Actions: issue_comment not scheduling jobs; new workflow_dispatch creates 0‑job runs

[grahama1970]

Summary

In our repo, two GitHub Actions behaviors look broken/non‑intuitive:

1. issue_comment events do not schedule any jobs for a workflow that clearly matches the event. The same workflow always shows "push" runs with 0 jobs, but never an issue_comment run with jobs.
2. For a newly added workflow, gh workflow enable + gh workflow run creates workflow runs that have 0 jobs. Only wiring the steps into an existing enabled workflow made the jobs run.

Repository

• grahama1970/graph-memory-operator (public)

Workflows

• Path: .github/workflows/codex-trigger.yml
  • on: includes:

    issues: { types: [labeled] }
    issue_comment: { types: [created] }

  • Job if: matches /codex ... and @codex ... comment prefixes (we tested both):

    (github.event_name == 'issue_comment' && (
      startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '/codex start') ||
      startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '/codex high')  ||
      startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '@codex start') ||
      startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '@codex high')  ||
      startsWith(github.event.comment.body, '@codex')
    ))

• Path: .github/workflows/smokes-youtube.yml
  • Newly added. gh workflow enable + gh workflow run --ref main created runs, but with 0 jobs.

What we did

• Posted @codex start high and /codex start high comments on open PRs (cleanup back compat code #21, secrets context #22) using repo owner account.
• Labeled issues with ready-for-agent.
• Confirmed workflow file and conditions on default branch (main).
• Permissions: repo Settings → Actions → Allow all actions; Workflow permissions: read & write.
• Added explicit top-level/job-level permissions in the workflow: issues: write, contents: read.
• For the "enable" case, also tried gh api repos/<repo>/actions/workflows/<id>/enable and manual workflow_dispatch.

Observed

• For .github/workflows/codex-trigger.yml, Actions UI shows only "push" runs; run IDs have 0 jobs:
  • Examples (from gh run list --workflow .github/workflows/codex-trigger.yml):
    • 17837648581 (push) — status=completed, jobs=[]
    • 17837622871 (push) — status=completed, jobs=[]
• No "issue_comment" runs were scheduled despite comments matching the if:.
• For .github/workflows/smokes-youtube.yml, workflow_dispatch created runs with 0 jobs.
• As a control, when we moved the YouTube steps into an already-enabled workflow (smokes-qa.yml), jobs executed as expected.

Expected

• issue_comment should schedule a job when the workflow matches and the if: evaluates true.
• After enabling a new workflow, workflow_dispatch should create a run with at least one job, not a 0‑job run.

Notes / Run Context

• PRs used for comments: cleanup back compat code #21, secrets context #22 (same repo; not a fork).
• We can provide exact timestamps if needed; above IDs are from the same time window.
• We also tested a repository_dispatch path (separate workflow) and it ran correctly — so runners and permissions are generally working.

Ask

• Are we hitting a product limitation around issue_comment for this repo/config (e.g., security hardening), or is this a bug?
• Why would workflow_dispatch runs be created with 0 jobs after gh workflow enable, and what’s the correct way to ensure immediate scheduling without manual UI clicks?

Thanks for pointers; happy to attach sanitized workflow YAML and add more IDs if helpful.