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How to Prevent Overlapping GitHub Actions Scheduled Runs

Use GitHub Actions concurrency groups to prevent overlapping scheduled runs, with the right scope and policy for waiting or newer work.
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Use GitHub Actions concurrency to keep matching scheduled workflow runs—or a specific job—from operating on the same resource at the same time. Choose a group key that identifies the resource and the runs that should coordinate, then decide whether newer work should replace, cancel, or wait behind existing work. Concurrency controls overlap; it does not guarantee that every scheduled trigger runs on time or at all.

Choose what needs to run exclusively

GitHub Actions permits concurrent runs by default. A concurrency group limits matching runs or jobs to one active member at a time. Configure it at the broadest scope that actually shares state or causes side effects, rather than serializing unrelated work.

Serialize the whole workflow

Put concurrency at the top level when no two runs of the workflow should overlap—for example, when each run updates the same deployment target or shared data. This can hold the entire run behind another member of the group.

Serialize only a critical job

Put concurrency on the job that needs exclusive access when other jobs can safely proceed in parallel. Only that job is coordinated; the rest of the workflow is not automatically serialized. See GitHub’s concurrency documentation.

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Pick a group key that matches the shared resource

A common workflow-per-branch key is ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}. It coordinates runs of the same workflow on the same ref while leaving other workflows and refs independent. Use a shared, stable key instead when different workflows or branches really do operate on the same external resource.

Group names are case-insensitive. Workflows using the same group can affect one another’s pending or active work, so do not reuse a group accidentally. Conversely, including workflow and branch identity when they must be independent prevents unintended cross-workflow or cross-ref coordination. The key should represent the boundary at which simultaneous access is unsafe, not merely be copied from a template. Details and expression context are in GitHub’s concurrency documentation.

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Configure a scheduled workflow

This example serializes the whole workflow for each branch ref and allows an active run to finish when a newer run arrives:

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '17 * * * *'

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: false

jobs:
  scheduled-task:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: ./run-task.sh

The offset cron minute avoids scheduling at the top of the hour, a period GitHub identifies as especially prone to schedule delay under high load. It reduces exposure to that hotspot but cannot guarantee punctual delivery. If the task instead needs exclusivity only during one step of a larger workflow, place the concurrency block on that job.

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Choose what happens when another run arrives

There are two separate decisions: whether the current active run should finish, and whether older waiting work should be retained. GitHub’s available behaviors differ as follows:

Configuration Active run Pending work Use it when
Default behavior (cancel-in-progress omitted or false; no queue) One run remains active. At most one run is pending; a newer queued run replaces the older pending run. Intermediate pending executions are disposable and the newest waiting work is the useful one.
cancel-in-progress: true An active run is canceled when newer matching work arrives. The newer work can proceed after cancellation; without a queue policy, the pending-run replacement behavior still applies. Active work becomes obsolete as soon as a newer run exists, and interruption is safe.
queue: max The active run is allowed to proceed. Up to 100 waiting jobs or workflow runs are retained for the group instead of replacing a pending run. Every run should wait its turn rather than dropping intermediate work.

With queue: max, GitHub documents a maximum of 100 waiting jobs or workflow runs per group. It cannot be combined with cancel-in-progress: true. Queue ordering is based on when work began waiting, and actual start times can vary; do not treat it as a promise of dispatch-time ordering. See GitHub’s concurrency documentation.

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Understand what concurrency does not guarantee

Concurrency prevents simultaneous execution among matching work that reaches the group. It is not an exactly-once or on-time delivery mechanism for cron triggers. GitHub says the schedule event can be delayed during periods of high Actions load, particularly at the beginning of an hour; at sufficiently high load, queued jobs can also be dropped. GitHub advises choosing a different minute of the hour to reduce the likelihood of delay. See GitHub’s schedule-event documentation.

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Check schedule behavior when runs are late or missing

  • Confirm the workflow is on the default branch. Scheduled workflows run using the latest commit on the default branch, and the workflow file must exist on that branch. A schedule does not run a version selected from another branch. GitHub documents this behavior.
  • Check the timezone and cron cadence. Schedules default to UTC, support an IANA timezone, and have a shortest interval of once every five minutes. Make sure the expression is interpreted in the intended timezone. See the schedule-event reference.
  • Check repository activity for public repositories. GitHub automatically disables scheduled workflows in public repositories after 60 days without repository activity. This can explain an absent run even when the cron expression and concurrency group are unchanged. See GitHub’s schedule-event documentation.
  • Distinguish a delayed or dropped trigger from serialization. A run waiting behind another member of its group is a concurrency outcome; a schedule delayed or dropped under platform load is a trigger-delivery issue. Changing the group policy cannot recover a trigger that was never delivered.

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