Private GitHub Free Actions workflows fail before jobs start (BuildFailed/startup_failure)

[ohohooh]

Hello,

I have a GitHub Free account (not suspended) where Actions appears to fail before any job is created on two private repositories:

• ohohooh/auto-grading-refactor
• ohohooh/question-bank-classification

Evidence already checked:

• Actions is enabled and allowed actions is set to all.
• A repository-scoped self-hosted runner is online.
• The July 2026 account Actions usage query returned no usage items.
• A default-branch minimal workflow using self-hosted and only an echo step gets startup_failure, with no jobs created.

Affected run URLs:

• https://github.com/ohohooh/auto-grading-refactor/actions/runs/29641722238
• https://github.com/ohohooh/auto-grading-refactor/actions/runs/29641136680
• https://github.com/ohohooh/auto-grading-refactor/actions/runs/29640935377

For these runs, GraphQL reports workflow.state = DELETED, workflow file path = BuildFailed, check suite conclusion = STARTUP_FAILURE, and check runs total count = 0. This happens before runner matching or workflow job execution, including the minimal workflow.

Could someone advise whether there is an account-side or service-side limitation that needs GitHub intervention? I can provide additional private diagnostic information if requested.

No source code, student data, credentials, or tokens are included here.

Thank you.

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[xusnitdinov]

@ohohooh startup_failure + workflow.state = DELETED + path BuildFailed before any job is created usually means Actions never successfully parsed/registered the workflow run, not that your echo step failed.

Checklist while Support looks at those run URLs:

1. Confirm .github/workflows/*.yml is on the default branch and YAML-valid (even a tiny indent issue can do weird startup failures)
2. Try the same minimal workflow on ubuntu-latest (GitHub-hosted) once. If hosted works but self-hosted always startup_failure, the runner registration / repo permission side is the suspect
3. Repo Settings в†’ Actions в†’ General: Actions enabled, and the self-hosted runner is bound to that repo (not only org-level elsewhere)
4. Make sure the account isn't hitting an Actions disable/flag oddity on private repos (Free private Actions should still allow some minutes; "no usage items" + instant startup_failure is suspicious)

Your run links are the right evidence for Support. Community can't flip account Actions flags from here.

If you paste the minimal workflow YAML (redact secrets), people can sanity-check syntax fast.