When building CI/CD pipelines in GitHub Actions, two powerful tools help reduce duplication and improve maintainability: composite actions and reusable workflows.
While they seem similar, they solve different problems. Understanding when to use each can drastically improve the scalability of your pipelines, especially if you manage multiple repositories.
A composite action is essentially a packaged set of steps.
Example use cases:
setup-node-env, setup-python)A reusable workflow is an entire workflow that can be invoked by other workflows.
Example use cases:
They’re complementary, not competing. Use them together for maximum maintainability.
For teams with 10+ repositories, adopting reusable workflows is a major productivity multiplier:
If your GitHub organization is still heavily relying on composite actions alone, it’s time to consider moving critical pipelines into reusable workflows. The benefits compound quickly as your codebase grows.
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