When a Github Actions workflow fails, can I notify multiple recipients via email?

[abhi12ravi]

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By default, only the person who triggers the workflow or the person setting up the workflow gets an email notification on job failure.

Docs: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/monitoring-and-troubleshooting-workflows/notifications-for-workflow-runs

There is a workaround by adding an extra step (listed below) in the workflow, it claims to send the notification to multiple recipients, but this requires me to store my email username and password as a secret on GitHub, which I don't prefer to do.

Extra step: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62304258/github-actions-notifications-on-workflow-failure/67265461#67265461

I have to send the failure notification to my team of 4. Any ideas on tackling this problem would be appreciated!

[sunitaguptavertex]

I have similar requirement. Were you able to solve this issue?

[karna41317]

Any updates on this ?

[cywier]

I need this too.

[fabiobsantosprogrow]

This feature was required even nowadays!
Notification settings an option to put all teams or manage this on repo settings.
This information is very importante to leads and devops teams to solve issues and track activity.

[tt-rkim]

+1, multiple people work on pipelines

[Keshapally]

+1 waiting for any solutions from GitHub

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[joshjohanning]

By default, GitHub Actions notifies the actor (person who initiated the run) - assuming they haven't tweaked their notification settings. A user can opt in / out of these Action failure notifications.

You can use an Action from the GitHub Actions marketplace, but you would need SMTP credentials: https://github.com/marketplace?type=actions&query=email

There are cloud services, like Mailgun or Sendgrid, that you can also use to facilitate email sending.

---

You can also set up Teams or Slack integration to post to a channel the results of a job. This is how I most commonly see it at customers.

---

As another workaround option, you can create a new issue / issue comment / comment to a PR and @mention the team you want to mention, and provide a link to the workflow that is failing. Something like this:

Like this:

  - uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v1
    id: app-token
    with:
      app-id: ${{ vars.APP_ID }}
      private-key: ${{ secrets.PRIVATE_KEY }}

- name: create issue comment with failure
  run: | 
     # update 123 with the issue number you are commenting to
     gh issue comment 123 -R my-org/my-repo --body "@myorg/myteam: ***Workflow failure*** [View workflow run for details](${{ github.repository.html_url }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id}})"
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ steps.app-token.outputs.token }}

You do have to use a GitHub app or personal access token to @ mention a team though (the ${{ github.token }} will not work).

[jonahgreenthal]

@joshjohanning This is such a common use case (notifying a team rather than one specific person) that it should be supported "out of the box" rather than relying on community extensions that are relatively intensive to set up.

[joshjohanning]

I did edit my commend above to show how you could post a comment to an issue that would tag a team.

I agree it is additional legwork, but that is the only option right now.

[joshjohanning]

You can also set up Teams or Slack integration @jonahgreenthal to post to a channel the results of a job. This is how I most commonly see it at customers.

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[jonahgreenthal]

This is still about a significant issue that has not been satisfactorily resolved.

[armyost]

I'm using Google Chat notification. I think there are other notification steps for various platform.

      # Workflow complete Notification
      - name: Google-Chat-Notification
        uses: Co-qn/google-chat-notification@releases/v1
        with:
          name: Result
          url: ${{ env.GOOGLE_CHAT_URL }}
          status: ${{ job.status }}
        if: ${{ always() }}

[PaulRBerg]

Any ETA for when this basic functionality will be supported?

[shayki5]

+1

It's super basic feature!

[aking-ed]

Yes, I am surprised this can't be done out of the box. we have a nightly job, and it is just random who gets notified about its failure (just whoever happened to merge in the most recent PR). not intuitive at all!

[Harrysharmax]

Use a Team Messaging Platform
How it works:

1. Generate a Webhook URL: In your Slack or Teams channel, create an "Incoming Webhook." This gives you a unique, secret URL.
2. Store the URL as a Secret: In your GitHub repository, go to Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions and add the webhook URL as a secret (e.g., SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL).
3. Add a Step to Your Workflow: Add a final step to your job that only runs on failure using the if: failure() condition.
   Here's an example for Slack:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Run build steps
        run: |
          # Your build and test commands go here
          # Let's assume this step fails
          exit 1

      - name: Notify team on failure
        if: failure()
        uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v1.26.0
        with:
          channel-id: 'C12345678' # Or your channel name
          slack-message: "🚨 Workflow failed! Name: ${{ github.workflow }}, Job: ${{ github.job }}. See details: ${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}"
        env:
          SLACK_BOT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SLACK_BOT_TOKEN }} # Or use SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL with a different action/method

or you can Use a Dedicated Email Service 📧
If you prefer email, use a transactional email service like SendGrid or Mailgun instead of your personal account. These services use revocable API keys for authentication, which is much more secure than a password.

