GitHub Actions – Force cancel workflows

Actions customers will now be able to clear stuck workflows by forcing a cancel request from the REST API. This is a new feature and the existing endpoint to cancel a workflow run will remain unchanged.

Sometimes an Actions workflow can become stuck in a state that will not respond to a cancel request. This could block other workflows from executing and would often require customers to contact GitHub Support to resolve the issue. Going forward, customers can invoke force-cancel from the REST API, which will bypass conditions that would otherwise cause the workflow execution to continue. Customers should still only use force-cancel if the workflow fails to respond to POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs/{run_id}/cancel.

For more details see the GitHub Actions workflow runs REST API documentation.

For questions, visit the GitHub Actions community.

To see what's next for Actions, visit our public roadmap.