Save the site as a private snapshot. Go to the Sites page and click on the Save Template/Snapshot icon from your site.
Step 6: Set your snapshot name, Select Snapshot option, set the snapshot type as Private and click Save. This will save the site changes and create a new snapshot.
Step 7: Go to Deployments, enter the details of the WordPress plugin/theme repository. Select Add New from the deployments page.
Step 8: Select the repository type, enter repo URL (go to your github profile and copy the URL from Code > HTTPS), branch and destination folder. Then, click Add.
👉 Note: If the user's Git repository is private, they must copy the SSH repository URL from Git (copy the URL from Code > SSH) and paste it into InstaWP. Then, copy the SSH Key Pair from InstaWP and paste into their Git repository deploy keys.
👉 Go to the git repositories settings page to add new deploy key and paste the copied SSH key.
👉 Now, go to InstaWP deployments and click Add button. This will add the private Git repository to the InstaWP.
Step 1: Go to Snapshots, connect the Git repository to the snapshot and paste this Yaml file into the repository. Click on the vertical ellipsis from your snapshot and click on Enable Deployment.
👉 Note: The new user needs to create a new file path (.github/workflows/.yml) for the Actions yml file onto their Git repository.
Step 2: Select the git repository and copy the yml file from the pop up window.
Step 3: Paste this actions yml file contents to your github workflow folder.
Step 4: Now, click Update from the Snapshot window.
Step 5: Generate and add an API token to Git repository. Go to API Token by clicking on Profile > Account. Set a name and give permission. Then, click Create.
Step 6: Copy the API token, once it is created.
Step 7: Go to your repository's setting page to add a new secret and API token.
Step 1: Once advanced options are configured, select the repository file and make changes to it.
Step 2: Create a new branch and start a pull request. A new WordPress site will be created with the PR content.
💡 Did you know - On creating API token you can access the API via Postman, GitHub Actions. Learn about API tokens.
In this documentation, we will explore the steps to:
Prerequisites Setup
Configure Advanced Options
Perform Github Actions
Let’s get started 🚀
Prerequisites Setup
Step 1: Create a new staging site. Sign in to your InstaWP account and click on Add Site.
Step 2: Fill out the options according to your preferences and click Next Step.
Step 3: Select plugins according to your preference and click Create Site.
Step 4: Once created, click the Magic Login button.
Here, you can add new page, post or categories to the site.
Step 5: Save the site as a private snapshot. Go to the Sites page and click on the Save Template/Snapshot icon from your site.
Step 6: Set your snapshot name, Select Snapshot option, set the snapshot type as Private and click Save. This will save the site changes and create a new snapshot.
Step 7: Go to Deployments, enter the details of the WordPress plugin/theme repository. Select Add New from the deployments page.
Step 8: Select the repository type, enter repo URL (go to your github profile and copy the URL from Code > HTTPS), branch and destination folder. Then, click Add.
👉 Note: If the user's Git repository is private, they must copy the SSH repository URL from Git (copy the URL from Code > SSH) and paste it into InstaWP. Then, copy the SSH Key Pair from InstaWP and paste into their Git repository deploy keys.
👉 Go to the git repositories settings page to add new deploy key and paste the copied SSH key.
👉 Now, go to InstaWP deployments and click Add button. This will add the private Git repository to the InstaWP.
Configure Advanced Options
Step 1: Go to Snapshots, connect the Git repository to the snapshot and paste this Yaml file into the repository. Click on the vertical ellipsis from your snapshot and click on Enable Deployment.
👉 Note: The new user needs to create a new file path (.github/workflows/.yml) for the Actions yml file onto their Git repository.
Step 2: Select the git repository and copy the yml file from the pop up window.
Step 3: Paste this actions yml file contents to your github workflow folder.
Step 4: Now, click Update from the Snapshot window.
Step 5: Generate and add an API token to Git repository. Go to API Token by clicking on Profile > Account. Set a name and give permission. Then, click Create.
Step 6: Copy the API token, once it is created.
Step 7: Go to your repository's setting page to add a new secret and API token.
Perform Github Actions
Step 1: Once advanced options are configured, select the repository file and make changes to it.
Step 2: Create a new branch and start a pull request. A new WordPress site will be created with the PR content.
💡 Did you know - On creating API token you can access the API via Postman, GitHub Actions. Learn about API tokens.
Updated on: 03/06/2025
Thank you!