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GitHub Actions – Force cancel workflows

Actions customers will now be able to clear stuck workflows by forcing a cancel request from the REST API. This is a new feature and the existing endpoint to cancel a workflow run will remain unchanged.

Sometimes an Actions workflow can become stuck in a state that will not respond to a cancel request. This could block other workflows from executing and would often require customers to contact GitHub Support to resolve the issue. Going forward, customers can invoke force-cancel from the REST API, which will bypass conditions that would otherwise cause the workflow execution to continue. Customers should still only use force-cancel if the workflow fails to respond to POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs/{run_id}/cancel.

For more details see the GitHub Actions workflow runs REST API documentation.

For questions, visit the GitHub Actions community.

To see what's next for Actions, visit our public roadmap.

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[Private Beta] Sign up for full access to the GHEC Enterprise Managed Users SCIM API

Public documentation of the SCIM API for Enterprise Managed Users (EMU) is now available.

Administrators of EMU enterprises can use a token with the admin:enterprise scope to make GET requests from SCIM clients. With this read access, you can directly reconcile GitHub's understanding of SCIM-defined users and groups with your federated identity groups for auditing purposes.

Write requests to these APIs are possible through our published IdP applications, or through a new private beta that offers direct API access.

To get write access to these APIs in beta, register your interest here.

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X-Accepted-GitHub-Permissions header for fine-grained permission actors

A new header will be sent back to API callers that use the fine-grained permission model (GitHub Apps and fine-grained PATs) to help developers discover which permissions are needed to call an API route. This new header, x-accepted-github-permissions, contains the list of permissions required to access the endpoint.

In the fine-grained permission model more than one permission may be needed to access an endpoint. Multiple sets of permissions may also be valid, since there are multiple ways to access data within GitHub. All valid sets are included in the header, each set separated by a semicolon (;).

For example, when calling "List project collaborators", you'll recieve the header x-accepted-github-permissions: repository_projects=write; organization_projects=admin. This indicates that to get the list of collaborators on a project, you need either the repository_projects Write permission or the organization_projects Admin permission.

This header is used in the same way as the x-accepted-oauth-scopes header for coarse-grained scope actors (OAuth apps and PATs (Classic)).

To learn more about troubleshooting permissions issues with GitHub Apps and fine-grained PATs and to get more information about this header, see "Insufficient permission errors". To see the permissions needed for each endpoint, see "Permissions required for GitHub Apps" and "Permissions required for fine-grained PATs".

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Removal of source IP addresses from API error messages related to IP allow lists

For security reasons, source IP addresses have been removed from error messages that are returned from the GitHub API when callers try to access protected resources from non-permitted IP addresses.

To learn more about IP allow lists, visit Restricting network traffic to your enterprise with an IP allow list in the GitHub documentation.

If you'd like to learn more about your source IP addresses, please contact GitHub Support.

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Dependabot pull requests pause for inactivity in enterprises

Enterprise users will now notice added functionality where Dependabot security and version updates may be paused for repositories.

If you are an enterprise user that uses Dependabot updates and there has been no activity in a repository, such as merging, closing, or any other interaction, with Dependabot pull requests for a period exceeding 90 days, the updates will be paused. To resume activity, simply merge or close one of Dependabot's pull requests, or modify the Dependabot config file in the repository.

This change will help Dependabot be more focused to the repositories you care about and reduce use of GitHub Actions minutes on inactive Dependabot pull requests.

If you are using security overview with GitHub Advanced Security, you will be able to see which repositories in your organization have been paused from the security coverage view.

You will also be able to see whether Dependabot has been paused for a repository by querying the /repos/{owner}/{repo}/automated-security-fixes REST API endpoint, which will return both the enablement status and paused status of the repository.

When will Dependabot become paused?

This change only applies to repositories where Dependabot pull requests exist but remain untouched. If no Dependabot pull requests have been opened, Dependabot will never become paused.

The following must be true for at least 90 days:

  • Has not had a Dependabot PR merged
  • Has not had changes made to the Dependabot config file
  • Has not had any @dependabot comment-ops performed
  • Has not had any Dependabot PRs closed by the user
  • Has received at least one Dependabot PR before the 90 day window
  • Has at least one Dependabot PR open at the end of the 90 day window
  • Has had Dependabot enabled for this entire period

How will Dependabot let me know?

