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In this guide, you’ll learn how to prevent unnecessary GitHub Actions runs by skipping workflows via commit messages, as well as how to cancel jobs that are already in progress.

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Skipping Workflows via Commit Messages

When you include specific keywords in your commit message, GitHub Actions will ignore push and pull_request events for that commit. This helps you save CI minutes and speed up your development process.
Skipping workflows with commit messages is case-insensitive and works with or without brackets.

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Supported Keywords

PatternDescription
skip ciBasic skip command
ci skipAlternate skip command
[skip ci]Bracketed skip
[ci skip]Bracketed alternate skip
You can also place a footer after two blank lines in your commit message: 
skip-checks: true

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Example

Imagine you only changed the documentation in README.md and want to skip all workflows: 
git add README.md
git commit -m "Update README.md [skip ci]"
git push
Because the commit message contains [skip ci], GitHub Actions will skip every workflow for that push. Visit the Actions tab in your repository to confirm there are no new runs.

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Cancelling In-Progress Workflow Runs

If you need to stop a workflow that’s already running, follow these steps:
  1. Go to the Actions tab in your GitHub repository.
  2. Select the workflow run you wish to cancel.
  3. Click Cancel workflow in the top-right corner.
This will immediately halt all jobs in that workflow run.
Cancelling a workflow does not roll back any completed jobs or deployed artifacts. Ensure you manually revert changes if necessary.

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