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Delete Old GitHub Actions Runs

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Deletes workflow runs older than a specified number of days
v1
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About

Removes old GitHub Actions runs to keep your repository clean. You are advised to run this action with the dry-run option first to see what will be deleted.
When you are ready to use this, you can schedule it to check periodically.

WARNING: Deletion cannot be undone. Use at your own risk.

Usage

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * *'  # Specify your own schedule

jobs:
  delete-old-actions:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: yanovation/delete-old-actions@v1
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          days-ago: 30

Or you can test with dry-run option:

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * *'

jobs:
  delete-old-actions:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: yanovation/delete-old-actions@v1
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          days-ago: 30
          dry-run: true 

You can also keep the last N runs (N = 5 in this example):

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * *'

jobs:
  delete-old-actions:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: yanovation/delete-old-actions@v1
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          days-ago: 30
          dry-run: true
          keep-latest: 5

Options

  • token: The GitHub token to use for authentication. (required)
  • days-ago: The number of days ago to delete the runs. (required)
  • dry-run: If set to true, the Action will only list the runs to be deleted without actually deleting them. (optional, default: false, meaning it will delete the runs)
  • keep-latest: The number of latest runs to keep. (optional, default: 0, meaning this option is disabled)

For the token, you can just use the {{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} which is a default secret that GitHub provides to each run. You can read more about it here.

Token permissions

If you want to use the default ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}, you should give it a write permissions either on the repository or organization level:
How to give default write access to GITHUB_TOKEN
You can read more about it here.
This is the easiest way, especially if you have multiple repositories within multiple organizations and have access to update this setting, but gives too much access to the token.

Alternatively, you can authenticate with a GitHub App (needs more setup):

...
    steps:
      - name: Generate a token
        id: generate-token
        uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v1
        with:
          app-id: ${{ vars.APP_ID }}
          private-key: ${{ secrets.APP_PRIVATE_KEY }}

      - uses: yanovation/delete-old-actions@v1
        with:
          token: ${{ steps.generate-token.outputs.token }}
          days-ago: 30

You can read more about it here.

Also, another option is to create a Personal Access Token (PAT). Make sure to give the token the least needed access.

Other docs

Articles (to learn more about it)

Delete Old GitHub Actions Runs is not certified by GitHub. It is provided by a third-party and is governed by separate terms of service, privacy policy, and support documentation.

About

Deletes workflow runs older than a specified number of days
v1
Latest

Delete Old GitHub Actions Runs is not certified by GitHub. It is provided by a third-party and is governed by separate terms of service, privacy policy, and support documentation.