Dagu Actions

Dagu Actions are official reusable action packages maintained by the dagucloud organization. They let a workflow call a maintained package with a short versioned reference such as python-script@v1 or duckdb@v1.

Custom Actions and Third-Party Actions use related action: syntax, but they are different concepts:

Model	Call shape	Where it lives	Use when
Dagu Action	action: python-script@v1	A maintained dagucloud/* repository	Dagu already provides the reusable package you need.
Third-Party Action	action: owner/repo@version	A repository outside the official dagucloud action set	The reusable unit is maintained outside Dagu and should be pinned by version.
Custom Action	action: release.announce	The current DAG document or base.yaml	You need an inline typed wrapper around a built-in step type.

Built-in step types such as run, http.request, docker.run, postgres.query, and agent.run are documented separately in Step Types. Packaged actions can use those step types internally, but they are not the same layer.

Quick Example

Dagu Actions use a short versioned reference:

steps:
  - id: compute
    action: python-script@v1
    with:
      input:
        values: [3, 5, 8]
      script: |
        return {"total": sum(input["values"])}

  - id: print
    run: echo "total=${compute.outputs.result.total}"
    depends: compute

The action package owns its manifest, implementation workflow, output contract, and tool dependencies. The caller only supplies with: and reads ${compute.outputs.*}.

Choose a Model

Use a Dagu Action first when it matches the task. Dagu Actions are maintained in the dagucloud organization and can be called with name@version.

Use a third-party action when the reusable behavior is packaged outside the official dagucloud action set and should be pinned by version.

Use a custom action when the reusable behavior is only a small wrapper around a built-in step type and should remain inside one DAG file or shared base.yaml.

How Packages Run

Dagu Actions and Third-Party Actions are implemented as normal Dagu workflows with an action manifest:

dagu-action.yaml  # manifest and schemas
workflow.yaml     # action DAG entrypoint
scripts/...       # helper files used by the action DAG

At runtime, Dagu resolves the action reference, validates the caller's with: object against the manifest inputs schema, materializes the action workspace, runs the action DAG as a sub-DAG, collects action outputs, validates them against the manifest outputs schema, and exposes them to the parent workflow through ${step.outputs.*}.

See Execution Model for the exact lifecycle and distributed-worker behavior.

Pages

• Official Dagu Actions
• Third-Party Actions
• Custom Actions
• Execution Model