rerun-action

A GitHub Action that reruns failed jobs, optionally only when specific patterns are found in logs.

How it works

This action uses gh run rerun <run_id> --failed to rerun all failed jobs in a workflow run. The job and pattern inputs control whether to trigger a rerun, not which jobs get rerun.

• job and pattern are conditions for deciding whether to rerun
• When a rerun is triggered, all failed jobs in the run (and their dependents) are rerun
• The rerun creates a new attempt of the same workflow run

This action must be used with the workflow_run event. Since gh run rerun requires the target run to be completed, you cannot rerun a run from within itself. The workflow_run event fires after the target workflow finishes, making it the right trigger for this action.

Usage

Rerun when a specific pattern is found in a specific job's log

name: Retry on transient failure

on:
  workflow_run:
    workflows: ["CI"]
    types:
      - completed

jobs:
  retry:
    runs-on: ubuntu-slim
    if: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.conclusion == 'failure' }}
    permissions:
      contents: read
      actions: write
    steps:
      - uses: k1LoW/rerun-action@80c58dc1309b82e2746743ea0dc3f726313412a1 # v1.2.0
        with:
          run_id: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.id }}
          pattern: 'Network partition'
          job: 'build-and-test'
          max_attempts: 2

Rerun with multiple patterns (matches any)

      - uses: k1LoW/rerun-action@80c58dc1309b82e2746743ea0dc3f726313412a1 # v1.2.0
        with:
          run_id: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.id }}
          pattern: |
            Network partition
            Connection reset
            Timeout exceeded
          job: 'build-and-test'
          max_attempts: 3

Rerun with multiple jobs

When multiple jobs are specified, a rerun is triggered if any of them failed. Logs from all failed jobs are searched when pattern is also specified.

      - uses: k1LoW/rerun-action@80c58dc1309b82e2746743ea0dc3f726313412a1 # v1.2.0
        with:
          run_id: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.id }}
          pattern: 'Network partition'
          job: |
            build-and-test
            integration-test

Rerun when a pattern is found across all jobs

      - uses: k1LoW/rerun-action@80c58dc1309b82e2746743ea0dc3f726313412a1 # v1.2.0
        with:
          run_id: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.id }}
          pattern: 'Network partition'

Rerun only if a specific job failed (no log check)

      - uses: k1LoW/rerun-action@80c58dc1309b82e2746743ea0dc3f726313412a1 # v1.2.0
        with:
          run_id: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.id }}
          job: 'build-and-test'

Rerun unconditionally on any failure

      - uses: k1LoW/rerun-action@80c58dc1309b82e2746743ea0dc3f726313412a1 # v1.2.0
        with:
          run_id: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.id }}
          max_attempts: 3

Check whether a rerun was triggered

      - id: rerun
        uses: k1LoW/rerun-action@80c58dc1309b82e2746743ea0dc3f726313412a1 # v1.2.0
        with:
          run_id: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.id }}

      - run: echo "reran=${{ steps.rerun.outputs.reran }}"

Notify only when a rerun was triggered

This example uses a pseudo notification action to show how to branch on steps.rerun.outputs.reran.

      - id: rerun
        uses: k1LoW/rerun-action@80c58dc1309b82e2746743ea0dc3f726313412a1 # v1.2.0
        with:
          run_id: ${{ github.event.workflow_run.id }}
          pattern: 'Network partition'
          job: 'build-and-test'

      - uses: example/notify-action@v1
        if: ${{ steps.rerun.outputs.reran == 'true' }}
        with:
          message: "Rerun triggered for workflow run ${{ github.event.workflow_run.id }}"

Inputs

Name	Required	Default	Description
run_id	Yes		The workflow run ID to rerun
pattern	No		Pattern to search for in logs (newline-separated for multiple). If omitted, rerun unconditionally
job	No		Job name(s) to check (newline-separated for multiple). Narrows log search scope when used with pattern. When used alone, reruns only if any specified job failed
github_token	No	${{ github.token }}	GitHub Token with actions:write permission
max_attempts	No	3	Maximum run attempts to allow retry

Outputs

Name	Description
reran	true if this action triggered gh run rerun, otherwise false