GitHub Actions "This check was cancelled" on a required check (timeout)

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

A cancelled check reports a non-success conclusion. If it is a required check, the PR cannot merge until the job completes successfully - cancellation by timeout or concurrency leaves merge blocked.

What this error means

A required check shows "This check was cancelled" and the PR merge button stays blocked.

This check was cancelled.
The job exceeded the configured timeout (or was canceled by a concurrency rule) before completing.

Common causes

Job timeout reached

timeout-minutes elapsed and GitHub cancelled the job, producing a cancelled conclusion on a required check.

Concurrency cancellation

A concurrency group with cancel-in-progress cancelled an in-flight run that backed a required check.

How to fix it

Re-run and address the timeout

1. Re-run the cancelled job.
2. If it timed out, raise timeout-minutes or speed up the step (cache, parallelism).
3. If concurrency cancelled it, ensure the latest run completes so the required check turns green.

How to prevent it

• Set realistic timeout-minutes for slow jobs that gate merges.
• Scope concurrency groups so required checks are not cancelled out from under a PR.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• GitHub Actions documentation
• Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions