workflow_dispatch trigger not available in branch, except it is!

[mrvanes]

When triggering a workflow with workflow_dispatch action and then selecting the branch that actually contains this workflow including the workflow_dispatch trigger, I get the following error:

Workflow does not exist or does not have a workflow_dispatch trigger in this branch.

main branch has this workflow as well and that one works. The idea is that I further develop the trigger in the test branch, but I can't trigger it manually?

Update:
Triggering the action (on the develop branch) using the API results in this response

$ curl \
  -H "Authorization: token xxxx" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/abc/xyz/actions/workflows/runner.yml/dispatches \
  -d '{"ref":"feature-ci-runner"}'

{
  "message": "Workflow does not have 'workflow_dispatch' trigger",
  "documentation_url": "https://docs.github.com/rest/reference/actions#create-a-workflow-dispatch-event"
}

Which, as stated before, isn't true.

[mrvanes]

Never mind, there was a typo in the workflow that caused it to be unparsable in the develop branch.
I'll leave the question here for those encountering the same problems: have another close look at your workflow ;)

[Oksana-Kaliniouk]

Thank you for leaving your question and the solution to this!

[varshamehtre]

Thanks , it helped me.

[Pixie-Axerup]

thanks! I didn't realize that the workflow I manually added in the main branch needed to have the same name as the action I have in my branch that I don't want to merge yet :-) Now I know!

[vigneshindn]

Hi I Am facing the same issue but my case was a bit different, we have created a new branch not from any existing branch in the repo, just i try to add a workflow_dispatch to trigger manually but the workflow doesn't show in the action tab itself. i am search the workflow the in same other branch , am getting a error like "Workflow does not exist or does not have a workflow_dispatch trigger in this branch.". please any body suggest any solution to run the workflow_dispatch in a branch not created from main or master or any existing branch, but the workflow works if any push / PR happened in that branch if i reconfigure without manual trigger

[piotrekkr]

Check this out: https://stackoverflow.com/q/63362126/1089412 Good explanation there. You need to run workflow using push event at least once so GitHub will register it and then you can run it from your branch using gh cli tool. Or you can merge some dummy workflow with dispatch event trigger (so it will be registered) and then you can make another branch with actual workflow code to run and execute workflow using this branch with GitHub UI.

[vigneshindn]

Hi @piotrekkr

i have try my best but not working

name: Android build based non-default tag-removed trigger1

on:
  release:
    types: [created]
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps: 
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Setup Java JDK
        uses: actions/setup-java@v1
        with:
          java-version: '11'
          distribution: 'adopt'
          cache: gradle

      - name: Build Lint
        run: ./gradlew lintDebug
    
      - name: Upload Build Lint Report
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
        with:
          name: report
          path: app/build/reports/lint-results-debug.html

Actually, i try this in a sub-branch, but the branch is not checkout/created from the main branch.

[piotrekkr]

Not sure you read SO question and answers properly but you can push something like this as .github/workflows/test.yml to your PR branch (example branch feat/test-workflow):

name: Test workflow

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  release:
    types: [created]  
  push:
  
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps: 
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

this should register workflow in github and then you can remove push: and execute your workflow using

gh workflow run test.yml --ref feat/test-workflow

It should run your workflow and it should be visible in github actions tab in your repo without merging it to default repo branch

[bruce-at-events]

I had a similar issue with a branch, turned out that the new branch didn't have the workflow yml in the main branch as it was branched before that - just do a
git pull origin main and that'll resolve it.