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pull_request workflow added in a PR from a fork doesn't run until it exists on the default branch #46340
Description
Code of Conduct
- I have read and agree to the GitHub Docs project's Code of Conduct
What article on docs.github.com is affected?
What part(s) of the article would you like to see updated?
This is a follow-up to #39364, which was closed as inactive after the team couldn't reproduce it. Here is a public reproduction.
When a pull request from a fork adds a new pull_request workflow, and the base repository's default branch has no workflow file yet, no workflow run is ever created in the base repository. The run only starts once the workflow file is on the default branch. In our case this only happened for the PR from a fork. The same branch opened as a PR inside the fork ran the workflow every time.
Repository: Datatamer/terraform-aws-privatelink-consumer (public). Actions is enabled with all actions allowed. The PR author is an org member with admin on the repo, so no fork approval applies, and no runs were waiting for approval.
- MAJOR: CLOUD-19579 publish the PrivateLink consumer module Datatamer/terraform-aws-privatelink-consumer#1 was opened from the fork
anton-tamr/terraform-aws-privatelink-consumer. It adds.github/workflows/make.ymlwithon: pull_request. The default branchmasterhad no workflows. The PR was reopened and got several pushes, including a force-push. The base repo created no workflow run and no check suite for any of them. The Actions tab showed "No workflows found" and "0 workflow runs". - Control: the same branch opened as a PR inside the fork, against the fork's
master, which also had no workflow, ran the workflow on every push: MAJOR: CLOUD-19579 publish the PrivateLink consumer module anton-tamr/terraform-aws-privatelink-consumer#1 - FIX: add the make workflow Datatamer/terraform-aws-privatelink-consumer#2 added only the same
make.ymltomasterand was merged. - After rebasing #1 onto the new
masterand pushing, the base repo ran the workflow right away: https://github.com/Datatamer/terraform-aws-privatelink-consumer/actions/runs/38811473529
Expected: either the workflow runs for the fork PR, as the article implies by not listing a default-branch requirement for pull_request, or the article states that the workflow file must exist on the default branch for PRs from forks.
Additional information
The first commit of #1 had a YAML syntax error in the workflow. It was fixed in later pushes, and the branch was then squashed so that commit was no longer in the PR. The base repo still created no run until the file was on master.
Activity
subatoi commentedon Oct 16, 2026
@anton-tamr Thanks for reporting. As noted in the original issue, if this behaviour is genuine, then it's a bug. As such, you'd need to either raise this as a community discussion, or, if your plan includes it, raise a Support ticket with details. We can't verify bugs in this repository and we wouldn't be able to follow up here, but I'll mark this issue as
fix-internallyto trigger a workflow to transfer it internally so there's a record of a potential documentation gap. Thank youdocs-bot commentedon Oct 16, 2026
Thank you for opening this issue! Updates to this documentation must be made internally. I have copied your issue to an internal issue, so I will close this issue.
anton-tamr commentedon Oct 16, 2026
the original issue was closed in 2025. and at that time @Sharra-writes requested steps to reproduce. I'm providing steps to reproduce.
this behavior needs to be documented well before the official fix lands. people are wasting tens of thousands of hours worldwide because the behavior isn't documented. I wasted a lot of time and only the original issue helped me to understand how to fix it. you can make it easier for others by simply adding one sentence to the doc. you can revert the doc changes after the fix was made (which can be months or years from now)