Automating GitHub Profile README Updates with GitHub Actions and Repository Dispatch

Recently I implemented a workflow that automatically synchronizes each newly published blog article to my GitHub profile page using GitHub Actions.

The workflow requires three key steps:

Create a personal repository with the same name as your GitHub username; the README.md in this repository is displayed on your profile.

Use GitHub Actions to fetch the latest blog posts and update the README.md.

Trigger the update only when a new article is published, using a webhook.

The special repository (named after your GitHub account) shows its README.md on your profile. For example, if your GitHub username is GeBiLaoWang, creating a repository called GeBiLaoWang and adding a README.md will make it appear on your homepage.

To automatically fetch articles, I used the open‑source blog-post-workflow project, which can retrieve the latest posts from an RSS feed (and also supports StackOverflow and YouTube). Adding the following workflow file to the special repository enables this:

name: Latest blog post workflow
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '* 2 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  update-readme-with-blog:
    name: Update this repo's README with latest blog posts
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - uses: gautamkrishnar/blog-post-workflow@master
        with:
          # My blog RSS link
          feed_list: "https://shenxianpeng.github.io/atom.xml"
          # Get the latest 10 posts
          max_post_count: 10

This schedule runs daily at 02:00 UTC, but a more efficient approach is to trigger the workflow only when a new post appears. GitHub Actions provides the repository_dispatch webhook for this purpose.

The dispatch event can be customized; I defined an event type called special_repository. The workflow file is adjusted to listen for this event:

# special_repository.yml
name: Latest blog post workflow

on:
  repository_dispatch:
    # Custom event type
    types: [special_repository]
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  update-readme-with-blog:
    name: Update this repo's README with latest blog posts
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - uses: gautamkrishnar/blog-post-workflow@master
        with:
          feed_list: "https://shenxianpeng.github.io/atom.xml"
          max_post_count: 10

To send the special_repository dispatch event, a simple curl command calls the GitHub API:

curl -XPOST -u "${{ secrets.PAT_USERNAME }}:${{ secrets.PAT_TOKEN }}" \
    -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.everest-preview+json" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    https://api.github.com/repos/shenxianpeng/shenxianpeng/dispatches \
    --data '{"event_type": "special_repository"}'

A second workflow file sends this dispatch when the master branch is updated:

name: Trigger special repository

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Send repository dispatch event
        run: |
          curl -XPOST -u "${{ secrets.PAT_USERNAME }}:${{ secrets.PAT_TOKEN }}" \
            -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.everest-preview+json" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            https://api.github.com/repos/shenxianpeng/shenxianpeng/dispatches \
            --data '{"event_type": "special_repository"}'

Note: PAT_USERNAME and PAT_TOKEN must be added to the repository's Settings → Secrets.

With these configurations, the GitHub profile README is automatically updated whenever a new blog post is published.

If you have other interesting use‑cases, feel free to share them in the comments.