Trigger a GitHub Actions repository_dispatch event via the REST API
domain: docs.github.com · 4 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Send POST to https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/dispatches with an Authorization Bearer token header and the Accept application/vnd.github+json header
Include a JSON body with a required event_type string and an optional client_payload object of extra data to pass to the workflow
The API returns HTTP 204 with no body on success, and any workflow listening on the on repository_dispatch event with a matching types list is triggered
Identify the triggered run by querying GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs filtered by event=repository_dispatch and branch
Known gotchas
event_type must be 100 chars or fewer and contain only alphanumeric characters plus underscore, hyphen, and period; other characters cause a 422 error
client_payload is limited to 10 top-level keys and is best kept to primitive values
Only the repository_dispatch event is triggered, not workflow_dispatch, so the target workflow must declare on repository_dispatch with the matching types entry
The 204 response has no body, so poll the runs list to confirm the run actually started
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