Skip to content
You're viewing an older version of this GitHub Action. Do you want to see the latest version instead?
stop-circle

GitHub Action

Cancel Workflow Action

0.7.0

Cancel Workflow Action

stop-circle

Cancel Workflow Action

This Action will cancel any previous runs that are not `completed` for a given workflow

Installation

Copy and paste the following snippet into your .yml file.

              

- name: Cancel Workflow Action

uses: styfle/cancel-workflow-action@0.7.0

Learn more about this action in styfle/cancel-workflow-action

Choose a version

Cancel Workflow Action

This is a GitHub Action that will cancel any previous runs that are not completed for a given workflow.

This includes runs with a status of queued or in_progress.

How does it work?

When you git push, this GitHub Action will capture the current Branch and SHA. It will query GitHub's API to find previous workflow runs that match the Branch but do not match the SHA. These in-progress runs will be canceled leaving only the latest run.

Read more about the Workflow Runs API.

Usage

Typically, you will want to add this action as the first step in a workflow so it can cancel itself on the next push.

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Cancel Previous Runs
        uses: styfle/cancel-workflow-action@0.6.0
        with:
          access_token: ${{ github.token }}
      #- name: Run Tests
      #  uses: actions/setup-node@v1
      #  run: node test.js
      # ... etc

Advanced

In some cases, you may wish to avoid modifying all your workflows and instead create a new workflow that cancels your other workflows. This can be useful when you have a problem with workflows getting queued.

  • Visit https://api.github.com/repos/:org/:repo/actions/workflows to find the Workflow ID(s) you wish to automaticaly cancel.
  • Add a new file .github/workflows/cancel.yml with the following:
name: Cancel
on: [push]
jobs:
  cancel:
    name: 'Cancel Previous Runs'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 3
    steps:
      - uses: styfle/cancel-workflow-action@0.6.0
        with:
          workflow_id: 479426
          access_token: ${{ github.token }}
  • Note: workflow_id can be a Workflow ID (number) or Workflow File Name (string)
  • Note: workflow_id also accepts a comma separated list if you need to cancel multiple workflows

In some cases, you may wish to cancel workflows when you close a Pull Request. Because this is not a push event, the SHA will be the same, so you must use the ignore_sha option.

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [closed]
jobs:
  cleanup:
    name: 'Cleanup After PR Closed'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 3
    steps:
      - name: Cancel build runs
        uses: styfle/cancel-workflow-action@0.6.0
        with:
          ignore_sha: true
          workflow_id: 479426

Contributing

  • Clone this repo
  • Run yarn install
  • Edit ./src/index.ts
  • Run yarn build
  • Commit changes including ./dist/index.js bundle