workflow-guardian vs actionlint vs super-linter: Which GitHub Actions Linter Should You Use?

Your GitHub Actions workflows are code. Bad code gets caught. Yet somehow, workflows are the wild west—almost no one lints them. This matters. A typo in your secrets pipeline, a missing permission flag, or an unvetted action can cost you. Three tools stand out in this space: workflow-guardian , actionlint , and super-linter . I tested each against real workflows from actual production repos. Here's what you need to know. The Three Contenders workflow-guardian is a GitHub Action that scans workflows for security and configuration issues. Lightweight, laser-focused on the problems that actually hurt. actionlint is a standalone linter written in Go. Fast. Stateless. Catches YAML syntax errors, deprecated syntax, and some security concerns. Plays well in CI. super-linter is the heavyweight. It lints everything—workflows, Docker, Markdown, JavaScript, Python, and more. Swiss Army knife for repos that want one linter to rule them all. Speed Test I ran each against a folder with 17 production