GitHub Actions: Automatic Cleanup

Delete Zuplo environments automatically when branches are deleted. This keeps your environment list clean and avoids accumulating unused preview environments.

.github/workflows/cleanup-on-branch-delete.yaml
 
name: Cleanup on Branch Delete

on:
  delete:

jobs:
  cleanup:
    # Only run for branch deletions, not tag deletions
    if: github.event.ref_type == 'branch'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      ZUPLO_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ZUPLO_API_KEY }}

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Delete environment
        run: |
          # The deleted branch name
          BRANCH_NAME="${{ github.event.ref }}"
          # Convert slashes to hyphens
          ENV_NAME="${BRANCH_NAME//\//-}"

          echo "Deleting environment: $ENV_NAME"

          # Ignore errors if env doesn't exist
          npx zuplo delete \
            --environment "$ENV_NAME" \
            --api-key "$ZUPLO_API_KEY" \
            --wait || true

This workflow:

1. Triggers when any branch is deleted
2. Converts the branch name to the environment name format
3. Deletes the corresponding Zuplo environment
4. Continues without error if the environment doesn't exist

Combining with PR Cleanup

Use this as a backup for PR preview environments. The PR workflow handles cleanup when PRs close, but this catches cases where:

• Someone deletes a branch without closing the PR first
• A branch was pushed but never had a PR opened
• The PR cleanup job failed

Scheduled Cleanup

For additional safety, run periodic cleanup to catch any orphaned environments:

.github/workflows/scheduled-cleanup.yaml
 
name: Scheduled Cleanup

on:
  schedule:
    # Run daily at midnight UTC
    - cron: "0 0 * * *"

jobs:
  cleanup:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      ZUPLO_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ZUPLO_API_KEY }}

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0 # Fetch all branches

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Cleanup stale environments
        run: |
          # Get all remote branches
          BRANCHES=$(git branch -r | sed 's|origin/||' | tr '/' '-' | tr -d ' ')

          # List Zuplo environments and delete stale ones
          npx zuplo list --api-key "$ZUPLO_API_KEY" --json > environments.json

          cat environments.json | jq -r '.[] | .name' | while read ENV; do
            # Skip protected environments
            if [[ "$ENV" == "main" || "$ENV" == "production" || "$ENV" == "staging" ]]; then
              continue
            fi

            # Delete if no matching branch exists
            if ! echo "$BRANCHES" | grep -q "^$ENV$"; then
              echo "Deleting stale environment: $ENV"
              npx zuplo delete --environment "$ENV" --api-key "$ZUPLO_API_KEY" --wait || true
            fi
          done

Next Steps

• Set up PR preview environments with built-in cleanup
• Implement multi-stage deployment for production