Push events are received but create zero workflow runs — repository-wide, all time #205033

tarekaahmed-lang · 2026-08-15T19:56:33Z

tarekaahmed-lang
Aug 15, 2026

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Workflow Configuration

Discussion Details

Every workflow in one of my repositories has never once been triggered by a push. GitHub's own APIs disagree with each other about the same event, which is why I think this is a backend state rather than a config mistake on my side.

The events API says the push arrived:

GET /repos/OWNER/REPO/events
-> PushEvent  2026-08-15T19:21:20Z  actor OWNER  refs/heads/release/v1.8  527c73e8

The Actions API says no run was ever created by a push:

GET /repos/OWNER/REPO/actions/runs?event=push              -> total_count: 0
GET /repos/OWNER/REPO/actions/runs?event=pull_request      -> total_count: 0
GET /repos/OWNER/REPO/actions/runs?event=workflow_dispatch -> total_count: 1
GET /repos/OWNER/REPO/actions/runs                         -> total_count: 2

That 0 is all time and across every workflow in the repository, which was created 2026-06-25. Its entire run history is 2 runs: one manual dispatch and one dynamic Dependency Graph run.

Most recent reproduction: a push of 34 commits to the default branch on 2026-08-15. Run count before: 2. Run count after: 2.

The workflow

on:
  push: {}
  pull_request: {}
  workflow_dispatch: {}

No branch filter, so every pushed branch should match. workflow_dispatch on this exact file creates a run in seconds and executes all four jobs — so the YAML parses and Actions runs fine. Only push and pull_request triggering never fires.

What I have ruled out (all re-checked today)

Actions enabled: GET /actions/permissions returns {"enabled": true, "allowed_actions": "all"}
Workflow registered and state: "active" — not disabled_manually, not disabled_inactivity
Repository is not a fork (fork: false), not archived, not disabled
The pushed branch is the default branch, so this is not the "workflow only exists on a non-default branch" case
Branch filters: the workflow originally named [main, develop] and this repo only uses release/v1.8. That was a real cause of zero runs, it was removed, and removing it changed nothing
Explicit {} event keys instead of null — tried as a fix, changed nothing
Pushes are made over HTTPS by a real user account, not a bot, a GitHub App, or GITHUB_TOKEN, so the "pushes made by Actions do not trigger workflows" rule does not apply
Phantom workflow in a deleted state (raised in another thread here as a cause of blocked runs): GET /actions/workflows returns exactly 2 workflows for my repo, both state: "active", so that is not my cause either

Related

Not posting this as a duplicate, but the class recurs and the previous report went unanswered: "push/pull_request workflow runs not triggering for one repo (schedule + workflow_dispatch still fire)" is in this category, marked Closed · Unanswered. There are also several open reports of the same shape for schedule rather than push, which makes me suspect one underlying event-delivery problem rather than a per-trigger one.

The question

Is there an account-, plan- or repository-level state that suppresses push-triggered Actions while leaving workflow_dispatch working? If there is a setting I have missed, I would genuinely like to be told what it is.

Has anyone seen a repository where ?event=push is zero for its entire history while the events API confirms the pushes were received? I am particularly interested in whether re-registering a repository with the Actions service is something that can be done.

Happy to provide the repository name to a staff member — it is private.

Edited to set the Feature/Topic Area correctly — it posted with the form's default of ARC (Actions Runner Controller), which is not relevant here; this is workflow trigger configuration. Also repaired a code fence that was making the second half of the post render as raw markdown, and added the Related section.

2026-08-15T19:57:06Z

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0 replies

eddinos2 · 2026-08-15T23:12:32Z

eddinos2
Aug 15, 2026

This pattern usually means Actions is receiving the webhook but deciding the push is not eligible to create a run — not that the push never happened. The Events API and the Actions runs API answer different questions, so they can disagree without either being “wrong”.

Checklist that covers almost every case of “PushEvent exists, event=push runs stay at 0”:

Actions enabled for the repo
Settings → Actions → General → “Allow all actions and reusable workflows” (or a policy that still allows your own workflows). If Actions is disabled, workflow_dispatch can still leave a historical run while new pushes create nothing.
Workflow files must live on the default branch first
A workflow under .github/workflows/ only starts receiving push after it exists on the default branch. Pushing a brand-new workflow only on release/v1.8 will not schedule that workflow for that push (and won’t create runs for older workflows that never matched either).
on.push filters
Confirm every workflow’s on.push.branches / paths / tags actually match refs/heads/release/v1.8. A single branches: [main] with default branch = main but all activity on release/* produces exactly: Events API shows PushEvent, Actions event=push stays 0.
Fork / Actions fork policy
If this repo is a fork, check “Fork pull request workflows from outside collaborators” and whether you’re pushing to the fork vs upstream. Forks often look “alive” in Events while Actions is restricted.
Billing / minutes exhausted (org private repos)
On org private repos, hitting the Actions minutes cap can silently stop new runs while API history still shows older workflow_dispatch / dependency-graph jobs.
Path to confirm from the API
```
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/actions/workflows --jq '.workflows[]|{path,state}'
gh api repos/OWNER/REPO/contents/.github/workflows?ref=release/v1.8
```
Every workflow should be state=active, and the YAML on the branch you push should include an on.push clause that matches that ref.

If you can paste one workflow’s on: block and whether release/v1.8 is the default branch, we can narrow it to filter vs entitlement in one step. The “Events says push, Actions says 0 forever” signature is almost always filters or Actions disabled — not a lost webhook.

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Push events are received but create zero workflow runs — repository-wide, all time #205033

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tarekaahmed-lang Aug 15, 2026

🏷️ Discussion Type

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Discussion Details

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eddinos2 Aug 15, 2026

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