What does on pull_request types mean?

[Rod-at-DOH]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Workflow Configuration

Discussion Details

I've got a GitHub Workflow that has this code snippet in it:

on:
    pull_request:
        types: opened

I know that instead of types: opened it could be types:closed. Could it be something other than opened or closed? But what I don't know is what it means? What's the difference? I've tried researching it by going to here: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflows-and-actions/workflow-syntax#onevent_nametypes and here: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflows-and-actions/events-that-trigger-workflows and here: https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/about-pull-requests, but none of that help. So, how should I understand what's being done? Where is the documentation on on --- pull_request: --- types?

[Gecko51]

The types key under on: pull_request lets you filter which specific PR events trigger the workflow. Without it, GitHub defaults to [opened, synchronize, reopened], so it runs when a PR is opened, when new commits are pushed to it, and when it's re-opened after being closed.

With types: [opened] you're saying: only trigger on first open, not on subsequent commits.

Here's the full list of supported activity types for pull_request:

• opened / closed / reopened
• • synchronize (new commit pushed to the PR branch)
• • edited (title or description changed)
• • assigned / unassigned
• • labeled / unlabeled
• • review_requested / review_request_removed
• • ready_for_review / converted_to_draft
• • locked / unlocked
• • milestoned / demilestoned
• • auto_merge_enabled / auto_merge_disabled
    So types: [opened, synchronize, reopened] is basically "run on every meaningful code change," which is what you usually want for linting or testing. The docs that cover this are in the "Events that trigger workflows" page, under the pull_request section. The activity types table is buried pretty far down, which is why it's easy to miss.

One thing to know about closed: it fires for both merged and unmerged closes. If you want "run only on merge," add a condition like if: github.event.pull_request.merged == true alongside types: [closed].

[Rod-at-DOH]

Thank you very much! In another GitHub workflow file in the same repo someone had used github.event.pull_request.merged == true with types: closed. I'm going to use types: [opened, synchronize, reopened] as I'm doing testing for now. Later I'll make it just opened.