Claude Code Action: Claude in GitHub PRs and Issues

Claude Code Action is Anthropic’s official GitHub Action. It runs Claude Code on your GitHub runner so Claude can answer questions, review pull requests, and implement changes from GitHub itself. It is technically a GitHub Action rather than an editor extension; we list it under extensions because it extends GitHub with Claude.

Setup

The quickest route, if you use the Anthropic API directly and are a repository admin: open claude in your terminal and run

/install-github-app

It walks you through installing the GitHub app and adding the required secrets. For Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex AI or Microsoft Foundry, follow the cloud providers doc in the repo instead.

Workflow example

A minimal .github/workflows/claude.yml, adapted from the repo’s usage guide:

name: Claude Assistant
on:
  issue_comment:
    types: [created]
  pull_request_review_comment:
    types: [created]
  issues:
    types: [opened, assigned, labeled]

jobs:
  claude-response:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
        with:
          anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
          # or: claude_code_oauth_token: ${{ secrets.CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN }}

Then comment @claude on an issue or PR. Optional inputs include prompt for automation runs, claude_args to pass CLI flags, plugins to install Claude Code plugins, and trigger_phrase to change the mention.

Use cases

• Automatic PR review, including path-specific or security-focused checklists.
• Issue triage and labeling.
• Small fixes implemented straight from an issue comment.
• Scheduled maintenance and documentation sync jobs.

Pros

• Official, open source, runs on your own runners.
• Same configuration model as Claude Code: you can load plugins and MCP servers.
• Works with several model providers.

Cons

• Every run costs model usage; noisy triggers add up.
• Write permissions on a repo require careful review of what Claude can push.
• Setup beyond the quickstart (cloud providers, custom apps) takes some YAML work.

Want Claude to reach GitHub from your local sessions too? Add the GitHub MCP Server.