github actions run a job on pull request merge to specific branch

[ash-dey-sa]

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I am trying to run a job within github actions workflow with the following condition. My aim is to run the job if a pull request to develop branch is merged. However, when I merge a pull reqest to develop branch, the job is skipped. Can someone pl point me what I may be doing wrong?

on:
  push:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - develop
      - main
      - test
      - feature
  workflow_dispatch:

and then the condition for the specific job

if: ${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/develop' && github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.action == 'closed' && github.event.pull_request.merged == true }}

If I change the heads to base in the above if condition, its still the same result i.e. the job is skipped.

[elendil7]

Option [1]

Hello. A potential workaround could be removing the following snippet:
if: ${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/develop' && github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.action == 'closed' && github.event.pull_request.merged == true }}
And instead relying solely on the following configuration:

on:
  pull_request:
    # For the develop branch only.
    branches:
      - develop
    # Execute the action on closed (merged) PR.
    types:
      [closed]
    workflow_dispatch:

Note: I removed all branches except "develop" from the branches field. If you have separate jobs that run on those branches, consider making another GitHub Actions yml file for this job specifically. Abstraction and separation of concerns is your best friend here.

Option [2]

GitHub unfortunately does not have the pull-request-merged event. However, in the case that the only action you take with regards to the develop branch is opening and merging PRs to it, you could simply do the following:

on:
  push:
    # For the develop branch only.
    branches:
      - develop
    workflow_dispatch:

A merged PR to the develop branch will always trigger the push event, which executes your GitHub actions file's jobs accordingly.

Option [3]

The final option (and perhaps most reliable option, if done right) is the best of both worlds. It ensures that your jobs only run if the following conditions are met:

• Event must be a Pull Request
• Type of event must be closed
• The Pull Request must be merged

on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - develop
    types:
      - closed

# Later, in the jobs section of your actions.yml file.
jobs:
  if_merged:
    if: github.event.pull_request.merged == true
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - run: |
        echo The PR was successfully merged.

Edits (ignore)

1. Added missing line "on:" in Option 2

[P-mistry]

yeah bro

[DavidATapia]

The only issue I see with this option is that PRs can be closed for reasons other than a merge to the default branch. In this particular case, there is only a single job -- and that has the github.event.pull_request.merged == true conditional -- but other defined jobs without that conditional will still run if a PR is simply closed, as I understand it.

For that reason, I'd be inclined to use option 2, but add the conditional from option 3. As long as pushes to the default branch are disabled in the repo settings, then option 2 (with the added conditional) would seem to be the best of both worlds.

[ash-dey-sa]

Thank you so much @elendil7 for providing answers with options. It was really helpful. I have used option 3, and it worked.

[elendil7]

No worries! Glad to help 👍