How to Handle the "Canceling since a higher priority run exists" Message in GitHub Actions

That message means a newer run entered the same concurrency group, so GitHub canceled this older one by design.

The log line Canceling since a higher priority waiting request ... exists is expected behavior with cancel-in-progress: true: the newest queued run wins and this one is dropped. Only worry if the group is too broad.

What it means

• A run with the same concurrency group started after this one.
• With cancel-in-progress: true, the newer run supersedes and cancels the older.
• The canceled run ends with conclusion cancelled, not failure.

When it is a bug

# Too broad: every branch shares one group and cancels each other
concurrency:
  group: ci            # BAD: no ref, so all branches collide
  cancel-in-progress: true

# Fixed: isolate per ref
concurrency:
  group: ci-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

Gotchas

• If unrelated branches keep canceling each other, add github.ref or github.head_ref to the group.
• To keep the old run instead of the new one, set cancel-in-progress: false so runs queue.

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