on

Use on to define a trigger that runs the workflow. push and pull_request are the two repository event triggers that cause a workflow to execute. You can also manually execute a workflow, with workflow_dispatch.

Example usage

In the following example, a workflow runs in response to a pull request event to the main branch of a repository, or it can be manually executed.

on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - 'main'
  workflow_dispatch:▼

In the following example, a workflow runs in response to a push event to either a repository demo branch or to any file in its test directory.

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - 'demo'
      - 'test/**'▼

The * wildcard matches any character, but does not match /. The ** matches any character, including /.

Definition of a triggering event

The table below defines when a push event results in a workflow run:

Table 1. Push events to a branch and resulting workflow
`on.push.branches` input	Push to repository branch	Workflow result
`'test/*'`	`'test/foo'`	Runs
`'test/*'`	`'test/foo/bar'`	Does not run
`'test/*/bar'`	`'test/foo/bar'`	Runs
`'test/**'`	`'test/foo'`	Runs
`'test/**'`	`'test/foo/bar'`	Runs
`'**'`	Any branch	Runs