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Manually running a workflow

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When a workflow is configured to run on the workflow_dispatch event, you can run the workflow using the Actions tab on GitHub, GitHub CLI, or the REST API.

Configuring a workflow to run manually

To run a workflow manually, the workflow must be configured to run on the workflow_dispatch event. To trigger the workflow_dispatch event, your workflow must be in the default branch. For more information about configuring the workflow_dispatch event, see "Events that trigger workflows".

Write access to the repository is required to perform these steps.

Running a workflow

  1. On GitHub.com, navigate to the main page of the repository.
  2. Under your repository name, click Actions. Actions tab in the main repository navigation
  3. In the left sidebar, click the workflow you want to run. actions select workflow
  4. Above the list of workflow runs, select Run workflow. actions workflow dispatch
  5. Use the Branch dropdown to select the workflow's branch, and type the input parameters. Click Run workflow. actions manually run workflow

To learn more about GitHub CLI, see "About GitHub CLI."

To run a workflow, use the workflow run subcommand. Replace the workflow parameter with either the name, ID, or file name of the workflow you want to run. For example, "Link Checker", 1234567, or "link-check-test.yml". If you don't specify a workflow, GitHub CLI returns an interactive menu for you to choose a workflow.

gh workflow run workflow

If your workflow accepts inputs, GitHub CLI will prompt you to enter them. Alternatively, you can use -f or -F to add an input in key=value format. Use -F to read from a file.

gh workflow run greet.yml -f name=mona -f greeting=hello -F data=@myfile.txt

You can also pass inputs as JSON by using standard input.

echo '{"name":"mona", "greeting":"hello"}' | gh workflow run greet.yml --json

To run a workflow on a branch other than the repository's default branch, use the --ref flag.

gh workflow run workflow --ref branch-name

To view the progress of the workflow run, use the run watch subcommand and select the run from the interactive list.

gh run watch

Running a workflow using the REST API

When using the REST API, you configure the inputs and ref as request body parameters. If the inputs are omitted, the default values defined in the workflow file are used.

Note: You can define up to 10 inputs for a workflow_dispatch event.

For more information about using the REST API, see the "Create a workflow dispatch event."