diff --git a/.github/workflows/checkin.yml b/.github/workflows/checkin.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index cf4f0d6..0000000
--- a/.github/workflows/checkin.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,25 +0,0 @@
-name: "PR Checks"
-on: [pull_request, push]
-
-jobs:
-  check_pr:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    steps:
-    - uses: actions/checkout@v1
-
-    - name: "npm ci"
-      run: npm ci
-
-    - name: "npm run build"
-      run: npm run build
-
-    - name: "npm run test"
-      run: npm run test
-
-    - name: "check for uncommitted changes"
-      # Ensure no changes, but ignore node_modules dir since dev/fresh ci deps installed.
-      run: |
-        git diff --exit-code --stat -- . ':!node_modules' \
-        || (echo "##[error] found changed files after build. please 'npm run build && npm run format'" \
-                 "and check in all changes" \
-            && exit 1)
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5dc49c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+name: ci
+on: # rebuild any PRs and main branch changes
+  pull_request:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - master
+      - 'releases/*'
+
+jobs:
+  build: # make sure build/ci work properly
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+    - run: |
+        npm install
+        npm run all
+  test: # make sure the action works on a clean machine without building
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+    - uses: ./
+      with:
+        build-root-directory: __tests__/data/basic
+        arguments: help