Dependabot will add a notice to the body of all open Dependabot pull requests and add a dependabot-paused label to them. Dependabot will also add a banner notice in the UI of your repository settings page (under “Dependabot”) as well as your Dependabot alerts page (if Dependabot security updates are affected).

Who can use this feature?

This change does not apply to Dependabot alerts or subsequent notifications. So, only repositories that have automated Dependabot version updates or security updates, but haven't interacted with these pull requests for a while, will be affected.

Learn more about this change
Learn more about how to interact with the REST API

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GitHub Issues & Projects – June 15th update

Today's Changelog brings you board column limits, an improved item menu to move your board items and updates to Issue hierarchy powered by tasklists!

🔢 Board column limits

You can now set column limits on the board layout to help you limit your work in progress as well as promote focus on the items that really matter. Column limits are based off of the number of items in a column, and are unique to each board view.

To configure a limit, set the value from the column's ... menu. If you exceed the limit, the value will be highlighted in red.

As always, we'd love to hear from you! Let us know your feedback in our community discussion.

⬆ ⬇ Updated menu to move board items

Following our support for bulk updates and keyboard shortcuts, we've made it even easier to move the items on your boards. Select the item ... menu to move an item to the top or bottom of a column, or to a different column altogether.

➕ Add tasklist button

a picture of the same issue in projects and in issues which shows the new add tasklist button on the bottom left of the issue description

You may have noticed a new button has appeared on issues and the projects side-panel! You can now easily add tasklists to your issues without ever having to enter your issue's Markdown.

📁 Drag and drop improvements in table layout

Items can be dragged into collapsed groups in the table layout. Items can also be dragged and dropped across groups when sorting is enabled.

🏗️ Export project view as a CSV file

You can now download a view by selecting the view menu and clicking Download CSV.

Screenshot 2023-06-15 at 2 42 26 PM

👀 Upcoming change to insights

Historical charts will no longer support group by values. We will be phasing historical charts out over the next couple of months and no new accounts will be added to the existing support.

✨ Bug fixes and improvements

  • Fixed a permissions bug when reordering fields within a group
  • Single select edit option modal updates preview label text
  • Updated icon color of Make a copy icon
  • Fixed visual bug on Delete project and Issue transfer modals
  • Can now delete a project if there is an emoji in the name
  • Issue title created using the Add item bar now populates in the issue create modal
  • Added keyboard shortcuts for metadata edits (improvements to this coming soon!)
  • Tasklists now throw an error (instead of silently failing) when formatting is incorrect
  • Fixed a bug where tasklist name changes were not being persisted
  • Fixed a regression where tasklists did not show the preview title when adding issues
  • Fixed a regression in the tasklist omnibar which broke the autocomplete functionality
  • Fixed a bug preventing users from selecting multiple rows in the table
  • Fixed a bug where users couldn't copy assignees table cells

See how to use GitHub for project planning with GitHub Issues, check out what's on the roadmap, and learn more in the docs.

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Updates to GitHub App installation management APIs

The "Remove a repository from an app installation" API has been updated to fail early if attempting to remove a repository from an application that is installed on all repositories.

To switch an application InstallationState from the all to some state in your organization, an organization owner or application manager must make this change within the UI, while picking up to 50 repositories for the app to continue to have access to. From there, additional repositories can be added via the UI or the "Add a repository to an app installation" API.

To learn more about managing application installations, see "Modifying repository access". For details on the GitHub App REST API, see "GitHub Apps".

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Dependabot alerts now automatically dismiss false positives for npm (public beta)

Starting today, Dependabot will be able to auto-dismiss npm alerts that have limited impact (e.g. long-running tests) or are unlikely to be exploitable. With this ship, Dependabot will cut false positives and reduce alert fatigue substantially.

On-by-default for public repositories, and opt-in for private repositories, this feature will result in 15% of low impact npm alerts being auto-dismissed moving forward – so you can focus on the alerts that matter, without worrying about the ones that don’t.

What’s changing?

When the feature is enabled, Dependabot will auto-dismiss certain types of vulnerabilities that are found in npm dependencies used in development (npm devDependency alerts with scope:development). This feature will help you proactively filter out false positives on development-scoped (non-production or runtime) alerts without compromising on high risk devDependency alerts.

