Hey there! Let me walk you through exactly how to access and use those workflow dispatch inputs you’ve defined—whether they’re named with simple keys like logLevel or have spaces like "Which branch do I want to use".

Two Ways to Access Inputs #

GitHub automatically makes your workflow dispatch inputs available in two places: injected environment variables, and the github context object. Here’s how to use both:

1. For inputs with simple keys (logLevel, tags) #

These are the easiest to work with since their names don’t have spaces.

Using Environment Variables

GitHub converts input names to uppercase, replaces any special characters with underscores, and prefixes them with INPUT_. So:

• logLevel becomes INPUT_LOGLEVEL
• tags becomes INPUT_TAGS

You can reference these directly in shell commands:

jobs:
  your-job-name:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Print log level from env var
        run: echo "Current log level: $INPUT_LOGLEVEL"
      
      - name: Use tags in a command
        run: echo "Running tests with tags: $INPUT_TAGS"

Using the GitHub Context

You can also pull values directly from the github.event.inputs object using template expressions. This is great if you need to pass the value to actions or use it in conditional logic:

steps:
  - name: Print log level from context
    run: echo "Current log level: ${{ github.event.inputs.logLevel }}"
  
  - name: Check if tags are provided
    if: ${{ github.event.inputs.tags != '' }}
    run: echo "Tags specified: ${{ github.event.inputs.tags }}"

2. For inputs with spaces ("Which branch do I want to use") #

Inputs with spaces need a tiny bit of extra care, but it’s still straightforward.

Using Environment Variables

Same rule applies: convert the name to uppercase, replace spaces with underscores, and add the INPUT_ prefix. Your input becomes INPUT_WHICH_BRANCH_DO_I_WANT_TO_USE:

steps:
  - name: Print target branch from env var
    run: echo "Using branch: $INPUT_WHICH_BRANCH_DO_I_WANT_TO_USE"

Using the GitHub Context

Since the input name has spaces, you can’t use dot notation—instead, use bracket notation with quotes to reference it:

steps:
  - name: Print target branch from context
    run: echo "Using branch: ${{ github.event.inputs['Which branch do I want to use'] }}"

Quick Notes #

• If an input is optional (you didn’t set required: true), make sure to handle cases where the value might be empty (like in the conditional example above).
• On Windows runners, environment variables are referenced with %INPUT_LOGLEVEL% instead of $INPUT_LOGLEVEL, but most workflows use Ubuntu runners so the $ syntax is standard.
• Both methods work interchangeably—pick whichever feels more readable for your workflow!

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Paul