GitHub Actions creates no schedule runs in a private repo for either WITA or UTC cron

[AnggiatPohan22]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Schedule & Cron Jobs

Discussion Details

In a private test repository on GitHub.com, both push and workflow_dispatch runs completed successfully. Scheduled runs never appeared in the Actions run list during the observed windows. I reproduced this with an Asia/Makassar schedule and with a separate UTC-only workflow.

The workflows were enabled on the repository's default branch during testing. The diagnostic jobs used ubuntu-latest and only printed the trigger and clock. They required no checkout, secrets, deployment, or external services.

What I observed

Tests ran on 10 November 2026. WITA is UTC+08:00.

Test	Schedule and observation window	Result
WITA probe	Cron 47 13-17 10 11 * with timezone: Asia/Makassar. Five expected slots from 13:47 to 17:47 WITA (05:47–09:47 UTC). I checked again at 18:38 WITA (10:38 UTC), 51 minutes after the last slot.	Zero schedule runs.
Standalone UTC control	Cron */5 * * * * with no timezone field, enabled from approximately 04:19 to 05:35 UTC (12:19–13:35 WITA).	Zero schedule runs.
Non-scheduled controls	A manual run at 03:32 UTC and a push-triggered diagnostic run at 04:09 UTC.	Both completed successfully.

I checked the run list with the authenticated REST API. Replace OWNER/REPO with your own test repository.

gh api 'repos/OWNER/REPO/actions/runs?event=schedule' \
  --jq '{total_count, workflow_runs}'

The response was:

{"total_count":0,"workflow_runs":[]}

I committed a cron change under the repository owner's account and confirmed that Actions was enabled. Neither diagnostic produced a visible scheduled run. I disabled both after observing the test windows. The GitHub Actions documentation describes delays and dropped runs under load. The run list alone doesn't show whether the scheduler registered the cron, dropped an event, or had another issue before creating a run.

Minimal reproduction

Save this as a workflow in .github/workflows/ on the default branch of a private test repository with Actions enabled. Wait across several five-minute boundaries and check for event=schedule.

name: UTC schedule probe
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '*/5 * * * *'
permissions: {}
jobs:
  observe:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 2
    steps:
      - run: |
          printf 'event=%s\n' "$GITHUB_EVENT_NAME"
          date -u
          TZ=Asia/Makassar date '+%F %T %Z %z'

For a separate WITA probe, use the same job with timezone: Asia/Makassar alongside a cron set for a future local hour. The WITA cron in the table describes the historical test window.

Has anyone reproduced zero run records with both a timezone-aware cron and a standalone UTC cron in a private repository? Is there a user-visible way to verify that GitHub registered the schedule or to distinguish a registration issue from a run dropped before it appears in the API?

[zero7goat]

Since both the UTC-only and timezone-aware schedules failed to create any runs, this doesn't seem to be a timezone or cron syntax issue.

The successful push and workflow_dispatch runs also suggest that the workflow itself is valid and Actions is enabled.

GitHub's documentation mentions that scheduled workflows can be delayed or dropped under heavy load, but having zero runs across both tests is still unusual.

It would be useful to know if anyone else has reproduced this in a private repository recently, or if there's any way to verify whether the scheduler actually registered the workflow.