Unable to Manually Trigger GitHub Action - github

Question

I recently started working on using some GitHub actions on my projects. I am able to setup them up to run automatically but am struggling with having them run manually. I know that you need the have the workflow_dispatch in the on section. I'm not sure if it's not working because I have it automatically run too. Is someone able to tell me what I am doing wrong?
Here is one of my workflow YAML files
name: Create-Doc-Nightly
on:
push:
branches: [ "nightly" ]
paths:
- 'src/**'
- 'pom.xml'
workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
doc:
name: Create Doc
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout#v3
name: Step 1 - Checkout Nightly Branch
with:
persist-credentials: false
fetch-depth: 0
- name: Step 2 - Setup JDK 17
uses: actions/setup-java#v3.4.1
with:
java-version: 17
distribution: 'temurin'
- name: Step 3 - Remove Doc
run: |
git remote set-url origin https://jnstockley:${{ secrets.TOKEN }}#github.com/jnstockley/BTTN.git
git config user.email "jack#jstockley.com"
git config --local user.name "Jack Stockley"
git rm -r docs
git commit -m "Removed Docs"
git push origin nightly
- name: Step 4 - Create Doc
run: mvn dokka:dokka -f pom.xml
- name: Step 5 - Move Docs
run: |
rm -rf docs
mkdir -p docs
mv target/dokka/* docs
- name: Step 6 - Publish docs
run: |
git remote set-url origin https://jnstockley:${{ secrets.TOKEN }}#github.com/jnstockley/BTTN.git
git config user.email "jack#jstockley.com"
git config --local user.name "Jack Stockley"
git add -f docs
git commit -m "Updated Docs"
git push origin nightly
Link to GitHub repo, nightly branch: https://github.com/jnstockley/BTTN/tree/nightly

Answer 1

The workflow must be on your default branch in order to use workflow_dispatch.
I believe in your case it's only on the branch nightly while it should also be on main.

Answer 2

To manually trigger a workflow, use the workflow_dispatch event. You can manually trigger a workflow run using the GitHub API, GitHub CLI, or GitHub browser interface. For more information, see Manually running a workflow
on: workflow_dispatch
Providing inputs
You can configure custom-defined input properties, default input values, and required inputs for the event directly in your workflow. When you trigger the event, you can provide the ref and any inputs. When the workflow runs, you can access the input values in the inputs context. For more information, see Contexts
This example defines inputs called logLevel, tags, and environment. You pass values for these inputs to the workflow when you run it. This workflow then prints the values to the log, using the inputs.logLevel, inputs.tags, and inputs.environment context properties.
yaml
on:
workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
logLevel:
description: 'Log level'
required: true
default: 'warning'
type: choice
options:
- info
- warning
- debug
tags:
description: 'Test scenario tags'
required: false
type: boolean
environment:
description: 'Environment to run tests against'
type: environment
required: true
jobs:
log-the-inputs:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- run: |
echo "Log level: $LEVEL"
echo "Tags: $TAGS"
echo "Environment: $ENVIRONMENT"
env:
LEVEL: ${{ inputs.logLevel }}
TAGS: ${{ inputs.tags }}
ENVIRONMENT: ${{ inputs.environment }}
If you run this workflow from a browser you must enter values for the required inputs manually before the workflow will run.
You might like the following documentation links
workflow_dispatch
github docs - events-that-trigger-workflows