Cache Action

A Gitea Action that caches build files under ~/.cache/ using a key file hash. Implements the Gitea artifact cache API directly with curl, tar, and zstd — no external actions required.

Inputs

Input	Description	Required	Default
path	Files/directories to cache	No	~/.cache/
key-prefix	Prefix for the cache key	Yes	—
key-file	File to hash for the cache key	Yes	—
restore-keys	Fallback prefix-matched keys	No	—

Outputs

Output	Description
cache-hit	true if exact key match found, false otherwise
cache-primary-key	The primary key used for cache lookup
cache-matched-key	The key of the cache entry that was restored

Quick Start

Rust Example

name: Rust Build
on: push

defaults:
  run:
    shell: bash

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: Actions/Cache@main
        with:
          key-prefix: 'rust'
          key-file: 'Cargo.lock'
          path: |
            ~/.cache/
            ~/.cargo/registry
            ~/.cargo/git
            target
      - name: Build
        run: |
          cargo build --release

Skip Steps on Cache Hit

name: Build with Conditional Steps
on: push

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: Actions/Cache@main
        id: cache
        with:
          key-prefix: 'rust'
          key-file: 'Cargo.lock'
      - name: Install dependencies
        if: steps.cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
        run: cargo fetch
      - name: Build
        run: cargo build --release

How It Works

1. Cache Key Generation: Combines key-prefix with the SHA-256 hash of key-file (e.g. rust-<hash>).

2. Cache Restore: Calls the Gitea artifact cache API (/_apis/artifactcache/cache) to find a matching entry, downloads the archive, and extracts it.

3. Cache Save: Runs on job completion (if: always()), creates a zstd-compressed tar archive, reserves a cache entry via the API, uploads it, and commits it. Skipped if there was a cache hit on the primary key.

Cache Scope

The cache is scoped to the key, version, and branch. The default branch cache is available to other branches.

Remarks

• The cache server must be enabled on your Gitea instance
• Requires curl, tar, and sha256sum on the runner (zstd is optional, falls back to gzip)
• Maximum cache size per repository is 10GB