Removed Skipped Runs

A GitHub composite action that bulk-deletes workflow runs from a repository using the gh CLI. By default it targets skipped runs (the common cleanup case), but it can also delete runs with any other conclusion — or all runs regardless of conclusion. Useful for keeping a repo's Actions history tidy.

Usage

- name: Delete skipped workflow runs
  uses: MandalAutomations/Removed_Skipped_Runs@main
  with:
    repo: my-org/my-repo
    num_to_delete: '500'
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN }}

The job must grant actions: write to the token (see the example workflow below).

Inputs

Input	Required	Default	Description
repo	Yes	—	Repository in owner/repo form (e.g. my-org/my-repo).
num_to_delete	No	500	Maximum number of workflow runs to delete in one invocation.
conclusion	No	skipped	Run conclusion to target. One of skipped, success, failure, cancelled, stale, timed_out, neutral, action_required, startup_failure, or all.
dry_run	No	false	If true, list runs that would be deleted without deleting them.
github_token	Yes	—	Token used to authenticate the gh CLI. Needs actions: write on the target repo. The default GITHUB_TOKEN works if the calling job grants that permission.

How it works

The action runs scripts/delete_runs.sh, which lists workflow runs from the configured repository (filtering server-side by conclusion when one is given) and deletes up to num_to_delete of them via gh api --method DELETE. Schedule it on a cron (e.g. nightly) to keep your Actions history tidy.

The script counts only successful deletions and reports failures separately, so if you scheduled it on cron and it starts emitting failure counts, you'll know.

Example workflow

name: Cleanup workflow runs

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 3 * * *'   # 03:00 UTC daily
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  cleanup:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      actions: write
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: MandalAutomations/Removed_Skipped_Runs@main
        with:
          repo: ${{ github.repository }}
          num_to_delete: '200'
          github_token: ${{ github.token }}

Examples

Delete failed runs in dry-run mode (logs IDs but deletes nothing):

- uses: MandalAutomations/Removed_Skipped_Runs@main
  with:
    repo: ${{ github.repository }}
    conclusion: failure
    dry_run: 'true'
    github_token: ${{ github.token }}

Delete up to 1000 runs of any conclusion:

- uses: MandalAutomations/Removed_Skipped_Runs@main
  with:
    repo: ${{ github.repository }}
    conclusion: all
    num_to_delete: '1000'
    github_token: ${{ github.token }}