setup-nimble-action

This action sets up Nimble (Nim's package manager) in your GitHub Actions workflow.

Usage

See action.yml

Basic usage

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: nim-lang/setup-nimble-action@v2
    with:
      nimble-version: '0.16.4' # default is 'latest'. You could also use `nightly` to get #HEAD
      repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

repo-token is used for Rate limiting. It works without setting this parameter, but please set it if you get rate limit errors.

Versions

@v2 is the current major version. @v1 is frozen and still works, so existing workflows keep running unchanged until you choose to move.

Two things changed in v2:

• Nimble is installed for the runner's architecture, so Apple Silicon runners get a native arm64 binary instead of an emulated x86_64 one. If a macOS job builds for an architecture other than the runner's own, pass the target explicitly — for example --passC:"-target x86_64-apple-macos11" alongside --cpu:amd64.
• nimble-version accepts a commit SHA or branch name, built from source.

Architecture

The action installs a Nimble matching the runner's architecture, so Apple Silicon and arm64 Linux runners get a native binary rather than an emulated x86_64 one.

Nimble does not publish a native binary for every architecture on every release — macosx_aarch64 starts at 0.22.2, and Windows has no arm64 build. Where one is missing the action installs the x64 binary and emits a warning annotation, since an emulated Nimble goes on to resolve an x64 Nim, which makes NimScript report amd64 on an arm64 machine.

Pin to a commit or branch

nimble-version also accepts a commit SHA or a branch name from nim-lang/nimble. These are built from source: expect a few minutes on a cold cache (the result is cached per commit), and a Nim compiler is downloaded for the build unless nim is already on PATH.

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: nim-lang/setup-nimble-action@v2
    with:
      nimble-version: 'a1b471d13d173897942f99d013f4efb79913bdf2' # or a branch, e.g. 'master'
      repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Setup latest version

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: nim-lang/setup-nimble-action@v2
    with:
      nimble-version: 'latest'
      repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Cache usage

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - name: Cache nimble
    id: cache-nimble
    uses: actions/cache@v4
    with:
      path: ~/.nimble
      key: ${{ runner.os }}-nimble-${{ hashFiles('*.nimble') }}
      restore-keys: |
        ${{ runner.os }}-nimble-
    if: runner.os != 'Windows'
  - uses: nim-lang/setup-nimble-action@v2
    with:
      repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Matrix testing usage

Test across multiple platforms:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os:
          - ubuntu-latest
          - windows-latest
          - macOS-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: nim-lang/setup-nimble-action@v2
        with:
          repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Change Nimble installation directory

The action installs Nimble to .nimble_runtime directory by default. You can change this using:

  - uses: nim-lang/setup-nimble-action@v2
    with:
      nimble-version: latest
      repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      nimble-install-directory: custom_dir

License

MIT