GitHub Gist Store

Store subscribers in a private GitHub Gist — ideal for public repos where you can’t commit a subscribers.json file without exposing email addresses.

Why use this?

The JSON file store requires subscribers.json to be checked into the repo so GitHub Actions can read it. In a public repo, that means subscriber emails are visible to anyone. The Gist store solves this by keeping the same JSON format in a private Gist that’s only accessible via the GitHub API with a token.

Setup

1. Create a private Gist

Create a new secret Gist with a file named subscribers.json:

[]

Copy the Gist ID from the URL (e.g., https://gist.github.com/yourname/abc123def456 → abc123def456).

2. Create a classic PAT with `gist` scope

The default GITHUB_TOKEN in Actions is scoped to the repository and cannot access private gists. Create a classic PAT and check the gist scope.

3. Add repository secrets

gh secret set SUBSCRIBERS_GIST_ID --body "abc123def456"
gh secret set SUBSCRIBERS_GIST_TOKEN --body "ghp_your_pat_here"

4. Set environment variables (local dev)

export SUBSCRIBER_STORE=gist
export GITHUB_GIST_ID=abc123def456
export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_pat_here

Configuration

Variable	Required	Description
`GITHUB_GIST_ID`	Yes	ID of the private Gist
`GITHUB_TOKEN`	Yes	Classic PAT with `gist` scope (fine-grained PATs do not support gists; the default Actions token cannot access private gists)

File format

The Gist uses the same JSON format as the JSON file store:

[
  {
    "email": "alice@example.com",
    "name": "Alice",
    "productIds": ["my-app", "other-app"]
  },
  {
    "email": "bob@example.com",
    "productIds": ["my-app"]
  }
]

Audience compound keys work the same way:

[
  {
    "email": "alice@example.com",
    "productIds": ["my-app:beta"]
  }
]

Email logging

Sent emails are logged to an email-log.json file in the same Gist (created automatically on first send).

GitHub Actions usage

- uses: atriumn/cryyer/.github/actions/send-file@v0
  with:
    product: my-app
    draft-path: drafts/v1.2.0.md
    from-email: updates@yourdomain.com
    email-api-key: ${{ secrets.RESEND_API_KEY }}
    subscriber-store: gist
    github-gist-id: ${{ secrets.SUBSCRIBERS_GIST_ID }}
    github-token: ${{ secrets.SUBSCRIBERS_GIST_TOKEN }}

Managing subscribers

You can manage subscribers through any of the standard Cryyer interfaces:

MCP tools: add_subscriber, remove_subscriber, list_subscribers
Directly: Edit the Gist at https://gist.github.com/{id}
GitHub CLI: gh gist edit {id}