Is there a way to run all steps one by one, or stop at specified step for debug purpose? Like breakpoint?

[leslie-qiwa]

Understand I can add a sleep inside the step, but sometimes, I need modify multiple time during debug. It could be convenient to just specify the breakpoint as part of argument.

[panekj]

If the step doesn't fail, you can add - run: exit 1 after it

[leslie-qiwa]

Thanks for replying. Understand I can manipulate the workflow file to stop at wherever I want. It will bring extra burden to always change the workflow then revert the change. Another benefit for breakpoint idea is you can continue run rest of workflow after debug, which I think it will be very useful and above modification may not work.

[aradar46]

I ended up building this on top of act. Disclosure: it's my project, and Claude wrote a good chunk of it. It vendors act with a ~200 line patch and adds breakpoints, so no editing the workflow and reverting after:

fermata run -W .github/workflows/ci.yml --break "Run tests"

Runs until that step, pauses with the container alive, shell gets you inside. continue picks the job back up afterwards, which I think is the part you were missing with the exit 1 approach. It also pauses on any failed step and retry reruns just that one.
All the real execution is act's code, Fermata just adds the pause layer. https://github.com/aradar46/fermata

That said, panekj's trick is simpler if you only need a one-off stop.