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Integrating with CI/CD

Learn how to automate the update of your OpenAPI specification in GitBook.

GitBook can work with any CI/CD pipeline you already have for managing your OpenAPI specification. By using the GitBook CLI, you can automate updates to your API reference.

Upload a specification file

If your OpenAPI spec is generated during your CI process, you can upload it directly from your build environment:

# Set your GitBook API token as an environment variable
export GITBOOK_TOKEN=<api-token>

gitbook openapi publish \
  --spec spec_name \
  --organization organization_id \
  example.openapi.yaml

Set a new source URL or trigger a refresh

If your OpenAPI specification is hosted at a URL, GitBook automatically checks for updates. To force an update (for example, after a release), run:

# Set your GitBook API token as an environment variable
export GITBOOK_TOKEN=<api-token>

gitbook openapi publish \
  --spec spec_name \
  --organization organization_id \
  https://api.example.com/openapi.yaml

Update your spec with GitHub Actions

If you’re setting up a workflow to publish your OpenAPI spec, complete these steps in your repository:

  1. In your repo, go to “Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions”.

  2. Add a secret: GITBOOK_TOKEN (your GitBook API token).

  3. Add variables (or hardcode them in the workflow):

    • GITBOOK_SPEC_NAME → your spec’s name in GitBook

    • GITBOOK_ORGANIZATION_ID → your GitBook organization ID

  4. Save the workflow file as .github/workflows/gitbook-openapi-publish.yml.

  5. Push changes to “main” (or run the workflow manually).

You can then use this action to update your spec:

.github/workflows/gitbook-openapi-publish.yml
name: Publish OpenAPI to GitBook

on:
  push:
    branches: [ "main" ]
    paths:
      - "**/*.yaml"
      - "**/*.yml"
      - "**/*.json"
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      # Required secret
      GITBOOK_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITBOOK_TOKEN }}
      # Prefer repo/org variables; fallback to inline strings if you like
      GITBOOK_SPEC_NAME: ${{ vars.GITBOOK_SPEC_NAME }}
      GITBOOK_ORGANIZATION_ID: ${{ vars.GITBOOK_ORGANIZATION_ID }}

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Publish spec file to GitBook
        run: |
          npx -y @gitbook/cli@latest openapi publish \
            --spec "$GITBOOK_SPEC_NAME" \
            --organization "$GITBOOK_ORGANIZATION_ID" \
            <path_to_spec>

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