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Add a note for copilot-setup-steps.yml and using with a merge queue #43246
Description
Code of Conduct
- I have read and agree to the GitHub Docs project's Code of Conduct
What article on docs.github.com is affected?
What part(s) of the article would you like to see updated?
Somewhat related to #42379
In the github docs, it says that you can add the following to you copilot-setup-steps.yml file:
name: "Copilot Setup Steps"
## Background
# Automatically run the setup steps when they are changed to allow for easy validation, and
# allow manual testing through the repository's "Actions" tab
on:
workflow_dispatch:
push:
paths:
- .github/workflows/copilot-setup-steps.yml
pull_request:
paths:
- .github/workflows/copilot-setup-steps.ymlWhile this works, I've found that if you use a merge queue then using the above configuration results in your workflow running every time a PR is added to the merge queue. We are use the larger, custom image GitHub hosted runners and this results in unnecessary runs & costs.
github/copilot-sdk was the first public GitHub repo I found that had the same issue(although this one is just using default ubuntu-latest runners). It helped me figure out that behavior wasn't unique to our setup
Proposed Content Update
I'd like to update the docs to either add an inline comment with commented out code or add a little inline note about if using a merge queue. This is what ended up working for us:
name: "Copilot Setup Steps"
# Automatically run when changed so setup issues surface immediately.
# Also allows manual testing via the "Actions" tab.
on:
workflow_dispatch:
push:
branches-ignore:
- 'gh-readonly-queue/**'
paths:
- .github/workflows/copilot-setup-steps.yml
pull_request:
branches:
- main
paths:
- .github/workflows/copilot-setup-steps.ymlAdditional information
No response
Activity
jameswillard515-gif commentedon Mar 6, 2026
Destop-Trang1801 commentedon Mar 7, 2026
Sharra-writes commentedon Mar 10, 2026
@jonstacks I'll take this to the Actions team and see what they think.
jonstacks commentedon Mar 20, 2026
Thank you, @Sharra-writes! I appreciate it.
github-actions commentedon Apr 20, 2026
A stale label has been added to this issue, because it has been open for 30 days with no activity. If you think this issue should remain open, please add a new comment.
github-actions commentedon Aug 24, 2026
A stale label has been added to this issue, because it has been open for 30 days with no activity. If you think this issue should remain open, please add a new comment.
subatoi commentedon Sep 9, 2026
@jonstacks Hi, thanks for raising an issue and a PR, and I'm sorry for the late reply here.
Based on your PR, I understand the recommended change you've made would've been useful for your specific use case. If I understand correctly, though, this recommendation wouldn't necessarily exclusively apply to that context, it's just that it would've been useful as you were reviewing that article(?)
I'm wondering if a simpler solution here would've helped, such as some more obvious signposting to https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/configuring-branches-and-merges-in-your-repository/configuring-pull-request-merges/managing-a-merge-queue?
subatoi commentedon Oct 12, 2026
@jonstacks 👋 Hi, just to follow up if you've seen the above? Thank you