GitHub Actions "Job X has been skipped" (needs result)

A job with needs only runs if all needed jobs succeeded, by default. If any needed job is skipped or fails, the dependent job is skipped unless its if uses a status function.

What this error means

A job that should run after others is marked skipped, because an upstream job in needs was skipped or did not succeed.

Job 'deploy' has been skipped because a job it depends on did not complete successfully.

Common causes

Upstream job skipped or failed

Default needs semantics require all dependencies to succeed.

Conditional upstream job did not run

A needed job gated by if that evaluated false propagates a skip downstream.

How to fix it

Override the run condition explicitly

1. Add an if with a status function: if: always() or if: \${{ !cancelled() }}.
2. Check upstream outcomes via needs.<job>.result when you only want some paths.
3. Be deliberate: always() runs even on failure, so guard accordingly.

deploy:
  needs: [build, test]
  if: ${{ !cancelled() && needs.build.result == 'success' }}
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - run: ./deploy.sh

How to prevent it

• Decide intent: skip-on-upstream-skip (default) vs run-anyway (status functions).
• Inspect needs.<job>.result to branch precisely.

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