GitHub Pages deployment repeatedly fails with an unexpected internal error

[GHUT-corporation]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Discussion Details

Hello!

I have a recurring problem deploying my GitHub Pages website using GitHub Actions.

Repository: https://github.com/GHUT-corporation/parking-map

Failed workflow run: https://github.com/GHUT-corporation/parking-map/actions/runs/41120370358

The deployment job fails with this message:

"An unexpected error has occurred and we've been automatically notified."

This happened multiple times with different request IDs:

• C49D:1C7788:21A908D:2C94056:6AE4FA98
• C4CC:3E2456:8C2CD54:BF82F74:6AE6002E

The repository is public, and GitHub Pages is configured to deploy using GitHub Actions.

I have checked the workflow configuration and the local project files. The JavaScript syntax and git diff --check pass successfully.

GitHub Support closed my ticket because only self-service support resources are available for my account.

My questions:

1. Could this be a GitHub Actions or GitHub Pages infrastructure issue?
2. Is there a known workaround for this deployment error?
3. Are there any additional logs or checks I should perform?

Thank you!

[github-actions[bot]]

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[zcjunblog]

There is a useful distinction in the public run data: run 41120370358 currently reports conclusion: startup_failure, and its second attempt has zero jobs:

gh api repos/GHUT-corporation/parking-map/actions/runs/41120370358 \
  --jq '{conclusion, run_attempt, head_sha}'

gh api repos/GHUT-corporation/parking-map/actions/runs/41120370358/attempts/2/jobs \
  --jq '.total_count'

That attempt did not reach your checkout, static-site preparation or deploy-pages steps. The JavaScript syntax checks therefore do not address the stage that failed.

I would first inspect the run summary for workflow-file annotations and compare .github/workflows/pages.yml at the failed SHA 890eef7 against the previous successful run's SHA c3b208a. Your workflow already includes workflow_dispatch, so one manual run is also a useful diagnostic: record whether jobs are created or it fails at startup again.

If it still fails with zero jobs and no actionable annotation, add those run/attempt details to this report alongside the request IDs you already supplied. They narrow the investigation to workflow initialization; they do not, by themselves, prove a GitHub infrastructure incident.

GitHub workflow troubleshooting documentation

Prepared with AI assistance; the run metadata and workflow file were checked. I have not reproduced the startup failure in another repository.

[GHUT-corporation]

Thank you for identifying this distinction. The startup_failure conclusion and zero jobs on the second attempt are important clues.

I'll compare the workflow file between the failed and previous successful commits and try a manual workflow_dispatch run.

I'll update this discussion with the results, including whether any jobs are created.