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How to Use continue-on-error in GitHub Actions

continue-on-error marks a step or job as soft-failing so the overall run can still succeed.

Set continue-on-error: true on a step or job. A failure there is recorded but does not fail the workflow.

Steps

  • Add continue-on-error: true to the step or job.
  • Read the real status later via steps.<id>.outcome vs conclusion.
  • Combine with a matrix include flag for experimental legs.

Workflow

.github/workflows/ci.yml
steps:
  - id: lint
    continue-on-error: true
    run: npm run lint
  - if: steps.lint.outcome == 'failure'
    run: echo "Lint warnings present but not blocking"

Gotchas

  • outcome reflects the raw result; conclusion reflects it after continue-on-error.
  • Use it sparingly; silently passing real failures hides regressions.

Related guides

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