GitHub Pages deployment stuck waiting for approval - cannot cancel

[LevanKerdikashvili]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Workflow Deployment

Discussion Details

A GitHub Actions workflow has been stuck for several days with the following status:

deploy is waiting for github-pages deployment approval

No manual approval is configured or required.

Actual Behavior

Deployment remains stuck indefinitely.

No approval is required.

Cancellation through the GitHub UI does not work.

API cancellation, including force-cancel, does not work.

Job execution time remains 0s.

Expected Behavior

The deployment should proceed automatically without approval, and cancellation should work when requested.

Additional Information

Similar issues have been reported previously, but the problem still appears to occur.

Has anyone experienced this recently? Is there a known workaround or a way to clear the stuck deployment?

Any guidance from the GitHub Actions team would be appreciated.

[github-actions[bot]]

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[ronitgupta138]

This happens when GitHub Actions' internal deployment protection gate for the github-pages environment enters a stuck or orphaned state.

How to Fix & Clear the Stuck Deployment

You can clear the lock in two ways without deleting repository code or commits:

Method 1: Delete and Reset the github-pages Environment (Recommended)

1. Go to your repository's Settings > Environments.
2. Click on github-pages.
3. Scroll down and click Delete this environment (this does NOT delete your code or Pages site configuration; it only wipes the stuck deployment state and orphan lock).
4. Go to Settings > Pages, toggle the source to Deploy from a branch and back to GitHub Actions (or simply push a new commit to main).
5. GitHub will recreate the github-pages environment automatically, and the deployment will run without being blocked.

Method 2: Cancel Stuck Deployments via GitHub API

Query the stuck deployment ID and transition its status directly to failure:

# List deployments to find the stuck deployment ID:
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/deployments

# Mark it as failed to release the gate:
gh api -X POST repos/{owner}/{repo}/deployments/<DEPLOYMENT_ID>/statuses -f state="failure" -f description="Clear stuck approval gate"