How can Dependabot pull requests be ignored or excluded in GitHub Actions?

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There are a few ways to exclude Dependabot pull requests from GitHub Actions:

1. Using the if condition in the workflow file: You can use the if condition to only run the workflow if the pull request is not generated by the Dependabot. For example:

   on:
    pull_request:
      branches: [main]
   jobs:
    build:
      if: "!contains(github.actor, '[bot]')"
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
        - name: Checkout
          uses: actions/checkout@v2
        - name: Build
          run: ./build.sh
   

   In this example, the if: "!contains(github.actor, '[bot]')" line checks if the username of the actor (who triggered the workflow) doesn't contain [bot]. This will skip the workflow if Dependabot created the pull request.

2. Using the jobs.<job_id>.if condition: You can also use the jobs.<job_id>.if condition to run specific jobs only if the pull request is not generated by the Dependabot. For example:

   on:
    pull_request:
      branches: [main]
   jobs:
    build:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
        - name: Checkout
          uses: actions/checkout@v2
        - name: Build
          run: ./build.sh
    test:
      if: "!contains(github.actor, '[bot]')"
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
        - name: Checkout
          uses: actions/checkout@v2
        - name: Test
          run: ./test.sh
   

   In this example, the test job will only run if the actor is not a bot (i.e. Dependabot).

3. Using the pull_request_target event: Another option is to use the pull_request_target event, which is triggered when a pull request is targeted at a specific branch (e.g. main). This event includes a pull_request object for the target branch, which you can use to filter out the Dependabot pull requests. For example:

   on:
    pull_request_target:
      branches: [main]
   jobs:
    build:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
        - name: Checkout
          uses: actions/checkout@v2
        - name: Build
          run: ./build.sh
        - name: Test
          if: ${{ github.event.pull_request.user.login != 'dependabot[bot]' }}
          run: ./test.sh
   

   In this example, the Test step will only run if the pull_request.user.login is not dependabot[bot].