github-actions

manage-claude/wif-providers/github-actions First recorded · 333 lines, first recorded

## Prerequisites ## Configure your workflow ## Configure Anthropic ## Acquire and use a token ## Verify the setup ## Restrict which workflows can authenticate ## Next steps

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---
title: Use WIF with GitHub Actions
url: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/wif-providers/github-actions
description: Authenticate GitHub Actions workflows to the Claude API with short-lived identity tokens instead of long-lived API keys.
---

Every GitHub Actions workflow run can request a signed identity token from GitHub's hosted issuer at `https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com`. With Workload Identity Federation, your workflow exchanges that token for a short-lived Anthropic access token, so your CI jobs can call the Claude API without an `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` secret stored in your repository.

The token's `sub` claim encodes the repository and trigger context. For a push to a branch it has the form `repo:<owner>/<repo>:ref:refs/heads/<branch>`. Pull-request runs use `repo:<owner>/<repo>:pull_request`, and environment-gated deployments use `repo:<owner>/<repo>:environment:<name>`. Your federation rule matches against this claim (and others, such as `repository_owner` and `ref`) to decide which workflow runs are allowed to authenticate.

## Prerequisites

* Familiarity with [WIF concepts](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/workload-identity-federation#concepts): service accounts, federation issuers, and federation rules.
* A GitHub repository where you can edit workflow files and grant the `id-token: write` permission.
* Permission to create service accounts, federation issuers, and federation rules in the Claude Console for your Anthropic organization.
* Your Anthropic organization ID. You can find it in the Claude Console under **Settings → Organization**.

## Configure your workflow

GitHub only issues an identity token to jobs that explicitly request it. Add the `id-token: write` permission at the workflow or job level:

```yaml
permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read
```

Inside the job, the runner exposes two environment variables: `ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_URL` and `ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_TOKEN`. Call the request URL with the request token as a bearer credential and your chosen audience as a query parameter, then write the returned JSON Web Token (JWT) to a file:

```yaml
- name: Fetch GitHub OIDC token
  run: |
    curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_TOKEN" \
      "$ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_URL&audience=https://api.anthropic.com" \
      | jq -r .value > /tmp/gha-jwt
```

If you prefer JavaScript, `actions/github-script` exposes the same capability through `core.getIDToken(audience)`:

```yaml
- name: Fetch GitHub OIDC token
  uses: actions/github-script@v8
  with:
    script: |
      const fs = require('fs');
      const token = await core.getIDToken('https://api.anthropic.com');
      fs.writeFileSync('/tmp/gha-jwt', token);
```

The decoded token carries claims that describe the workflow run. Your federation rule matches against these:

```json
{
  "iss": "https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com",
  "sub": "repo:your-org/your-repo:ref:refs/heads/main",
  "aud": "https://api.anthropic.com",
  "repository": "your-org/your-repo",
  "repository_owner": "your-org",
  "ref": "refs/heads/main",
  "sha": "abc123...",
  "workflow": "CI",
  "actor": "octocat",
  "event_name": "push"
}
```

See [GitHub's OIDC subject claim reference](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/deployment/security-hardening-your-deployments/about-security-hardening-with-openid-connect#example-subject-claims) for the full list of `sub` formats.

## Configure Anthropic

In the Claude Console, open **Settings → Workload identity**, click **Connect workload**, and select the **GitHub Actions** tile. The wizard walks you through registering the issuer, creating a service account, and creating a federation rule.

The wizard creates these resources for you. Use the following values whether you enter them in the wizard or send them to the [Admin API](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/wif-admin-api):

**Federation issuer:** GitHub publishes its OIDC discovery document and JWKS publicly, so use discovery mode. Anthropic refreshes the keys automatically when GitHub rotates them.

```json
{
  "name": "github-actions",
  "issuer_url": "https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com",
  "jwks": { "type": "discovery" }
}
```

**Federation rule:** Match only the workflow runs you intend to trust. See [Restrict which workflows can authenticate](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/wif-providers/github-actions#restrict-which-workflows-can-authenticate) for how to scope these claims safely.

```json
{
  "name": "gha-main",
  "issuer_id": "fdis_...",
  "match": {
    "subject_prefix": "repo:your-org/your-repo:ref:refs/heads/main",
    "audience": "https://api.anthropic.com",
    "claims": {
      "repository_owner": "your-org"
    }
  },
  "target": {
    "type": "service_account",
    "service_account_id": "svac_..."
  },
  "workspace_id": "wrkspc_...",
  "oauth_scope": "workspace:developer",
  "token_lifetime_seconds": 600
}
```

Be as specific as the workload allows. Loosen `subject_prefix` to `repo:your-org/your-repo:*` (paired with a `claims.ref` constraint) only if the rule must match multiple event types from the same repository, because the trailing segment of `sub` varies between `ref:...`, `environment:...`, and `pull_request` events.

## Acquire and use a token

Set the federation environment variables on the job and call the SDK normally. `Anthropic()` reads `ANTHROPIC_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE`, exchanges the JWT on the first request, and refreshes the access token automatically before it expires.

