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This guide shows you how to dynamically fetch your Kubernetes Ingress host, expose it as a job output in a dev-deploy job, and consume that output in an integration-testing job to verify your /live endpoint. By the end, you’ll have a seamless flow where the Ingress URL travels between jobs in the same workflow.

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Overview

  • Capture the Ingress host URL after deployment
  • Export it as a job output
  • Use the output in a downstream integration test

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1. Deploying to Dev and Capturing the Ingress URL

In the dev-deploy job, we apply Kubernetes manifests and query the Ingress host name. We then write it to $GITHUB_OUTPUT so it becomes available to other jobs. 
jobs:
  dev-deploy:
    needs: docker
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install kubectl CLI
        uses: azure/setup-kubectl@v3
        with:
          version: 'v1.26.0'

      - name: Configure kubeconfig
        uses: azure/k8s-set-context@v3
        with:
          method: kubeconfig
          kubeconfig: ${{ secrets.KUBECONFIG }}

      - name: Deploy to Dev Environment
        run: kubectl apply -f kubernetes/development

      - name: Set App Ingress Host URL
        id: set-ingress-host-address
        run: |
          HOST=$(kubectl -n ${{ vars.NAMESPACE }} \
            get ingress -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.tls[0].hosts[0]}')
          echo "APP_INGRESS_URL=$HOST" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"

    outputs:
      APP_INGRESS_URL: ${{ steps.set-ingress-host-address.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL }}
Ensure your Kubernetes context and namespace (${{ vars.NAMESPACE }}) are correctly configured before running kubectl.

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2. Defining the Integration Testing Job

After dev-deploy completes, integration-testing retrieves the APP_INGRESS_URL output and calls the /live endpoint using curl and jq. 
  integration-testing:
    name: Dev Integration Testing
    needs: dev-deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Test `/live` Endpoint
        env:
          URL: ${{ needs.dev-deploy.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL }}
        run: |
          echo "Testing endpoint: https://$URL/live"
          curl https://$URL/live -s -k | jq -r .status | grep -iq live
The Ubuntu runner includes both curl and jq by default. If you use a custom runner, install these tools before running the test.

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3. Passing Values Between Jobs

GitHub Actions lets you map step outputs to job outputs and then reference them in downstream jobs via the needs context.
LevelSyntaxExample
Step outputsteps.<step_id>.outputs.<output_name>steps.set-ingress-host-address.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL
Job outputneeds.<job_id>.outputs.<output_name>needs.dev-deploy.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL
The image shows a GitHub Docs page about passing values between steps and jobs in a workflow, with information on using environment variables and job outputs.
For more details, see the GitHub Actions contexts documentation.

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4. Complete Workflow Example

Here’s how the full .github/workflows/solar-system.yml might look with both jobs defined: 
name: Deploy and Test

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  dev-deploy:
    needs: docker
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install kubectl CLI
        uses: azure/setup-kubectl@v3
        with:
          version: 'v1.26.0'

      - name: Configure kubeconfig
        uses: azure/k8s-set-context@v3
        with:
          method: kubeconfig
          kubeconfig: ${{ secrets.KUBECONFIG }}

      - name: Deploy to Dev Environment
        run: kubectl apply -f kubernetes/development

      - name: Set App Ingress Host URL
        id: set-ingress-host-address
        run: |
          HOST=$(kubectl -n ${{ vars.NAMESPACE }} \
            get ingress -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.tls[0].hosts[0]}')
          echo "APP_INGRESS_URL=$HOST" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"

    outputs:
      APP_INGRESS_URL: ${{ steps.set-ingress-host-address.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL }}

  integration-testing:
    name: Dev Integration Testing
    needs: dev-deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Test `/live` Endpoint
        env:
          URL: ${{ needs.dev-deploy.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL }}
        run: |
          echo "Testing endpoint: https://$URL/live"
          curl https://$URL/live -s -k | jq -r .status | grep -iq live
The image shows a GitHub Actions workflow summary for a project, indicating successful completion of various jobs such as unit testing, code coverage, and deployment. The workflow is named "solar-system.yml" and includes steps like containerization and integration testing.

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References

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