How to Enforce an Organization Required Workflow Across Repos

A required workflow configured on an org ruleset runs on pull requests in targeted repos and must pass before merge, enforced centrally.

In org Settings, create a repository ruleset that targets a set of repos and requires a specific workflow from a source repo. The workflow runs on matching pull requests and blocks merges until it succeeds.

Steps

• Store the enforcement workflow in a source repo (public or org-accessible).
• In org Settings to Rulesets, add a ruleset targeting the desired repos.
• Add a "Require workflows to pass" rule pointing at owner/source/.github/workflows/policy.yml@ref.

The enforced workflow

on:
  pull_request:
jobs:
  policy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: ./scripts/license-check.sh

Gotchas

• Required workflows apply to pull_request events on the targeted repos; they do not retroactively gate direct pushes.
• The source workflow must be reachable by the target repos, so keep it in an org-visible repo.

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