Missing workflow_dispatch at the Action tab

[diegobernardes]

I was doing some tests with the workflow_dispatch and it was working great until I did a force push into master (it’s a private and not used by others repository) to move the changes from master to a pull request.
One of those changes was the workflow_dispatch. After I did this the workflow doesn’t shows up anymore at the Action tab.

GitHub got into an invalid state? What I can do to solve this problem?

I tried to delete the file and then create using the graphic interface, but I got the same result.

[Simran-B]

The workflow file must be committed in the default branch (master/main) if you want to use the workflow_dispatch event. Is it still present there or only on a feature branch?

docs.github.com

Manually running a workflow - GitHub Docs

[diegobernardes]

Yes, the file is at the default branch and still doesn’t show to me on the actions tab. It’s not the first time this happens to me. Looks like GitHub get into an invalid state and after that, I can’t use the manual workflow at the repository anymore.

It’s not like I can’t see the Run workflow button, I can’t see the whole workflow. The other workflows that I have at the repository are there and working fine.

[diegobernardes]

It’s a bug with GitHub, I just confirmed. I changed the name of the files and the name of the workflow and now it’s showing for me.

[DanielStoica85]

Were you guys able to fix it (in 2024)?

[gopinath-ahold]

End of 2024. Still not fixed

[Sukhtaaj]

Last day of 2024; Same state.

[oskarsword]

This is still an issue just putting this here

[derekmckinnon]

Just hit this annoying issue 😭

[leafney]

Thanks. I had the same problem with not displaying the workflow button on the page. After changing the file name, it works.

Changes to be committed: (use "git restore --staged <file>..." to unstage) renamed: .github/workflows/develop.yml -> .github/workflows/build.yml 

[mvlasovatl]

May we get a notification, when this bug is fixed? It’s quite annoying. I faced it as well.

[andymckay]

This has been fixed, if you are still seeing a problem, please let us know where.

[duaneking]

It has not been fixed.

[mvlasovatl]

Hey @andymckay !
It happened just today in my private repository. I have pushed there a copy of the public repository with already existing workflows. The workflow that was supposed to be triggered manually only wasn’t detected by Github and therefore didn’t show up in Actions tab. So, I wasn’t able to trigger it. Neither via UI, nor via REST API. I had to rename a workflow file in master to make Github notice that workflow and let me run it eventually. Renaming a workflow in a branch didn’t help.

[andymckay]

Thank you, I’ll file an issue internally and the team will take a look.

[duaneking]

It still has not been fixed.

[lupine86]

I was able to reproduce what you describe. I didn’t need to rename the file, but instead just added a comment to the file and noticed the workflow was created.

[beikeni]

Same exact issue here

[nbdd0121]

Still couldn’t get it to work in a private clone of a private repository. I’ve tried adding a comment as @lupine86 suggested but the button still didn’t appear.

[modullar]

It is not working for me either! no button for the workflow is being shown.

[pdolinic]

I can confirm renaming workflow from the the orignal.yml to fixed.yml fixed it for me as well. It is then also possible to rename to the orginal.yml to have it work afterwards.

[abhinavan1812]

Hi @andymckay,

Seems like this issue is still exist.
If not please guide me to the possible solution for this problem.

Thanks.

[srinivasan-getstan]

Hi @andymckay,

The issue still exists. Any update?

[andymckay]

@srinivasan-getstan, @abhinavan1812 I no longer work at GitHub, so am not able to provide much insight, sorry.

[Nacosia]

bro, it's really really bad when you think it's your problem and you spend all day troubleshooting, then find out it's a bug. :(

[Steve-Glass]

👋 Chiming in from the Actions product team. I'll see if there are any existing internal issues to address this, along with trying to reproduce it myself.

[Steve-Glass]

I can't find any existing internal issues and have added this to our backlog of UX improvements for consideration. I will circle back to this thread once planning is done this month. I can't guarantee it will be prioritized immediately given existing objectives. However, I will try and confirm when we expect to tackle this.

[danonorato]

i can confirm this is still broken today from the gh client

gh workflow run ch-cluster-adhoc-loader.yml -f deliveryDate=2024-10-03-03 -f adhocHost=foobar --ref do/ch-cluster-adhoc-loader

It will not trigger the workflow. I understand if I add my merge my branch into the default branch it will work. I have other workflow in my default branch. HOWEVER, how are we expected to test dispatch workflows? Iterate in the default branch?????? can't be the case right?

[NinoScript]

Please add a branch selector to the Actions tab. This will allow me to view the Actions I'm working on and iterate on them before merging to the default branch.

[EmiliaKlassonZendr]

Can recommend the workaround described here:
https://thomaslevesque.com/2024/04/25/running-a-github-actions-workflow-that-doesnt-exist-yet-on-the-default-branch/.

Makes it possible to deploy from a non-default branch.

[brekkfast]

This works for my use case, thanks for sharing

[VillagerTom]

I come across this issue today when I'm writing a new workflow file.
All my workflow files have the same fields as below:

on: workflow_dispatch: push: branches: - 'main'paths-ignore: - '**.md' - '**.txt' - '.github/**' - '.idea/**' - '!.github/workflows/${workflow_filename}'

But only one workflow has the Run workflow button!

[aniagarw-cc]

weirdly my workflow file in non-default branch is working when called from ghcli but don't see the option to run it from UI or port.io

[krakjn]

TL;DR must commit workflow files back to default branch.

That's how they show up on GUI. I was working on a side branch and they were not showing up. A workflow is a per file basis.

[anthops]

Ah damn that sucks

[mjohnsonengr]

I wonder if I ended up in this state by forking a repo that had actions.

[yourcharlie23]

Bug still exist, workflow wont show up until you rename/delete and put back the the yml file. This bug always happen if the repo is forked/cloned from a repo/template that has action. It wont automatically list the workflow until you delete/rename the file... Editing the file may make it appear but it wont trigger, no history of running at all.

[vikash2310]

It seems this issue still isn't fully resolved. If you're not seeing the workflow trigger button, make sure you've copied your workflow file to the default branch (usually main or master).

Once the file is present in the default branch, the "Run workflow" button should appear in the GitHub Actions tab for that workflow.

Here’s a minimal example that should work:

on: workflow_dispatch: inputs: environment: description: 'Environment to deploy to' required: true default: 'dev' type: choice options: - dev 

[ijiratth]

Coming across this bug today as well. The workflow is pushed to default branch directly along with other stuff (1st commit) when the repo first published. The workflow doesn't appear when default branch is named 'master'. It appears after editting the workflow and commit again.

When default branch is named 'main'. It appears as normal from 1st commit.

[vikash2310]

It seems this issue still isn't fully resolved. If you're not seeing the workflow trigger button, make sure you've copied your workflow file to the default branch (usually main or master).

Once the file is present in the default branch, the "Run workflow" button should appear in the GitHub Actions tab for that workflow.

Here’s a minimal example that should work:

on: workflow_dispatch: inputs: environment: description: 'Environment to deploy to' required: true default: 'dev' type: choice options: - dev 

[duaneking]

This defect still exists and it is not appropriate to expect it to be checked into the main branch as a resolution.

My default expectation for accessibility and functionality is that if I've given this workflow_dispatch tag to it then it's always going to show up and I have the option of running it against any branch or change set that I request.

[mandrzejewski-iceye]

Is this going to get fixed ever? You want the users to merge into the master a work in progress code just to make the workflow appear in the Actions tab? That is super weird.

[hz3866]

this bug appears again.

"""
name: Publish To PYPI ✋

permissions:
actions: write
contents: read
security-events: write

on:
workflow_dispatch:

"""

no action button