How-To Manually Run a Github Action Workflow

Manually Running a Github Action Workflow

This posts covers how to enable the manual running of a workflow in the Actions tab on a Github repository. This is useful for when you want to run a workflow, but want to avoid having to push/pull to Github to trigger it running. This can be done by using the workflow_dispatch event.

The workflow_dispatch Event

Reading Resource: Manually running a workflow

The workflow_dispatch event is used to trigger certain workflows in a repository. By adding a workflow_dispatch event to your workflows yaml file you can then manually run the workflow from the repo's Actions tab on Github.

The following is an example of a Github action file. This runs on:

• On a push to the main branch, and then at a scheduled time based on the cron value.
• Manually from the github website Actions tab

name: Fetch Updates

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch: # <-- This allows for manual workflow dispatch
jobs:

You can manually trigger a workflow run using the GitHub API and from GitHub. For more information, see Manually running a workflow.

After adding the workflow_dispatch event to your workflow file you will notice the 'Run Workflow' button on the Actions tab, as shown below.

Related Reading

Github Action Syntax

Reading Resource: Workflow Syntax for Github Actions

A workflow is a configurable automated process made up of one or more jobs. You must create a YAML file to define your workflow configuration.

Events

Github allows for events to trigger workflows.

Reading Resource: Events that Trigger Workflows