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GitHub Actions Build & Test Workflow

A GitHub Actions workflow that restores, builds, and tests a .NET solution on every push and pull request to main.

Prerequisites

  • A .NET solution (.sln) with at least one test project, hosted in a GitHub repository.
  • Push access to the repository so you can add workflow files and trigger runs.

Steps

  1. In the repository root, create a .github/workflows folder if it doesn't already exist.
  2. Add a build.yml file to that folder with the workflow below. Replace your-project.sln with your own solution file name, and set dotnet-version to the SDK version your project targets.
  3. Commit and push the file (or open a pull request) against main.
  4. Verify the run: open the repository's Actions tab, confirm the Build & Test workflow succeeds, and download the test-results artifact from the run summary to inspect the .trx output.

Step Overview

Step What it does
Checkout Clones the repository into the runner so subsequent steps have access to the source code.
Setup .NET Installs the specified .NET SDK version on the runner.
Restore dependencies Runs dotnet restore to download all NuGet packages defined in the solution.
Build Compiles the solution in Release configuration, skipping restore since it already ran.
Test Runs all test projects in Release mode without rebuilding, and writes results to a .trx file.
Upload test results Uploads the .trx file as a workflow artifact so results are accessible in the GitHub Actions UI. Runs even if tests fail (if: always()). 
name: Build & Test

on:
  push:
    branches: [ "main" ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ "main" ]

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build, Test & Restore
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup .NET
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v4
        with:
          dotnet-version: "10.x"

      - name: Restore dependencies
        run: dotnet restore your-project.sln

      - name: Build
        run: dotnet build your-project.sln --no-restore --configuration Release

      - name: Test
        run: dotnet test your-project.sln --no-build --configuration Release --logger "trx;LogFileName=test-results.trx"

      - name: Upload test results
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        if: always()
        with:
          name: test-results
          path: "**/*.trx"

See Also