Automating GitHub Workflows with Claude 4

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Claude Opus 4 is Anthropic’s most advanced and powerful AI model to date, setting a new benchmark for coding, reasoning, and long-running tasks. It can autonomously handle complex, multi-hour tasks, maintaining focus and delivering exceptional results over thousands of steps.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to use Claude Opus 4 to automate GitHub workflows, which can be used for resolving GitHub issues, performing code reviews, and managing pull requests (PRs). We will learn how to set up the Claude App in your GitHub repository and invoke it directly through comments.

 

Setting Up Claude Code

 

1. Run the following command in your terminal to install Claude Code globally:

   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

2. Visit the Anthropic Console and create an account.
3. Add at least $10 in credits to your account using a credit or debit card. 
4. Launch Claude Code by navigating to your project directory and running:
5. Follow the prompts to connect to the Anthropic Console:

• A browser window will open, prompting you to log in to your Anthropic account.
• Copy the authentication code generated by the console and paste it into the Claude Code terminal.

Once authenticated, Claude Code will be ready to use.

 

Setting up GitHub App Using Claude Code

 

1. Open your terminal and type claude to launch Claude Code.
2. Once inside Claude Code, type /install-github-app to begin setting up the Claude App for GitHub Actions.
   
3. Navigate to your GitHub repository and create a pull request. Merge the pull request to ensure the repository is ready for Claude integration.
   
   Screenshot from kingabzpro/bbc-news-class-mlops
4. Open your GitHub Action workflow file (github/workflows/claude.yml) and add the following configuration:

   model: 'claude-sonnet-4-20250514'

   
   Screenshot from .github/workflows/claude.yml

   This ensures that the latest Claude 4 model is used within the Claude App.

5. Visit the Claude GitHub App page: https://github.com/apps/claude.
6. Install the app and grant it access to your repository.

 

Creating the Pull Request Using the GitHub Issues

 
For this tutorial, we have selected the Issue #9 from the kingabzpro/bbc-news-class-mlops github repository. 

1. Go to Issue #9 in the repository.
2. In the comment section of the issue, type the following command:

   @claude add the docker compose file based on the issue description

   The @claude mention triggers the GitHub Action, allowing Claude to analyze the issue description and use it as context to generate the required code. 

   
   Screenshot from kingabzpro/bbc-news-class-mlops
3. Once Claude completes the task, it will create all the necessary files and provide an option to directly create a pull request.
   
   Screenshot from kingabzpro/bbc-news-class-mlops
4. Click on the Create PR link provided by Claude and merge the changes into your repository.

Screenshot from kingabzpro/bbc-news-class-mlops

The changes will be implemented, and in most cases, Claude resolves the issue with 90% accuracy based on the provided context.

 

Other Use Cases of Github Claude App

 
We have used the GitHub issue description to make edits and create the pull request. You can try the following use case too using the same workflow:

1. Automated Code Review: Analyze pull requests (PRs) for code quality, potential bugs, and adherence to standards.
2. PR Management: Create, update, and manage pull requests automatically.
3. Issue Triage: Analyze issues, categorize them, and suggest or implement fixes.
4. Debugging and Bug Fixing: Locate bugs, implement fixes, and create PRs for review.
5. Documentation Updates: Automatically update documentation based on code changes.
6. Refactoring Code: Improve code readability, performance, or maintainability.

 

Final Thoughts

 
Anthropic is quickly emerging as the go-to AI model provider for coding and software engineering tasks. The company offers a comprehensive ecosystem that automates the entire development process, including building, testing, debugging, deploying, and monitoring applications. With Claude Code and its extensions, developers can seamlessly automate all these steps, making it a powerful tool for streamlining workflows.
 
 

Abid Ali Awan (@1abidaliawan) is a certified data scientist professional who loves building machine learning models. Currently, he is focusing on content creation and writing technical blogs on machine learning and data science technologies. Abid holds a Master’s degree in technology management and a bachelor’s degree in telecommunication engineering. His vision is to build an AI product using a graph neural network for students struggling with mental illness.