GitHub Actions cron schedules deliver far fewer runs than declared, devs find

Developers running an automated publishing pipeline on GitHub Actions discovered that scheduled workflows fire significantly less often than their cron expressions specify. A workflow declared to run four times per hour consistently delivered only one to two runs per hour, and halving the declared frequency made virtually no difference to actual delivery. GitHub's documentation acknowledges that scheduled jobs can be delayed or dropped during high-load periods, but the team found the real-world impact far exceeded what the docs implied. Because failed runs leave no logs or alerts, the shortfall goes unnoticed unless a downstream process depends on timing. The team responded by redesigning workflows to be idempotent and time-agnostic, treating cron schedules as approximate heartbeats rather than precise timers.