Basic compile

The minimum viable GitHub Actions workflow for building a Business Central extension with ALOps v3. Use this as the starting point for a new repo.

What it does

1. Checks out the repo.
2. Diagnoses the runner with alops-info (memory, disk, .NET, Docker, BC versions detected).
3. Compiles every app.json it finds with alops-appcompiler, using altool.exe from the official Microsoft NuGet package.
4. Uploads the resulting .app files as a workflow artifact.

Hosted runners (windows-latest) are fine for compile-only flows. Compile time on a hosted runner is typically 2–4 minutes for a medium app; expect 30–90 seconds on a self-hosted Windows runner with a warm symbol cache.

The workflow

Copy this into .github/workflows/bc-build.yml:

name: BC Build

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: windows-latest

    env:
      ALOPS_LICENSEID: ${{ secrets.ALOPS_LICENSEID }}

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

      - name: Diagnose runner
        uses: HodorNV/ALOps-V3/alops-info@v3   # <!-- TODO: confirm action repo path -->
        with:
          free_mem_threshold: '20'
          free_mem_threshold_action: 'Warn'
          docker_containers_action: 'Ignore'

      - name: Compile
        id: compile
        uses: HodorNV/ALOps-V3/alops-appcompiler@v3   # <!-- TODO: confirm action repo path -->
        with:
          altool_package_version: '17.0.30.49729-beta'
          compilation_mode: 'Serial'
          alsourcepath: ${{ github.workspace }}
          appversiontemplate: '1.0.${{ github.run_number }}.0'
          updatebuildnumber: 'true'

      - name: Upload .app files
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: app
          path: '**/*.app'
          if-no-files-found: error

What to tweak

• Runner — switch windows-latest to [self-hosted, windows] once you have a runner registered. Compile is dramatically faster.
• altool_package_version — pin to a specific version for reproducible builds. Bump it deliberately when you want a newer compiler.
• appversiontemplate — 1.0.${{ github.run_number }}.0 ties the app version to the GitHub run number. Adjust to match your team's versioning convention.
• Triggers — narrow on: to specific paths (e.g., paths: [src/**, app.json]) on a multi-app monorepo to skip unrelated CI noise.

Next step

To install the compiled .app into a running BC service tier as part of the same workflow, see Compile + publish.