IFTTT Deploy Notification for GitHub Actions

Add an IFTTT Webhooks notification job to a GitHub Actions workflow. Sends mobile push notifications on deploy success/failure.

Architecture

GitHub Actions workflow completes
  -> notify job (if: always())
    -> Collect job results from prior jobs
    -> Determine status string
    -> POST JSON to IFTTT Webhooks URL
      -> IFTTT triggers mobile push notification

The notification is silently skipped when the secret is not set, making it safe to add without requiring all contributors to configure IFTTT.

Setup Steps

1. IFTTT Applet

1. Go to https://ifttt.com/maker_webhooks
2. Create a new applet:

• Trigger: Webhooks -> "Receive a web request"
• Event name: Choose a name (e.g., deploy_notify, project name, etc.)
• Action: Notifications -> "Send a notification from the IFTTT app" (or any other action)
• Notification template: {{Value1}}: {{Value2}} (status + commit info). {{Value3}} contains the workflow run URL

3. Copy the webhook URL: https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/{EVENT_NAME}/with/key/{KEY}

2. GitHub Repository Secret

Add the webhook URL as a repository secret:

gh secret set IFTTT_PROD_NOTIFY
# Paste: https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/{EVENT_NAME}/with/key/{KEY}

3. Workflow Job

Add a notify job at the end of the workflow. It must needs all prior jobs and use if: always() to run regardless of success/failure.

Payload

IFTTT Webhooks accepts value1, value2, value3:

Field	Content
value1	Status string (e.g., "succeeded", "failed (build)")
value2	Short commit info ({7-char SHA} {message})
value3	GitHub Actions workflow run URL

Implementation Pattern

  notify:
    name: Deploy Notification
    needs: [quality, build, e2e-full, deploy]  # adjust to your job names
    if: always()
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 5

    steps:
      - name: Notify via IFTTT
        if: env.IFTTT_PROD_NOTIFY != ''
        env:
          IFTTT_PROD_NOTIFY: ${{ secrets.IFTTT_PROD_NOTIFY }}
        run: |
          # Collect results from prior jobs
          QUALITY="${{ needs.quality.result }}"
          BUILD="${{ needs.build.result }}"
          E2E="${{ needs.e2e-full.result }}"
          DEPLOY="${{ needs.deploy.result }}"

          # Determine status (check deploy success first, then failures in order)
          if [ "$DEPLOY" = "success" ]; then
            STATUS="succeeded"
          elif [ "$QUALITY" = "failure" ]; then
            STATUS="failed (quality checks)"
          elif [ "$BUILD" = "failure" ]; then
            STATUS="failed (build)"
          elif [ "$E2E" = "failure" ]; then
            STATUS="failed (E2E tests)"
          elif [ "$DEPLOY" = "failure" ]; then
            STATUS="failed (deploy)"
          else
            STATUS="cancelled"
          fi

          # Build commit info
          COMMIT_MSG=$(git log -1 --format='%s' "${{ github.sha }}" 2>/dev/null || echo "Deploy")
          SHORT_SHA=$(echo "${{ github.sha }}" | cut -c1-7)
          RUN_URL="${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}"

          # Send webhook
          jq -n \
            --arg v1 "$STATUS" \
            --arg v2 "$SHORT_SHA $COMMIT_MSG" \
            --arg v3 "$RUN_URL" \
            '{value1: $v1, value2: $v2, value3: $v3}' | \
          curl -sf -X POST "$IFTTT_PROD_NOTIFY" \
            -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
            -d @-

Key Details

• if: always() on the job ensures it runs even when prior jobs fail or are cancelled
• if: env.IFTTT_PROD_NOTIFY != '' on the step silently skips when the secret is not configured
• jq -n builds the JSON payload safely (no shell injection from commit messages)
• curl -sf fails silently (-s) and returns non-zero on HTTP errors (-f)
• timeout-minutes: 5 prevents the notification job from hanging indefinitely
• needs list must include all jobs whose results you want to report on

Adapting to Your Workflow

Adjust the needs list and status detection logic to match your workflow's job names. The pattern works with any number of jobs:

# Simple workflow with just build + deploy
needs: [build, deploy]

# ...
if [ "$DEPLOY" = "success" ]; then
  STATUS="succeeded"
elif [ "$BUILD" = "failure" ]; then
  STATUS="failed (build)"
elif [ "$DEPLOY" = "failure" ]; then
  STATUS="failed (deploy)"
else
  STATUS="cancelled"
fi

.env.example Entry

Add a commented reference in .env.example for documentation:

# IFTTT webhook for production deploy notifications (GitHub Actions)
# Create at: https://ifttt.com/maker_webhooks
# IFTTT_PROD_NOTIFY=https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/{event}/with/key/xxxxxx

Testing the Webhook

curl -sf -X POST "https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/{EVENT}/with/key/{KEY}" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"value1": "succeeded", "value2": "abc1234 test commit", "value3": "https://github.com/..."}'