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Persistent deleted BuildFailed workflow intercepts all Actions runs with startup_failure and zero jobs #206684
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you’ve already proven it. this isn’t tests, node, labels, or the windows self-hosted runner. healthy control: run broken now: every event resolves to workflow_id there is no supported self-serve delete for that row. what to do:
community can’t remove that registration. staff can. that’s the only real fix. |
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🏷️ Discussion Type
Bug
💬 Feature/Topic Area
Workflow Configuration
Discussion Details
Select Topic Area
Bug
Repository
phoenixxrising88/phoenix-operations-hub
Private repository.
Problem
GitHub Actions is persistently routing new workflow runs to a deleted synthetic workflow registration instead of the repository's legitimate active workflows.
The deleted workflow is:
workflow_id: 342415861
name: ""
path: BuildFailed
state: deleted
created_at: 2026-08-25T16:33:31-04:00
A direct API lookup still returns this deleted workflow record.
However, the normal workflow collection contains only the five legitimate active workflows:
There is no BuildFailed workflow file in the repository.
Current reproduction
Current release-candidate head:
083791070b2d030f2cdcd03526b1fbe76fa764e3
Recent runs on this exact head:
33690649075
33690632646
Both runs report:
name: ""
conclusion: startup_failure
workflow_id: 342415861
Querying the jobs for run 33690649075 returns zero jobs.
The failure therefore occurs before job creation, runner assignment, repository checkout, dependency installation, or execution of any workflow step.
Independent self-hosted runner reproduction
A repository-level Windows self-hosted runner named:
Phoenix-Hub-Deploy
was registered successfully and was online/idle.
A dedicated exact-head Windows validation workflow was created in PR #1189 using:
self-hosted
Windows
X64
The failure was unchanged.
GitHub still generated the deleted BuildFailed / startup_failure run before any job was scheduled to the self-hosted runner.
PR:
https://github.com/phoenixxrising88/phoenix-operations-hub/pull/1189
Historical control
This repository previously scheduled Actions jobs normally.
Run:
32845754987
created job:
97794910327
and successfully executed:
Set up job
Check out repository
Set up Node.js
Install dependencies
It then reached the Test step and failed there.
That is a normal CI/test failure.
The current failure is fundamentally different because no job exists at all.
Persistence
This is not isolated to one pull request, one workflow file, one runner type, or one commit.
The zero-job startup_failure condition has persisted across unrelated development work, branches, pull requests, workflow modifications, GitHub-hosted validation attempts, and the self-hosted runner experiment.
The current release candidate remains intentionally blocked from being considered CI-green because GitHub Actions cannot create its validation jobs:
PR #1191:
https://github.com/phoenixxrising88/phoenix-operations-hub/pull/1191
Historical repository documentation also recorded this as a repository-wide pre-job Actions failure:
commit:
dcca10f6b2ad5f1a59075083c90a47e44ea4d118
Existing GitHub Community correlation
I have also added my reproduction evidence to the existing Community discussion covering the same deleted BuildFailed / zero-job startup_failure behavior.
I am opening this separate report so this affected repository has its own reproducible case while remaining correlated with the other reports.
GitHub Support
GitHub Support ticket:
#4722758
included:
The ticket was closed because the support resources available to the account are Community Discussions, Docs, and Skills.
No technical diagnosis, workflow-state reset, purge, or reindex was performed.
What has been ruled out
The evidence does not support these as the source of the failure:
The failure occurs upstream of all of these because no job is created.
Suspected affected layer
I do not have access to GitHub's internal implementation, so I am not asserting a specific database architecture.
The observable problem appears to be stale/corrupted Actions workflow registration or event-dispatch state associated with deleted workflow ID 342415861.
New events continue resolving to that workflow ID even though its state is deleted and it does not appear in the active workflow collection.
Requested GitHub action
Could the GitHub Actions team please investigate the persisted registration/dispatch state for:
repository:
phoenixxrising88/phoenix-operations-hub
workflow:
342415861
path:
BuildFailed
and determine whether the repository requires a backend workflow purge, registration rebuild, trigger reindex, or equivalent repair?
If there is a supported self-service command that actually removes this persisted deleted workflow registration, please provide it.
I am happy to provide additional run IDs or sanitized API responses.
No credentials or private source code are included in this report.
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