Auto Start CI delayed running 2 - 3 hours instead of every 5 minutes

[MikeMcC399]

Situation

The workflow node/actions/workflows/auto-start-ci.yml is set up with:

on:
  schedule:
    # Runs every five minutes (fastest the scheduler can run). Five minutes is
    # optimistic, it can take longer to run.
    # To understand why `schedule` is used instead of other events, refer to
    # ./doc/contributing/commit-queue.md
    - cron: '*/5 * * * *'

to run every 5 minutes. On Aug 27, 2026 it is running instead every 2 - 3 hours.

3 hours ago      2026-08-27T09:18:41Z
6 hours ago      2026-08-27T06:08:17Z
8 hours ago      2026-08-27T03:56:58Z
10 hours ago     2026-08-27T02:02:58Z
12 hours ago     2026-08-27T00:20:11Z
13 hours ago     2026-08-26T23:08:20Z
14 hours ago     2026-08-26T22:01:17Z
15 hours ago     2026-08-26T20:57:46Z
16 hours ago     2026-08-26T20:05:20Z
17 hours ago     2026-08-26T19:24:51Z
18 hours ago     2026-08-26T18:43:42Z
18 hours ago     2026-08-26T18:00:43Z
19 hours ago     2026-08-26T16:58:54Z
20 hours ago     2026-08-26T16:39:22Z
20 hours ago     2026-08-26T16:19:49Z
21 hours ago     2026-08-26T15:49:10Z
21 hours ago     2026-08-26T14:59:57Z
22 hours ago     2026-08-26T14:38:41Z
22 hours ago     2026-08-26T14:20:22Z
22 hours ago     2026-08-26T14:00:04Z

There was a GitHub Incident for Actions & Pull Requests that was supposed to be resolved on Aug 27, 2026 00:6 UTC.

This is preventing timely response to request-ci labels.

For example, request-ci was applied to nodejs/node#65492 at 2026-08-27T11:03Z and 2 hours later, the PR is still waiting for the request to be fulfilled.

https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflows-and-actions/events-that-trigger-workflows#schedule says:

The schedule event can be delayed during periods of high loads of GitHub Actions workflow runs. High load times include the start of every hour. If the load is sufficiently high enough, some queued jobs may be dropped. To decrease the chance of delay, schedule your workflow to run at a different time of the hour.

A delay of 2 - 3 hours over an extended period of time is outside of what could be expected.

[MikeMcC399]

This should possibly be raised to GitHub Support.

There is no workflow_dispatch event trigger in the workflow, so no means to start it manually.

[MikeMcC399]

Whilst I was writing the issue up, the workflow https://github.com/nodejs/node/actions/workflows/auto-start-ci.yml ran at 2026-08-27T12:53:18Z, so now it would be a question of monitoring to check if the cron interval has recovered.

Since the workflow limits itself to max 5 PRs, there is now a backlog of requests that have not yet been passed to Jenkins.

[MikeMcC399]

It's still having a long pause between runs: 2 - 3 hours gap:

Ago	Timestamp
37 minutes ago	2026-08-28T07:27:36Z
3 hours ago	2026-08-28T04:53:09Z
6 hours ago	2026-08-28T02:02:17Z
8 hours ago	2026-08-27T23:17:34Z
11 hours ago	2026-08-27T20:06:23Z
15 hours ago	2026-08-27T16:39:46Z
19 hours ago	2026-08-27T12:53:18Z
22 hours ago	2026-08-27T09:18:41Z
1 day ago	2026-08-27T06:08:17Z
1 day ago	2026-08-27T03:56:58Z
1 day ago	2026-08-27T02:02:58Z
1 day ago	2026-08-27T00:20:11Z
1 day ago	2026-08-26T23:08:20Z
1 day ago	2026-08-26T22:01:17Z
1 day ago	2026-08-26T20:57:46Z
1 day ago	2026-08-26T20:05:20Z
1 day ago	2026-08-26T19:24:51Z
1 day ago	2026-08-26T18:43:42Z
1 day ago	2026-08-26T18:00:43Z
1 day ago	2026-08-26T16:58:54Z

[targos]

I opened nodejs/node#65612

If it doesn't help, I don't think we can do much more with GitHub actions. Another approach could be to have the schedule in Jenkins and trigger workflow runs using the API.

[MikeMcC399]

I guess it's worth a try to skew the start, however since it was working reasonably before, and it has stopped doing what is expected of it, it may need a support ticket to GitHub opened.

GitHub is generally coming under increased load due to the proliferation of AI-based submissions.

https://www.theregister.com/devops/2026/08/21/we-let-you-down-github-pledges-to-scale-up-before-developers-give-up/5291031

In April, monthly commits were at 1.4 billion. GitHub says it now handles 2.9 billion commits, 24 million new repositories, and 130 million merged pull requests each month.

[MikeMcC399]

https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/main/.github/workflows/auto-start-ci.yml is now showing a skewed start of 3 minutes:

on:
  schedule:
    # Runs every five minutes (fastest the scheduler can run). Five minutes is
    # optimistic, it can take longer to run.
    # To understand why `schedule` is used instead of other events, refer to
    # ./doc/contributing/commit-queue.md
    - cron: 3/5 * * * *

This hasn't produced any change and the workflow is still showing a last run of almost 3 hours ago.

I would suggest opening a ticket on https://support.github.com/ (https://support.github.com/contact-next)

[panva]

Assisted-by: Codex

And so far, today looks worse than yesterday.

[sxa]

I seem to recall mention of an overuse of our monthly github actions allocation from the 20th August and I'm wondering if that may have caused us to be restricted. Ping @nodejs/tsc since I believe this may have been discussed by you somewhere...