README.md

🧹 Purge workflow runs action

This GH action removes action runs from a repository. Based on input parameters it can remove runs that are obsolete, cancelled, failed, older than a given timeframe or skipped. See input parameters below for details.

Inputs

Name	Description	Default	Is optional
token	The token used to authenticate	${{ github.token }}	true
remove-obsolete	Remove obsolete workflows	false	true
remove-cancelled	Remove cancelled workflows	false	true
remove-failed	Remove failed workflows	false	true
remove-older-than	Remove workflows older than timeframe	<null>	true
remove-skipped	Remove skipped workflows	false	true

Remarks on the input fields

All inputs are optional - if any input is not given, the default value will be used.

token

• Using github.token usually works, unless the actions are not scoped with repo rights. For more details, see the GITHUB_TOKEN.
• If the workflow has issues, you may need to use a personal access token (PAT) that must have the repo scope. More details, see "Creating a personal access token".

remove-obsolete

• All workflows that don't have a matching definition anymore (i.e. workflow file was removed, workflow was renamed) will be deleted

remove-cancelled

• Remove workflows from the list that have been cancelled earlier
• Accepts either a boolean or a multiline string. Each line will be matched against the workflow's name. On match the run will be removed.

remove-failed

• Remove workflows from the list that have failed earlier
• Accepts either a boolean or a multiline string. Each line will be matched against the workflow's name. On match the run will be removed.

remove-older-than

• Remove workflows from the list that are older than the given timeframe (e.g. 10s, 30m, 12h, 7d, 2w, 6y or any combination of these (i.e. 1h30m == 90m)).
• Accepts a (multiline) string
  • Lines with a hash (#) as first non-whitespace character are ignored
  • Each line should follow the pattern NU[NU[NU...]] [W]
    • N is a number
    • U is a time unit – the following units are supported:
      • s for seconds
      • m for minutes
      • h for hours
      • d for days
      • w for weeks
      • y for years
    • W is the workflow name or * for all workflows
      • When given with W = * or without a workflow name, all workflows will be checked
      • When given with a workflow name, only the workflows matching the name will be checked for this timeframe

remove-skipped

• Remove workflows from the list that have been skipped earlier
• Accepts either a boolean or a multiline string. Each line will be matched against the workflow's name. On match the run will be removed.

Important

All given inputs are applied (i.e. combined with a logical OR).

Example usage

Remove failed workflows

name: Scheduled purge of failed workflow runs
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '54 0 * * 0'
jobs:
  purge_obsolete_workflows:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: otto-de/purge-deprecated-workflow-runs@v3
        with:
          remove-obsolete: true
          remove-failed: true

Advanced usage

The example below will trigger a run of this workflow each time a deployment status changes. All runs until success will be skipped and then cleaned up in the success case:

name: Manage Deployments
on:
  deployment_status:

jobs:
  clean_unfinished_deployment_status_tasks:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event.deployment_status.state == 'success'
    steps:
      - uses: otto-de/purge-deprecated-workflow-runs@v3
        with:
          # remove all orphaned workflow runs
          remove-obsolete: true
          # remove previously cancelled runs of *all* workflows
          remove-cancelled: true
          # remove failed runs of *this* workflow
          remove-failed: |
            ${{ github.workflow }}
          # remove previously skipped runs of workflows with given names
          remove-skipped: |
            Unit Tests
            Deploy

The following example will remove all workflow runs that are older than 4 weeks, any 'unit test' runs older than a week and all runs of the current workflow older than 1 day:

name: Weekly purge of workflow runs
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * 0'

jobs:
    purge_old_workflows:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        steps:
        - uses: otto-de/purge-deprecated-workflow-runs@v3
          with:
            remove-older-than: |
              # any workflow runs older than four weeks
              2w2w *
              # runs of 'unit test' workflow older than a week and a day
              1w1d unit test
              # runs of current workflow older than one day
              1d ${{ github.workflow }}