WARNING: This action deletes data. Use with care and at your own risk.

delete-run-artifacts

This github action deletes all artifacts generated by a github workflow run. It's intended to be used to delete all artifacts generated by a run at the end of this run.

This can be useful if your workflow temporarily stores artifacts and they're not needed anymore by the end of the run (i.e. because they got uploaded or published as a release by one of the steps). Deleting these redundant artifacts at the end of the run saves storage space (which is limited for private repos).

How to use

This action requires a bit more preparation in your repo than most other actions. Because artifacts cannot get deleted during a workflow run (only after a run has completed), we need to spawn a separate workflow run for the deletion by a webhook at the end of the main workflow run.

First, create a personal access token (required to call a webhook):

• in your github user/org settings: Settings -> Developer Settings -> Personal access tokens -> generate new token
  • Note: for webhooks
  • Scope: repo (docs)
• copy the generated token

then store the token as a secret in the repo, so that the workflow can use it:

• in your github repo settings: Settings tab -> Secrets -> add a new secret
  • Name: FOR_WEBHOOKS_SECRET
  • Value: <YOUR-TOKEN>

then create a file in your repo .github/workflows/webhook_target.yml with:

name: delete calling job's artifacts
on: repository_dispatch
jobs:
  main:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Delete artifacts
      if: github.event.action == 'delete_all_artifacts'
      uses: christian-korneck/delete-run-artifacts-action@v1
      env:
        GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      with:
        parent_runid: ${{ github.event.client_payload.parent_runid  }}
        parent_repo: ${{ github.event.client_payload.parent_repo }}

and finally add the following cleanup job to your actual workflow (i.e. in .github/workflows/workflow.yml). Make sure that needs: points to your last job in the workflow, otherwise the cleanup might run too early.

name: your workflow
on: [push]
  your_last_job:
    (... add your stuff here ...)
  cleanup_job:
    needs: [your_last_job]
    if: always()
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: call webhook to delete artifacts
      env:
        FOR_WEBHOOKS_SECRET: ${{ secrets.FOR_WEBHOOKS_SECRET }}
      run: |
        echo "::add-mask::$FOR_WEBHOOKS_SECRET"
        curl --verbose --fail --show-error --location --request POST "https://api.github.com/repos/$GITHUB_REPOSITORY/dispatches" --header "Authorization: token $FOR_WEBHOOKS_SECRET" --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --header 'Accept: application/vnd.github.everest-preview+json' --data-raw "{ \"event_type\": \"delete_all_artifacts\", \"client_payload\": {\"parent_runid\": \"$GITHUB_RUN_ID\", \"parent_repo\": \"$GITHUB_REPOSITORY\"} }"

Please note: Due to a github limitation, the file .github/workflows/webhook_target.yml needs to be always present in your master or default branch. The action will work with any branch however.

(Check this repo or the .github/workflow dir for a working example)

Reference

The action can also be used without a webhook on any past workflow run:

Inputs

parent_repo

Required the github repo that hosts the parent github workflow run. Example: "github-user/hello-world".

parent_runid

Required the id of the parent github workflow run whos artifacts should get deleted. Example: "0000000".

Outputs

none (just succeeds or fails)