Scheduled workflows require a recent commit or push to trigger on public repositories. Private repositories need the owner to manually trigger the workflow.

GitHub Actions workflows scheduled with cron expressions may fail to run automatically if certain conditions aren’t met. For public repositories, GitHub requires a recent push or commit within the last 60 days to activate the workflow. This inactivity rule prevents unnecessary resource usage on idle repositories. For private repositories, GitHub mandates that a repository owner manually triggers the workflow, either by running it from the Actions tab or through an API call. Additionally, ensure the correct permissions are granted for scheduled workflows in your GitHub Actions settings. Check that your cron syntax is correct (for example, 0 0 * * * for daily runs at midnight) and that GitHub Actions are enabled at the organization level if applicable. If your workflow still doesn’t trigger, manually running it from the Actions tab may help reset the schedule.