Actions Debug Workflow

Intermediate10 minTrending

Debug failing GitHub Actions workflows by viewing logs, re-running with debug logging, and testing locally.

Prerequisites

-GitHub CLI (gh) installed and authenticated

Steps

List recent workflow runs

View the status of recent workflow runs.

$ gh run list --limit 10

View logs for a failed run

Download and view the full logs from a specific workflow run.

$ gh run view <run-id> --log-failed

Use --log-failed to see only the logs from failed steps, which is usually all you need.

Re-run failed jobs with debug logging

Re-run only the failed jobs with debug logging enabled for more verbose output.

$ gh run rerun <run-id> --failed --debug

Watch a running workflow in real time

Stream the output of a currently running workflow.

$ gh run watch

This is great for watching a run you just triggered without switching to the browser.

Trigger a workflow manually

Start a workflow_dispatch workflow from the command line.

$ gh workflow run deploy.yml --ref main -f environment=staging

Full Script

full-script.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Actions Debug Workflow
set -euo pipefail

echo "=== Recent Workflow Runs ==="
gh run list --limit 10

echo ""
echo "=== Failed Runs ==="
gh run list --status failure --limit 5

echo ""
echo "=== Debug Commands ==="
echo "View logs:     gh run view <run-id> --log-failed"
echo "Full logs:     gh run view <run-id> --log"
echo "Re-run:        gh run rerun <run-id> --failed"
echo "Debug re-run:  gh run rerun <run-id> --failed --debug"
echo "Watch live:    gh run watch"
echo "Trigger:       gh workflow run <workflow.yml> --ref main"
echo "Cancel:        gh run cancel <run-id>"

FAQ

Discussion

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#!/bin/bash # Actions Debug Workflow set -euo pipefail echo "=== Recent Workflow Runs ===" gh run list --limit 10 echo "" echo "=== Failed Runs ===" gh run list --status failure --limit 5 echo "" echo "=== Debug Commands ===" echo "View logs: gh run view <run-id> --log-failed" echo "Full logs: gh run view <run-id> --log" echo "Re-run: gh run rerun <run-id> --failed" echo "Debug re-run: gh run rerun <run-id> --failed --debug" echo "Watch live: gh run watch" echo "Trigger: gh workflow run <workflow.yml> --ref main" echo "Cancel: gh run cancel <run-id>"