GitHub Actions Isn't a CI

This article challenges the common assumption that GitHub Actions is a full CI system. It distinguishes between the practice of continuous integration and the system that manages it, arguing Actions is a general-purpose event-driven runner that executes commands but lacks a model of tests, build graphs, or intelligent caching. The author, from Mergify, highlights four pain points: no flaky test detection, no selective test running, manual caching, and limited re-run capabilities. The piece concludes that while Actions handles the basic CI practice, it falls short of the system-level features teams need for complex pipelines.