<CodeGroup>
  ```yaml Workflow
  name: Call Claude
  on: push

  permissions:
    id-token: write
    contents: read

  jobs:
    call-claude:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      env:
        ANTHROPIC_FEDERATION_RULE_ID: fdrl_...
        ANTHROPIC_ORGANIZATION_ID: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
        ANTHROPIC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ID: svac_...
        ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID: wrkspc_...  # required when the rule covers multiple workspaces
        ANTHROPIC_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE: /tmp/gha-jwt
      steps:
        - uses: actions/checkout@v5
        - name: Fetch GitHub OIDC token
          run: |
            curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_TOKEN" \
              "$ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_URL&audience=https://api.anthropic.com" \
              | jq -r .value > "$ANTHROPIC_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE"
        - name: Run your script
          run: |
            pip install anthropic
            python your_script.py
  ```

  ```bash cURL
  JWT=$(cat /tmp/gha-jwt)

  RESPONSE=$(curl -sS https://api.anthropic.com/v1/oauth/token \
    -H "content-type: application/json" \
    --data @- <<JSON
  {
    "grant_type": "urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:jwt-bearer",
    "assertion": "$JWT",
    "federation_rule_id": "$ANTHROPIC_FEDERATION_RULE_ID",
    "organization_id": "$ANTHROPIC_ORGANIZATION_ID",
    "service_account_id": "$ANTHROPIC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ID",
    "workspace_id": "$ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID"
  }
  JSON
  )

  ACCESS_TOKEN=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -r .access_token)

  curl https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages \
    -H "authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" \
    -H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" \
    -H "content-type: application/json" \
    -d '{
      "model": "claude-opus-5",
      "max_tokens": 1024,
      "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, Claude"}]
    }' | jq -r '.content[] | select(.type == "text") | .text'
  ```

  ```python Python
  import anthropic

  # Reads ANTHROPIC_FEDERATION_RULE_ID, ANTHROPIC_ORGANIZATION_ID,
  # ANTHROPIC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ID, ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID, and ANTHROPIC_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE
  # from the job environment.
  client = anthropic.Anthropic()

  message = client.messages.create(
      model="claude-opus-5",
      max_tokens=1024,
      messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, Claude"}],
  )
  print(next(block.text for block in message.content if block.type == "text"))
  ```

  ```typescript TypeScript
  import Anthropic from "@anthropic-ai/sdk";

  // Reads ANTHROPIC_FEDERATION_RULE_ID, ANTHROPIC_ORGANIZATION_ID,
  // ANTHROPIC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ID, ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID, and ANTHROPIC_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE
  // from the job environment.
  const client = new Anthropic();

  const message = await client.messages.create({
    model: "claude-opus-5",
    max_tokens: 1024,
    messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello, Claude" }]
  });
  for (const block of message.content) {
    if (block.type === "text") {
      console.log(block.text);
    }
  }
  ```

  ```go Go
  // Reads ANTHROPIC_FEDERATION_RULE_ID, ANTHROPIC_ORGANIZATION_ID,
  // ANTHROPIC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ID, ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID, and ANTHROPIC_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE
  // from the job environment.
  client := anthropic.NewClient()

  message, err := client.Messages.New(context.TODO(), anthropic.MessageNewParams{
  	Model:     anthropic.ModelClaudeOpus5,
  	MaxTokens: 1024,
  	Messages: []anthropic.MessageParam{
  		anthropic.NewUserMessage(anthropic.NewTextBlock("Hello, Claude")),
  	},
  })
  if err != nil {
  	panic(err)
  }
  for _, block := range message.Content {
  	if textBlock, ok := block.AsAny().(anthropic.TextBlock); ok {
  		fmt.Println(textBlock.Text)
  		break
  	}
  }
  ```

  ```java Java
  AnthropicClient client = AnthropicOkHttpClient.fromEnv();

  var message = client.messages().create(MessageCreateParams.builder()
          .model(Model.CLAUDE_OPUS_5)
          .maxTokens(1024)
          .addUserMessage("Hello, Claude")
          .build());

  IO.println(message.content());
  ```

  ```csharp C#
  var result = AnthropicCredentials.Resolve()
      ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("No federation credentials found in environment");
  using var client = new AnthropicOidcClient(result);

  var message = await client.Messages.Create(new()
  {
      Model = Model.ClaudeOpus5,
      MaxTokens = 1024,
      Messages = [new() { Role = Role.User, Content = "Hello, Claude" }],
  });
  foreach (var block in message.Content)
  {
      if (block.Value is TextBlock textBlock)
      {
          Console.WriteLine(textBlock.Text);
      }
  }
  ```

  ```bash CLI
  # Reads ANTHROPIC_FEDERATION_RULE_ID, ANTHROPIC_ORGANIZATION_ID,
  # ANTHROPIC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ID, ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID, and ANTHROPIC_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE
  # from the job environment.
  ant messages create \
    --model claude-opus-5 \
    --max-tokens 1024 \
    --message '{role: user, content: "Hello, Claude"}'
  ```

  ```php PHP
  use Anthropic\Client;

  // Reads ANTHROPIC_FEDERATION_RULE_ID, ANTHROPIC_ORGANIZATION_ID,
  // ANTHROPIC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ID, ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID, and ANTHROPIC_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE
  // from the job environment.
  $client = new Client();

  $message = $client->messages->create(
      model: 'claude-opus-5',
      maxTokens: 1024,
      messages: [['role' => 'user', 'content' => 'Hello, Claude']],
  );
  $textBlock = array_find($message->content, static fn ($block): bool => $block->type === 'text');
  echo $textBlock->text, PHP_EOL;
  ```

  ```ruby Ruby
  require "anthropic"

  # Reads ANTHROPIC_FEDERATION_RULE_ID, ANTHROPIC_ORGANIZATION_ID,
  # ANTHROPIC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ID, ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID, and ANTHROPIC_IDENTITY_TOKEN_FILE
  # from the job environment.
  client = Anthropic::Client.new

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