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GitHub Actions concurrency lets you limit which workflow runs or jobs can operate at the same time by assigning them a concurrency group. By default, a group has one active member and one pending member; a newer arrival replaces the pending one. Use queue: max to retain a longer waiting line, or cancel-in-progress: true when new work should stop active work in the same group.

What are GitHub Actions concurrency group names?

A concurrency group name is the key GitHub Actions uses to decide which jobs or workflow runs share a concurrency limit. You can set concurrency at the workflow level or on an individual job. A group name can be a fixed string or an expression using the documented contexts github, inputs, vars, needs, strategy, and matrix. Group matching is case-insensitive: Deploy and deploy match the same group. See GitHub’s concurrency documentation.

Choose a group key that matches the work you need to coordinate

A constant such as production-deploy puts all runs using that key in one group. An expression can narrow sharing to a workflow, branch, or other relevant value. Because workflows in the same repository can share a group, a generic key may make seemingly unrelated workflows affect one another.

For example, this workflow-level configuration gives each workflow and Git ref its own group and cancels active work when newer work arrives:

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concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

Use this pattern when a newer run makes older work on the same workflow and ref obsolete. It is not appropriate when every run must complete.

Account for event-specific values

github.head_ref is available for pull request events, not every event type. If the same workflow also runs on other events, GitHub’s documented fallback pattern is:

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.head_ref || github.run_id }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

The run ID fallback gives non-pull-request events a distinct key. Adjust the expression to match the events your workflow actually handles.

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Why did my workflow run get canceled?

A canceled run does not necessarily mean cancel-in-progress was enabled. Under the default behavior, GitHub allows one active member and one pending member per concurrency group. When another member arrives, it cancels and replaces the existing pending member. This can cancel a waiting run even though active work is not configured to be canceled.

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With cancel-in-progress: true, a new member can also cancel currently running work in the same group. The setting can instead be an expression when cancellation should depend on conditions. Check whether the canceled run was pending or actively running, then inspect the group key used by all relevant workflows.

Check for a shared group key

If a pending run disappears unexpectedly, look at every workflow that constructs the same group name. A different workflow in the same repository may have queued work into that group and replaced the earlier pending member. Adding values such as ${{ github.workflow }} or ${{ github.ref }} can separate work that should not compete for the same slot.

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How do I queue GitHub Actions runs?

Set queue: max on the workflow or job concurrency configuration to preserve multiple pending members instead of replacing the pending slot as new work arrives:

concurrency:
  group: production-deploy
  queue: max

GitHub permits up to 100 pending jobs or workflow runs per concurrency group with this setting. Additional arrivals after the group reaches that limit are rejected or canceled. The limit is a cap, not an unlimited queue. GitHub lists it in Actions limits.

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Do not combine queue: max with cancel-in-progress; GitHub documents that combination as invalid. Choose between retaining pending work and canceling active work according to the job’s purpose.

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Does cancel-in-progress cancel the current run?

Yes. When set to true, cancel-in-progress tells GitHub to cancel currently running work in the same concurrency group when new work arrives. It is distinct from the default replacement behavior, which cancels an older pending member. Use it for supersedable work, such as repeated CI runs on an updated branch, but not where each run must finish.

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Are concurrency groups shared across workflows?

Workflows in the same repository can affect one another if they use the same group name. The group is therefore not automatically unique just because it appears in a different workflow file. Include a workflow identifier in the key if each workflow should have its own concurrency boundary; add a ref when separate branches should not block one another.

The reviewed GitHub documentation describes this behavior within a repository. It does not establish that concurrency groups provide a strict lock spanning separate repositories or an organization, so do not rely on them as a cross-repository deployment lock.

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Does a concurrency queue guarantee dispatch order?

No. GitHub describes queued work in terms of when it began waiting on the group, but cautions that jobs’ and runs’ actual start times can vary. As GitHub Docs puts it, “Since the actual start time of a job or run may vary, ordering is not guaranteed.” A concurrency queue limits and coordinates work; it should not be treated as a strict ordering mechanism.

How can I inspect concurrency groups?

GitHub documents a REST API endpoint for listing concurrency groups for a repository: List concurrency group jobs. For a private repository, a fine-grained personal access token needs Actions repository read permission. Use the endpoint alongside workflow configuration when you need to identify which runs share a group.

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