RFE Add option to automatically cancel workflow/job when pull request is closed

[pbrezina]

Why are you starting this discussion?

Product Feedback

What GitHub Actions topic or product is this about?

Workflow Configuration

Discussion Details

We have multiple long-running PR CI checks that runs on pull_request or pull_request_target events. If the pull request is closed, I would like running jobs to be cancelled to avoid wasting resources and runners.

[Danindu05]

This is a great suggestion — it would definitely help optimize CI resource usage.

In the meantime, you can achieve a similar effect manually by adding a conditional step to your workflow that cancels running jobs when a PR is closed. For example:

on:
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, closed]

jobs:
build:
if: github.event.action != 'closed'
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Build
run: echo "Running build..."

cancel:
if: github.event.action == 'closed'
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Cancel running workflows
uses: styfle/cancel-workflow-action@0.12.1
with:
access_token: ${{ github.token }}

This uses styfle/cancel-workflow-action
to automatically cancel previous or concurrent runs when the PR is closed — effectively preventing wasted resources.

That said, having a native GitHub Actions setting (like cancel-on-close: true) would make this much cleaner and more reliable. Your RFE makes total sense — it would be great to see this built-in.