Action not triggered on push triggered by git merge --ff-only or dispatch event

[heldrida]

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Bug

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Hi,

Seems that I found a bug, an action which listens to event push or a custom event fails to run for some reason. Why would this be?

Here's the job snippet:

name: jobB
on:
  repository_dispatch:
    types: my-event-name
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]     

Here's the job snippets that is used to merge changes into the main branch:

name: jobA
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      ...
permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  merge-by-develop-hash:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      ...
    - name: Merge into main
      run: |
        if ! git checkout "${{ env.RELEASE_BRANCH }}"; then
          echo "👹 Oops! The develop branch wasn't found"
          
          exit 1
        fi

        if ! git merge --ff-only ${{ github.event.inputs.commitHash }}; then
          echo "👹 Oops! Failed to merge into main for some reason..."

          exit 1
        fi
        
        if ! git push origin "${{ env.RELEASE_BRANCH }}"; then
          echo "👹 Oops! Failed to push changes to the ${{ env.RELEASE_BRANCH }} branch for some reason..."

          exit 1
        fi

    - name: Dispatch Event
      env:
        PAT: ${{ secrets.PAT }}
        ENDPOINT: 'https://api.github.com/repos/<ORG>/<NAME>/dispatches'
        EVENT_NAME: 'my-event-name'
      run: |
        if ! curl -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
          -H "Authorization: token $PAT" \
          --request POST \
          --data '{ "event_type": "$EVENT_NAME" }' $ENDPOINT; then
          echo "⚠️ Warning: Failed to dispatch $EVENT_NAME. Since this triggers the indexer listener, you should dispatch the action manually. If this issue persists, report it internally."
        fi

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[heldrida]

Just noticed that the EVENT_NAME variable is not being expanded. So, not actually triggering the event name it should list and trigger to.
Unfortunately, it doesn't trigger by EVENT_NAME and doesn't trigger by the git push event!

    - name: Dispatch Event
      env:
        PAT: ${{ secrets.PAT }}
        ENDPOINT: 'https://api.github.com/repos/<ORG>/<NAME>/dispatches'
        EVENT_NAME: 'my-event-name'
      run: |
        if ! curl -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
          -H "Authorization: token $PAT" \
          --request POST \
          --data \"{ \"event_type\": \"$EVENT_NAME\" }" $ENDPOINT; then
          echo "⚠️ Warning: Failed to dispatch $EVENT_NAME. Since this triggers the indexer listener, you should dispatch the action manually. If this issue persists, report it internally."
        fi

Also, replaced the github author details, in case GitHub bot's the reason why the event not triggered. But same issue.

    - name: Setup Git Config
     run: |
       git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
       git config --global user.name "Xx"

[heldrida]

I believe I have found the bug.

The name: jobB, the branch name is the "main" branch.

    - name: Set is-prod
      run: |
        currentBranchName="$(git branch --show-current)"
        echo "💡 The current branch is $currentBranchName"
      

This only occurs if the jobB has the following

  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - develop

The jobA is triggered from develop. The develop branch has no new commits when jobA is triggered manually!

[heldrida]

The Event does trigger. Thought the trigger would occur in the context of the commit and show in the listed jobs for the commit message in the "Branch". But it shows in the "Actions tab".

In any case, the bug persists for the "on push main".

[madtethys]

There are a few potential reasons why the action listening to the repository_dispatch or push events might not be triggered. Let’s go through some common causes and solutions:

1. Event Type Mismatch in Dispatch

The event you're dispatching is "event_type": "$EVENT_NAME". However, this will pass the literal string $EVENT_NAME instead of the actual value of the environment variable. To resolve this, you need to use proper shell variable expansion in your curl command, like this:

--data "{\"event_type\": \"${EVENT_NAME}\" }"

This ensures that EVENT_NAME is expanded to my-event-name, which matches the event type defined in jobB.

The final command should look like:

if ! curl -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: token $PAT" \
  --request POST \
  --data "{\"event_type\": \"${EVENT_NAME}\" }" $ENDPOINT; then
  echo "⚠️ Warning: Failed to dispatch $EVENT_NAME. Since this triggers the indexer listener, you should dispatch the action manually. If this issue persists, report it internally."
fi

2. Missing Repository Dispatch Permissions

Ensure that your Personal Access Token (PAT) has the required repo scope for repository dispatch events. This token needs to be able to trigger events within the repository.

You can check and regenerate the PAT with the correct permissions in your GitHub account if needed.

3. Push to Main Branch Trigger Issues

The push trigger in jobB only listens to pushes to the main branch. Ensure that:

• The branch name is exactly main (not master or something else).
• The git push origin "${{ env.RELEASE_BRANCH }}" in jobA is actually pushing to the main branch, or adjust the push trigger to listen to the correct branch.

4. Workflow Runs Limitation

GitHub has a limitation where workflows triggered by the workflow_dispatch event (such as jobA) do not trigger other workflows. This is intentional to prevent infinite workflow loops. In your case, this means that the push event in jobB might not trigger if the push was initiated by a workflow. You can verify this by checking the workflow logs in the repository.

A possible solution is to use the repository_dispatch event as you're doing, but ensure that jobA correctly dispatches the event and jobB listens for it.

5. Repository Dispatch Event Payload

When using repository_dispatch, you can send additional data in the payload. Although you have "event_type": "my-event-name", ensure that this matches the event type exactly in jobB (it seems correct in your snippet).

6. Event Delivery Failures

If you suspect an issue with the event delivery, check the "Recent Deliveries" in your repository's Settings > Webhooks section. This will give you insights into whether the dispatched event was delivered successfully, and if not, the error details.

7. Secrets and Authentication Issues

Double-check that the PAT secret is set correctly in your repository and has sufficient permissions to trigger the events.

If you review these potential issues and none of them resolve the problem, enabling more detailed logging within your workflows (especially around the curl command) might help to diagnose the issue further.

[heldrida]

4. Workflow Runs Limitation

GitHub has a limitation where workflows triggered by the workflow_dispatch event (such as jobA) do not trigger other workflows. This is intentional to prevent infinite workflow loops. In your case, this means that the push event in jobB might not trigger if the push was initiated by a workflow. You can verify this by checking the workflow logs in the repository.

Ok, so this is the reason why it's not working. GitHub has a limitation. Not sure where that's documented https://docs.github.com/en/actions/writing-workflows/choosing-when-your-workflow-runs/events-that-trigger-workflows#workflow_dispatch. Where did you find the information @madtethys ?

[madtethys]

The limitation you're encountering is indeed documented in GitHub's official documentation regarding workflow triggers. Specifically, GitHub Actions does not trigger workflows when an event is generated by another workflow, such as when a push event is triggered by a workflow. This is to prevent infinite loops of workflows.

You can find this information in the GitHub Actions documentation under the section about workflow triggers.

For more detailed discussion, you might also want to check GitHub Community forums or issues on the GitHub Actions repository, as users often share their experiences and findings related to these limitations.