I'm trying to improve our release workflow visibility and tracking, but finding the right tool has been a challenge. We have a two-stage release process: deploy and promote using a blue/green strategy. Both stages are totally automated with GitHub Actions, so we're not looking for a tool to trigger those actions. Instead, we need something that adds a manual layer on top, where developers and PVT testers can confirm deployments, approve promotions after PVT sign-off, and track the current state of releases across different regions.
Currently, we're managing this through Slack workflows with buttons like 'PVT approved' and 'Promote now', but it's getting chaotic—there's no central view of the status per region, it's difficult to see history or who approved what, and there's too much noise in the channels.
What we definitely don't want is a task system like Jira or ClickUp, a database-style view like Airtable, or a tool that controls the automation itself. Instead, we prefer a reusable, step-by-step manual workflow with approvals for each release, a clean UI for both tech and non-tech users, light integration with Slack or GitHub for notifications, and tracking/history for releases based on version and region.
In short, we want a way to maintain a consistent human process along with our GitHub automation without it becoming too burdensome. Has anyone else encountered a similar need or found a tool that works well for this?
5 Answers
Consider using IssueOps! It allows you to trigger and approve workflows directly from GitHub issues. With GitHub scripts, you can even verify commenters against groups, which might help streamline your approvals.
Have you looked into Azure Pipelines or Octopus Deploy? Both of these have built-in steps for manual intervention, so they can pause deployments until someone approves the next action, which should give you the control you’re looking for without excess overhead.
You could also explore GitHub environments for an auto PR or further deployment step. By the way, if you need any help building it out, I can do that for $300!
You might want to check out Spinnaker! It allows you to set up conditional tasks in your pipelines, plus it has a cool 'manual judgement' task that pauses until someone gives their thumbs up. It also integrates with Slack for notifications, which could help streamline your communications.
Google Cloud Deploy could be worth exploring too. It seems to cover a lot of what you're asking for. Though, I've noticed the market for these kinds of tools is pretty limited; many seem to be making do with complex GitHub Actions setups.
Totally agree! You can set up multiple GitHub actions and trigger them either automatically on PR merges or manually through buttons. You can also collect inputs before executing the script, like version numbers or specific SHAs for deployment.