GitHub Actions artifact retention exceeds the org policy limit

Organizations and repositories can cap artifact and log retention. An upload-artifact step requesting more retention-days than the policy allows is rejected or silently clamped.

What this error means

An upload-artifact step warns or errors that the requested retention exceeds the configured maximum.

Warning: Retention days cannot be greater than the maximum allowed retention set within the repository: 30 days.

Common causes

retention-days above the org/repo cap

The workflow asked for more days than the admin-configured maximum, so the request is clamped or rejected.

How to fix it

Set retention-days within the policy

1. Check the repository/org artifact retention limit in settings.
2. Set retention-days at or below that maximum.
3. Re-run.

- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with:
    name: build
    path: dist
    retention-days: 14

How to prevent it

• Keep retention-days within the org/repo maximum.
• Document the retention cap so workflow authors stay under it.

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