Workflow

Workflow

mainly 40 events supported by GitHub Actions which are mainly as follow

here’s a more complete list of the major workflow events GitHub supports:

Commonly Used Events

• push – commits pushed to a branch
• pull_request – PR opened, synchronized, reopened, closed
• create – branch or tag created
• delete – branch or tag deleted
• fork – repository forked
• workflow_dispatch – manual trigger
• workflow_call – triggered by another workflow
• schedule – cron-like scheduled runs
• repository_dispatch – external/custom trigger
• release – release published, edited, or deleted

Collaboration & Review

• issues – issue opened, edited, closed
• issue_comment – comment added to an issue
• discussion – discussion created, answered, deleted
• discussion_comment – comment added to a discussion
• pull_request_review – review submitted
• pull_request_review_comment – comment added to a PR review

Repository & Admin

• branch_protection_rule – branch protection rule changes
• repository – repo created, archived, transferred, deleted
• gollum – wiki page created or updated
• page_build – GitHub Pages build completed

Security & Dependency

• dependabot – Dependabot alerts/updates
• secret_scanning_alert – secret scanning alert detected
• code_scanning_alert – code scanning alert created/resolved

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Key Difference

• Some events are code-centric (push, create, delete).
• Others are collaboration-centric (issues, PRs, discussions).
• A few are admin/security-centric (repository, branch_protection_rule, dependabot).

Typical workflow

name: Comprehensive Workflow

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  create:        # branch or tag creation
  gollum:        # wiki page created or updated
  page_build:    # GitHub Pages build completed
  release:
    types: [published]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'push'
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: echo "Build triggered by push to main"

  branch-create:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'create' && github.event.ref_type == 'branch'
    steps:
      - run: echo "Branch created: ${{ github.ref }}"

  tag-create:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'create' && github.event.ref_type == 'tag'
    steps:
      - run: echo "Tag created: ${{ github.ref }}"

  wiki-update:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'gollum'
    steps:
      - run: echo "Wiki page updated"

  pages:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'page_build'
    steps:
      - run: echo "GitHub Pages build completed"

  release-notify:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'release'
    steps:
      - run: echo "Release published: ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}"

Activity Types

When one declare an event like issues or pull_request, one can optionally filter by activity types (sometimes called “sub‑events”)

on:
  issues:
    types: [opened, edited, labeled, closed]

if we do not write types then it will trigger on all supported issue activities by default which are as below

• opened,
• edited,
• deleted,
• transferred,
• pinned,
• unpinned,
• labeled,
• unlabeled,
• locked,
• unlocked,
• closed,
• reopened,
• assigned,
• unassigned,
• milestoned,
• demilestoned.

Similarly, Default activities for pull_request events are

• opened,
• edited,
• closed,
• reopened,
• assigned,
• unassigned,
• labeled,
• unlabeled,
• review_requested,
• review_request_removed,
• ready_for_review,
• locked,
• unlocked,
• synchronize,
• converted_to_draft,
• auto_merge_enabled,
• auto_merge_disabled

some other events have these sub-events

release → published, unpublished, created, edited, deleted, prereleased

workflow_run → requested, completed

discussion → created, edited, deleted, answered, unanswered

discussion_comment → created, edited, deleted

Key Rules

• No types specified → all sub‑events trigger.

• types specified → only those listed sub‑events trigger.

• This applies consistently across events that support activity filtering.

• Some events (like push, create, delete) don’t use types; they rely on filters like branches, tags, or ref_type