GitHub Actions run stuck queued with zero jobs; cancel and force-cancel return HTTP 409

[Flo-is-dev]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

ARC (Actions Runner Controller)

Discussion Details

Title: Private repository: Actions run stuck queued with zero jobs; cancel and force-cancel return HTTP 409

A deployment workflow in my private repository is stuck before any job is
created. Please help cancel/clear this specific run; do not rerun it or start
a replacement deployment.

Run ID: 43096486319
Created: 2026-11-11 20:30:43 UTC
Last verified: 2026-11-11 20:55:54 UTC

Observed state:

• status: queued; conclusion: null; attempt: 1.
• Zero jobs and zero check runs/annotations.
• The associated check suite also reports queued.
• No pending deployment approvals or other non-terminal repository runs.
• Actions is enabled and the workflow is active.
• The workflow is unchanged from the previous successful run and uses
  a GitHub-hosted ubuntu-latest runner.

Both normal cancellation and force cancellation return:
HTTP 409: "Cannot cancel a workflow run that has not been queued yet."

Force-cancel response at 2026-11-11 20:53:08 GMT:
X-GitHub-Request-Id: 0643:12FCE9:2A070A:470F13:6AF4D5B4

Most recent normal cancellation attempt at 2026-11-11 20:55:53 UTC:
X-GitHub-Request-Id: 16DE:B7C1B:2AAA82:47D0E7:6AF4D65C

The subsequent read still reported queued with zero jobs. No rerun, duplicate
dispatch, concurrency change, or workflow configuration change was made.

This appears consistent with the abnormal run/check-suite state described in:
https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/actions/how-tos/troubleshoot-workflows#canceling-workflows

The repository name, repository URL and commit SHA are omitted because the
repository is private. They can be provided privately to verified GitHub
Support staff if required. No credentials or deployment secrets are included.

[erkangcmn]

Your run was created at 20:30:43 UTC on Nov 11, during the GitHub incident that affected Actions and Pages (https://www.githubstatus.com/history). Runs queued in that window were left orphaned on GitHub's side, and several other people saw exactly the same state at the same time (#212743, #212788, #212795): queued, zero jobs, check suite stuck in queued, and cancel/force-cancel failing.

The 409 ("Cannot cancel a workflow run that has not been queued yet") is the key detail. The run record exists, but it never made it into the actual job queue, so there's nothing for the cancel endpoint to act on. Retrying cancel or force-cancel won't change that, and there's no other API or UI option that clears it from your side.

So the only way to clear it without re-running is GitHub Support:

1. Go to https://support.github.com/contact and pick Actions.
2. Include run ID 43096486319, the created time, and the two X-GitHub-Request-Id values you already collected. They make it a lot easier for them to find the run.
3. Give the repo name and commit SHA in the ticket. It's private to you and support, so you don't need to post them here.

In the meantime the orphaned run doesn't execute anything, so it won't deploy and it won't use any minutes. It's just a stale record. Since you don't want a replacement deployment, it's safe to leave it as it is until support clears it.