GitHub Actions build summary

Table of contents

Docker's GitHub Actions for building and pushing images generate a job summary for your build that outlines the execution and materials used:

A summary showing the Dockerfile used, the build duration, and cache utilization
Inputs for the build, such as build arguments, tags, labels, and build contexts
For builds with Bake, the full bake definition for the build

Job summaries for Docker builds appear automatically if you use the following versions of the Build and push Docker images or Docker Buildx Bake GitHub Actions:

docker/build-push-action@v6
docker/bake-action@v5

To view the job summary, open the details page for the job in GitHub after the job has finished. The summary is available for both failed and successful builds. In the case of a failed build, the summary also displays the error message that caused the build to fail:

Import build records to Docker Desktop

Introduced in Docker Desktop version 4.31

Beta feature

Import builds is currently in Beta.

The job summary includes a link for downloading a build record archive for the run. The build record archive is a ZIP file containing the details about a build (or builds, if you use docker/bake-action to build multiple targets). You can import this build record archive into Docker Desktop, which gives you a powerful, graphical interface for further analyzing the build's performance via the Docker Desktop Builds view.

To import the build record archive into Docker Desktop:

Download and install Docker Desktop.
Download the build record archive from the job summary in GitHub Actions.
Open the Builds view in Docker Desktop.
Select the Import build button, and then browse for the .zip archive job summary that you downloaded. Alternatively, you can drag-and-drop the build record archive ZIP file onto the Docker Desktop window after opening the import build dialog.
Select Import to add the build records.

After a few seconds, the builds from the GitHub Actions run appear under the Completed builds tab in the Builds view. To inspect a build and see a detailed view of all the inputs, results, build steps, and cache utilization, select the item in the list.

Disable job summary

To disable job summaries, set the DOCKER_BUILD_SUMMARY environment variable in the YAML configuration for your build step:

      -
        name: Build
        uses: docker/docker-build-push-action@v6
        env:
          DOCKER_BUILD_SUMMARY: false
        with:
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}

Disable build record upload

To disable the upload of the build record archive to GitHub, set the DOCKER_BUILD_RECORD_UPLOAD environment variable in the YAML configuration for your build step:

      -
        name: Build
        uses: docker/docker-build-push-action@v6
        env:
          DOCKER_BUILD_RECORD_UPLOAD: false
        with:
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}

With this configuration, the build summary is still generated, but does not contain a link to download the build record archive.

Limitations

Build summaries are currently not supported for:

Builds using Docker Build Cloud. Support for Docker Build Cloud is planned for a future release.
Repositories hosted on GitHub Enterprise Servers. Summaries can only be viewed for repositories hosted on GitHub.com.