Explanation for GitHub Workflow run statuses

[abhijit-hota]

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The GitHub API for workflow runs allows a status parameter:

Returns workflow runs with the check run status or conclusion that you specify. For example, a conclusion can be success or a status can be in_progress. Only GitHub can set a status of waiting or requested.

Can be one of: completed, action_required, cancelled, failure, neutral, skipped, stale, success, timed_out, in_progress, queued, requested, waiting, pending.

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• Can someone explain or point me to an explanation of these states? I mainly want to understand when and why they occur and their lifecycle i.e. if specific states precede other specific states, etc.
• Can I get the time spent in each of these states for a workflow run?

[FearlessHyena]

I'd like to know the lifecycle for the states as well. The official docs just mention the states without specifying what they signify. For e.g. what's the difference between requested, waiting, pending and queued?
Some clarification would really help

[charlesbe-croesus]

Please Github. Your API has a great, methodic and exhaustive list of all its endpoints with json schemas, but it's missing the meanings behind values like these.

[PieterT2000]

+1 I'm trying to query all active workflows for a given repository and understanding the meanings of these statuses would help in making my logic more robust.

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[vdavitiani]

bump

[pulkitanz]

+1 I have workflows which are stuck in the pending status and I can't find them on the Github Actions Tab as there is no filter for pending

[tomsit-ionos]

in particular i would like to know:

1. the meaning of these: neutral, stale
2. the difference/relation of these: queued, requested, waiting, pending, action_required

i would suggest to place a state diagram in the docs

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[Errorbot1122]

SO... dose anyone know this from trial and error?

[Reconnact]

+1 especially the action_required

[egekocabas]

I am currently developing an app that integrates with GitHub Workflows. In my use case, I have a custom deployment protection rule implemented through my GitHub App, which functions as a bot. I also have a backend application that uses this GitHub App to listen to webhooks and process deployment approvals or rejections for environments with this protection rule enabled.

In this context, the waiting status indicates that the workflow run is paused, waiting for an approval or rejection response from the app. I hope this explanation clarifies the behavior in this specific scenario, though it’s possible the status might be used differently in other cases.

[rahulr9801]

It is now documented in Check statuses and conclusions

Checks can have many different statuses. Statuses describe the state of a check from when it is created to when it is completed. Some statuses cannot be set manually and are reserved for GitHub Actions. When a check has a status of completed, it has a conclusion. The conclusion describes the result of the check. All possible check statuses and conclusions are described in the link above.

[Errorbot1122]

👍 - Now we are one step closer to coherent documentation 🎉
_{(tbh, took them long enough)}

@abhijit-hota 👀

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[Montiwa11]

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