Input limitation is blocking my Action workflows

[kurald-slb]

Why are you starting this discussion?

Question

What GitHub Actions topic or product is this about?

Workflow Configuration

Discussion Details

I am using github actions workflow for one of my project.
Where I am facing few restrictions.
Before I used jenkins to process xml data which will be passed by the user in text area field.

Github Actions has the restriction to pass the over all text data only as 65kb so all the time it's not even taking 20% of xml data. Always getting truncated.
I do not want to store the xml data to a file and store it in s3 and process
I tried github secretes as well same issue
There is no input module to pass the direct file
Need help here

[ohhaus]

The 65KB limit for GitHub Actions inputs and secrets is a fixed platform constraint and cannot be increased. You cannot pass the XML directly. The only effective workaround is to change your approach: pass a reference to the data, not the data itself.

Before triggering the workflow, your application must upload the XML payload to a temporary, accessible location. This location can be a secure, pre-signed URL in your own cloud storage, a private Gist via the GitHub API, or an ephemeral endpoint in your backend. You then pass this URL or identifier (which is a small string under 65KB) as the workflow input. Inside the job, a step uses curl or a script to fetch and process the XML from that location.

This is the standard architectural pattern for handling large payloads in GitHub Actions. You must build the pre-upload logic on your client or triggering service, as the workflow runner is designed for CI/CD tasks, not as a data ingestion pipeline.

[kurald-slb]

I agree with you, But when I want to handle the web configs related stuffs I cannot store them in the git repo even it's private., Gist is not accessible for me in my org.

Also I agree on your word different approach. I have to find a way to upload the config data somewhere, but again that's like using one more tool again. where I am able to achieve all these in one tool called jenkins(CI/CD)

[ohhaus]

You are right that Jenkins does it in one tool. But GitHub Actions is not Jenkins. It is a different tool with different rules. The 65KB limit is a wall. You cannot pass through it. Complaining that the wall exists does not make it go away.

Your choices are exactly these:

Change your design. Your "one more tool" is the storage service. This is mandatory for this platform. Build the upload endpoint in your own backend, use a database entry, use internal cloud storage. This is the cost of using GitHub Actions for this task.

Change the platform. Run a self-hosted GitHub Actions runner. Then you can write custom hooks to read data from your own network storage, a local queue, or a database. You break the GitHub model to get control.

Change the tool. Use Jenkins for this specific job. A tool should fit the task. If processing this XML config is core to your workflow and Jenkins does it well, then use Jenkins. Do not try to force a square tool into a round hole.

This is not a technical problem to solve. It is a decision to make. GitHub Actions will not become Jenkins. Now choose: adapt your architecture, adapt the runner, or use the tool that already works.

[github-actions[bot]]

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