status: active
timestamp: 2026-06-20
tags: [cron, github, actions, primary]
GitHub Actions schedule (cron)
Build- and publish-shaped scheduled jobs on GitHub Actions — free for public repos
GitHub Actions schedule (cron)
Role
Scheduled jobs that need a build environment — Node + pnpm, secrets, repo checkout, the ability to commit results back to a repo or publish to npm / a registry / a deploy target.
This is the sister substrate to Cloudflare Cron Triggers. The two together implement the cron split.
Free tier
- Unlimited minutes on public repos (every family repo is public — see one-branch-only rule and cloudflare-pages-for-all-sites.md).
- 2,000 min/mo on private repos (we don’t use private).
- Schedule precision: roughly 5–15 min jitter per the GH Actions schedule contract — fine for the jobs we run here, NOT fine for sub-minute latency (use CF Cron for those).
Card / subscription required?
NO. Free for personal accounts on public repos with no payment method on file.
What we run on it
| Job | Repo | Cadence | Why GH Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
oriz-omnipost RSS cross-post run | oriz-omnipost | every 30 min | Commits state.json back to repo; needs pnpm + adapters’ fetch tokens |
| Master deploy matrix on pointer-bump | oriz | on push (not strictly cron, sibling workflow) | Needs wrangler + each site’s secrets |
| Dependabot security update sweep | every repo | daily | GitHub-native |
npm publish of @chirag127/oriz-kit etc. on tag | oriz | on tag (sibling workflow) | Needs pnpm + npm token |
| Per-site GitHub Pages mirror build | each oriz-*-site | nightly + on push | Needs pnpm build |
| Lifestream JSONL ingest (push window) | oriz-me-data | hourly | Needs gh CLI + repo write |
Alternatives
- Cloudflare Cron Triggers — sister substrate
- GitLab CI scheduled pipelines
- Self-hosted runner (rejected — adds infra to maintain)
Swap cost
Low — workflow YAML is mostly portable. cron: triggers move to
schedule: on most runners. Repo write commits would need a
different bot identity off-platform.
Why this is our pick
For build / publish / “commit results back” jobs, GH Actions has the toolchain, the secrets, and the repo write access already wired together. Free at our scale on public repos. Failures show up in a dashboard humans already watch.
Cross-refs
- Cron split decision
- Cloudflare Cron Triggers — sister cron
- GitHub Actions full service entry
- Per-repo CI workflows
- Cross-post engine