This issue seems to be related and was something I ran into. Is there any chance get the a real feature? 

The thing is I did add actions/checkout, and it didn’t work. I tried it again today and it doesn’t work if I use a relative path (./.github/…), only when using the whole path (raquelhortab/hello_world_github_actions/.github/…).

Here’s the code for .github/workflows/main.yml that I can’t get to work with your solution (I know that adding @master it’s not necessary but this is not the problem):

name: CI
on:

push:

branches:

- master
jobs:

build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@master
  name: Checkout
- uses: ./.github/actions/automatic-tests@master
  name: Test

Meanwhile, this is working perfectly:

name: CI
on:

push:

branches:

- master
jobs:

build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@master
  name: Checkout
- uses: raquelhortab/hello_world_github_actions/.github/actions/automatic-tests@master
  name: Test

When you use relative path,  there is no need to specific branch. It will find the path in the Github workspace.  Just use next code snippet: 

- uses: ./.github/actions/automatic-tests

When adding @master , it will look for a folder named automatic-tests@master.

Thanks for replying, but what should I use instead of @master? If I don’t add any tag it complains.

With the following code:

name: CI
on:

push:

branches:

- master
jobs:

build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout
  name: Checkout
- uses: ./.github/actions/automatic-tests@master
  name: Test

I get:

Your workflow file was invalid: The pipeline is not valid. .github/workflows/main.yml (Line: 14, Col: 13): Expected format {org}/{repo}[/path]@ref. Actual 'actions/checkout',Input string was not in a correct format.

In your first answer you used @v1. I created a release named v3 and used its tag (actions/checkout@v3) and it doesn’t work either. 

Failed to download action 'https://api.github.com/repos/actions/checkout/tarball/v3'

It seemed like the tag was referent to the actions repo not to my repo so I tried your exact example (actions/checkout@v1) and got the original error as well…

The code:

name: CI
on:

push:

branches:

- master
jobs:

build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v1
  name: Checkout
- uses: ./.github/actions/automatic-tests@master
  name: Test

The errror:

##[error]Can't find 'action.yml' or 'Dockerfile' under '/home/runner/work/hello_world_github_actions/hello_world_github_actions/.github/actions/automatic-tests@master'. Did you forget to run actions/checkout before running your local action?

Using your @v1 option but with the full path it works again.

I think what @yanjingzhu meant was not to use a tag in your action path, like so:

steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v1
      name: Checkout
    - uses: ./.github/actions/automatic-tests
      name: Test

**bleep**, you meant the tag in the tests step… I had really not seen it, thought you were talking about the one in actions/checkout@v1. It works now, thanks! However, what about if I wanted to use another branch different from master? where would I specify it? is that the “@v1” in actions/checkout@v1 ?

If you want to checkout other branches, you could specify ref of checkout action:

- uses: actions/checkout@v1
  with:
    ref: my-branch

For more checkout scenarios , please refer to https://github.com/actions/checkout#scenarios 

For everybody facing this issue, as the official documentation says here https:// docs . github . com/en/actions/using-workflows/reusing-workflows#calling-a-reusable-workflow:

You call a reusable workflow by using the uses keyword. Unlike when you are using actions within a workflow, you call reusable workflows directly within a job, and not from within job steps.

This means that using the form ./.github/workflows/my-workflow.yml will not work if you use it with the structure:

jobs:
  my-job:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: ...
      - uses: ./.github/workflows/my-workflow.yml
      - run: ...
      - uses: ...

You should use instead:

jobs:
  my-job:
    uses: my-job: ./.github/workflows/my-workflow.yml

I know, this makes no sense, anyways…

The docs for this are utterly useless.

• name: Get azure Test product config
  id: config1
  uses: ./.azure/actions/config/${{ github.event.inputs.stage }}/

Unrecognized named-value: ‘github’. Located at position 1 within expression: github.event.inputs.stage .github/workflows/azure-build.yml (Line: 55, Col: 15): Unrecognized named-value: ‘github’. Located at position 1 within expression: github.event.inputs.stage

how to give the dynamic path to the the uses attribute ? Any idea ?

Solution for me was to use a trailing slash:

uses: ./.github/actions/my-action/

instead of

uses: ./.github/actions/my-action

Also if you aren't committing your build output directory, make sure you are building (tsc) your action in the workflow before you reference it if it's in typescript and you aren't using @master (i.e. the version you want hasn't yet been built and merged to your master branch).

Preview:

-. Your actions yml is in here /.github/actions/automatic-tests/action.yml.
-. In the Main.yml want to use it.

Key point:

1. If we want to use the repo code, need to use checkout to download the repo.
   1. default will use the master/main branch code. If you want another branch, should use ref to define it.
2. The - use support the relative path. and it's based on the root path. Also just need the action.yml folder path.
3. For the action.yml if use Dockerfile, When building the image in the Dcokerfile the root path is the Dockerfile folder.

Solution, I'm doing it in my local and tested it.

• the main workflow
• path: github/workflows/main.yml
• The ref is not necessary

name: use my action
on: push

jobs:
  my_first_job:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v1
      with:
        ref: 'master'
    - name: My first step
    - uses: ./.github/actions/automatic-tests

• This is the action
• path: .github/actions/automatic-tests/action.yml

name: "Hello My Actions"
description: "Greet someone"
author: "xxxxx@github.com"

runs:
  using: "docker"
  image: "Dockerfile"

branding:
  icon: "mic"
  color: "purple"

• If you use Docker, DockerFile should be in the .github/actions/automatic-tests/
• Docker file

FROM debian:9.5-slim
RUN echo 'hello'

In case some does the same mistake getting the described error message but above answers do not help:

My error was that my action was at ./folder/my-action.yml and I called it by ./folder/my-action when the action should've been at ./folder/my-action/action.yml