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Maven / GitHub Actions Interview Questions

How do you trigger one GitHub Actions workflow from another using workflow_run?

workflow_run fires a workflow when a named workflow completes (or starts). This lets you chain independent workflows without merging them into one file — useful for separating CI (fast, runs on all PRs) from CD (slow, only runs after CI passes on main).

# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
on:
  workflow_run:
    workflows: ["CI"]            # exact name of the upstream workflow
    types: [completed]
    branches: [main]             # only when CI ran on main

jobs:
  deploy:
    if: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.conclusion == 'success' }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: ./deploy.sh

The if: check on the job is critical. workflow_run fires regardless of whether the upstream workflow succeeded or failed — the conclusion can be success, failure, cancelled, or timed_out. Without the check, your deploy job would run even on a failed CI.

Important security note: workflow_run always runs in the context of the default branch, not the branch that triggered the upstream workflow. This gives it access to repository secrets even for fork PRs — which is intentional for use-cases like uploading test coverage from fork PRs. However it also means you must be careful not to execute untrusted code from the fork in the workflow_run context.

For simpler same-workflow chaining (one job triggers another), use needs: instead. Use workflow_run only when the two workflows must remain separate files or when you need the default-branch security context.

Which conclusion values can github.event.workflow_run.conclusion produce when workflow_run fires?
In which branch context does a workflow triggered by workflow_run always execute?

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More Related questions...

What is GitHub Actions and what problems does it solve? What are the key components of GitHub Actions — workflows, jobs, steps, actions, and runners? How is a GitHub Actions workflow file structured, and where must it be placed? What are workflow triggers (on:) and which event types does GitHub Actions support? What is the difference between push, pull_request, and workflow_dispatch triggers? What are jobs in GitHub Actions, and how do they run in parallel by default? What are steps, and what is the difference between run: and uses: in a step? What are runners, and what is the difference between GitHub-hosted and self-hosted runners? What is the GitHub Actions Marketplace and how do you find and use actions from it? How do you use the actions/checkout action and what does it do? How do you pass environment variables and secrets to a GitHub Actions workflow? What is the difference between the env:, secrets:, and vars: contexts in GitHub Actions? How do you cache dependencies in GitHub Actions using actions/cache? How do you use matrix builds in GitHub Actions to test across multiple environments? How do you control job execution order in GitHub Actions using needs:? How do you share data between steps within a job using step outputs? How do you share build artifacts between jobs using actions/upload-artifact and actions/download-artifact? What are reusable workflows in GitHub Actions and how do you call them? What are composite actions and when should you choose them over reusable workflows? How do you set up a Docker container service for integration tests using services: in GitHub Actions? How do you use conditional steps with if: in GitHub Actions? What are the key GitHub Actions expression contexts and what information does each provide? How do you use concurrency groups to cancel outdated workflow runs in GitHub Actions? What is the GITHUB_TOKEN and what permissions does it have? How do you trigger one GitHub Actions workflow from another using workflow_run? How do you write a custom JavaScript action for GitHub Actions? How do you write a custom Docker container action for GitHub Actions? How do you implement a complete CI/CD pipeline for a container image in GitHub Actions — build, push to a registry, and deploy? How do you implement path filtering so a workflow only runs when specific files change? How do you debug failing GitHub Actions workflows — enabling debug logging and using tmate? How do you implement branch protection rules with required GitHub Actions status checks? How do you handle large monorepos with multiple services in GitHub Actions? What are OpenID Connect (OIDC) tokens in GitHub Actions and how do they replace long-lived cloud credentials? How do you prevent secret exposure and follow security hardening best practices in GitHub Actions? What are the key differences between GitHub Actions, Jenkins, and GitLab CI?
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