GitHub Actions Cron Builder

GitHub Actions uses standard POSIX cron syntax with 5 fields: minute (0–59), hour (0–23), day-of-month (1–31), month (1–12), day-of-week (0–7, where 0 and 7 both mean Sunday). Special characters: * (any), , (list), - (range), / (step). Example: '0 9 * * 1-5' runs at 9:00 AM Monday through Friday. All times are in UTC.

GitHub's scheduler for cron workflows is not precise. High-load periods (top of the hour, on the hour) can delay runs by 15–60+ minutes. GitHub also throttles inactive repos — if you haven't pushed in 60+ days, scheduled workflows are disabled. To avoid top-of-hour contention, offset your schedule (e.g., 17 minutes past the hour instead of exactly on the hour).

GitHub Actions cron schedules have a minimum interval of 5 minutes (the most frequent allowed is '*/5 * * * *'). For sub-5-minute polling, use an external trigger or a self-hosted runner with a loop. Be aware that very frequent schedules still subject to queue delays during peak load.

Yes — GitHub Actions supports multiple triggers. Combine schedule with push, pull_request, or workflow_dispatch: 'on: { schedule: [{cron: "0 2 * * *"}], push: {branches: [main]}, workflow_dispatch: {} }'. workflow_dispatch adds a manual run button in the Actions tab — highly recommended alongside scheduled jobs.

Check github.event_name in your steps: 'if: github.event_name == schedule' or 'if: github.event_name != schedule'. You can also use the IS_SCHEDULED environment variable pattern or run different jobs depending on trigger type.