Dependabot alerts auto-dismissal list view

Frequently asked questions

Why is GitHub making this change?

At GitHub, we’ve been thinking deeply about how to responsibly address long-running issues around alert fatigue and false positives. Rather than over-indexing on one criterion like reachability or dependency scope, we believe that a responsibly-designed solution should be able to detect and reason on a rich set of complex, contextual alert metadata.

That’s why, moving forward, we’re releasing a series of ships powered by an underlying, all-new, flexible and powerful alert rules engine. Today’s ship, our first application, leverages GitHub-curated vulnerability patterns to help proactively filter out false positive alerts.

Why auto-dismissal, rather than purely suppressing these alerts?

Auto-dismissing ensures any ignored alerts are 1) able to be reintroduced if alert metadata changes, 2) caught by existing reporting systems and workflows, and 3) extensible as a whole to future rules-based actions, where Dependabot can decision on subsets of alerts and do things like reopen for patch, open a Dependabot pull request, or even auto-merge if very risky.

How does GitHub identify and detect low impact alerts?

Auto-dismissed alerts match GitHub-curated vulnerability patterns. These patterns take into account contextual information about how you’re using the dependency and the level of risk they may pose to your repository. To learn more, see our documentation on covered classes of vulnerabilities.

How will this activity be reported?

Auto-dismissal activity is supported across webhooks, REST, GraphQL, and the audit log for Dependabot alerts. In addition, you can review your closed alert list with the resolution:auto-dismissed filter.

How will this experience look and feel?

Alerts identified as false positives will be automatically dismissed without a notification or new pull request, and appear as special timeline event. As these alerts are closed, you’ll still be able to review any auto-dismissed alerts with the resolution:auto-dismissed filter.

How do I reopen an automatically dismissed alert?

Like any manually dismissed alert, you can reopen an auto-dismissed alert from the alert list view or details page. This specific alert won’t be auto-dismissed again.

What happens if alert metadata changes or advisory information is withdrawn?

Dependabot recognizes and immediately responds to any changes to metadata which void auto-dismissal logic. For example, if you change the dependency scope and the alert no longer meets the criteria to be auto-dismissed, the alert will automatically reopen.

How can I enable or disable the feature?

This feature is on-by-default for public repositories and opt-in for private repositories. Repository admins can opt in or out from your Dependabot alerts settings in the Code Security page.

Is this feature available for enterprise?

Yes! In addition to all free repositories, this feature will ship immediately to GHEC and to GHES in version 3.10.

What’s next?

Next, we’ll expose our underlying engine – which enables Dependabot to perform actions based on a rich set of contextual alert metadata – so you can write your own custom rules to better manage your alerts, too.

How do I learn more?

How do I provide feedback?

Let us know what you think by providing feedback — we’re listening!

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GraphQL improvements for fine-grained PATs and GitHub Apps

Fine-grained PATs can now call the GitHub GraphQL API. This was a limitation at the start of the public beta, and is now supported.

Like with the REST API, the resource owner set for the token must match the owner of the resource being accessed. For example, when you want to look up a specific repository in GraphQL:

query {
  repository(owner:"octocat", name:"Hello-World") {
  ...

The resource owner would need to be octocat to succesfully run the query.

In addition, GitHub Apps now have read access to public resources via GraphQL by default when using user-to-server tokens. This is true even if they are not installed on the organization or user that owns the resource.

This change brings consistency to the access control between REST APIs and GraphQL APIs for GitHub Apps. We made similar changes previously for REST APIs which you can read more about here.

To learn more about GraphQL, see "About the GraphQL API". For more details about fine-grained PATs, see "Creating a fine-grained personal access token". And finally, to learn more about GitHub apps, see "Setting permissions for GitHub apps".

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SAMLIdentity GraphQL object now supports `read` scope

GitHub Enterprise Cloud administrators may need to review external identity information via the GraphQL API. Historically, this has required a token with the admin:org or admin:enterprise scope. We've taken a "least privilege" mindset in reviewing this flow and have now made this information available via the read:enterprise and read:org scopes for enterprise owner and organization owner actors.

For more information, see the GraphQL API documentation for Enterprise and Organization SAMLIdentity objects.

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