How it works:

1. Sign up for a service (most have a generous free tier).
2. Get an API key and add it to your GitHub secrets.
3. Use a GitHub Action like dawidd6/action-send-mail configured to use your service's API key.

[shayki5]

Use a Team Messaging Platform How it works:

1. Generate a Webhook URL: In your Slack or Teams channel, create an "Incoming Webhook." This gives you a unique, secret URL.
2. Store the URL as a Secret: In your GitHub repository, go to Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions and add the webhook URL as a secret (e.g., SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL).
3. Add a Step to Your Workflow: Add a final step to your job that only runs on failure using the if: failure() condition.
   Here's an example for Slack:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Run build steps
        run: |
          # Your build and test commands go here
          # Let's assume this step fails
          exit 1

      - name: Notify team on failure
        if: failure()
        uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v1.26.0
        with:
          channel-id: 'C12345678' # Or your channel name
          slack-message: "🚨 Workflow failed! Name: ${{ github.workflow }}, Job: ${{ github.job }}. See details: ${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}"
        env:
          SLACK_BOT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SLACK_BOT_TOKEN }} # Or use SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL with a different action/method

or you can Use a Dedicated Email Service 📧 If you prefer email, use a transactional email service like SendGrid or Mailgun instead of your personal account. These services use revocable API keys for authentication, which is much more secure than a password.

How it works:

1. Sign up for a service (most have a generous free tier).
2. Get an API key and add it to your GitHub secrets.
3. Use a GitHub Action like dawidd6/action-send-mail configured to use your service's API key.

But it's Slack, not email... for Slack there is official GitHub App..

[iainross]

+one million

How is this not out of the box?

[APEX-SAID-SHAMKHALI]

+1 Please, this feature would be very useful, specially in enterprise scenarios.

[CodyCBakerPhD]

+1 Asking for this yet again! Would simplify many of our workflows

[lukegregorio]

+! again, this would be so useful for us

[beiglboe]

Come on, please @github

[Suhas-Chandrashekar]

Hello All, I also had similar requirements. However, I used Sendgrid and is working fine and meeting my Requirements. Sharing it here if it helps others too.

(You may ignore if it doesn't help in this context)

• You may add multiple email ID's as TO Recipients &
• You may add multiple email ID's as CC Recipients.
• Also, you may specify the Distribution List too.

   notify-on-failure:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      needs: [<Add/Link_your_previous_jobs_name>, <Add/Link_your_previous_jobs_name>]
      if: always() && (<Add/Link_your_previous_jobs_names> == 'failure' || <Add/Link_your_previous_jobs_names> == 'failure')

      steps:
        - name: Send failure notification via SendGrid
          env:
            SENDGRID_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.SENDGRID_API_KEY }}
          run: |
            CURRENT_DATE=$(date '+%d-%m-%Y')
            
            curl -X POST https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/mail/send \
              -H "Authorization: Bearer ${SENDGRID_API_KEY}" \
              -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
              -d @- <<EOF
            {
              "personalizations": [
                {
                    "to": [
                      {"email": "email-1"},
                      {"email": "email-2"}
                    ],
                    "cc": [
                      {"email": "email-1"},
                      {"email": "email-2"}
                    ],
                  "subject": "<Subject_Goes_here>"
                }
              ],
              "from": {
                "email": "<FROM_Email_Address>",
                "name": "<FROM_Email_Name>"
              },
              "content": [
                {
                  "type": "text/plain",
                  "value": "<Content/Body_Goes_here>"
                }
              ]
            }
            EOF

Thanks & Regards,
Suhas Chandrashekar

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This Discussion has been labeled as dormant by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions:

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[jonahgreenthal]

This is not dormant. It's still a badly needed missing feature.

[Arthi4M]

+1 Would be super helpful to have this feature

[DmytroKryvoruchenko]

+1, it would be nice to have it out of the box

[esiebert]

+1. I'm having to implement workarounds because of the lack of this feature

[PaulRBerg]

we all have to

[ydubov]

+1
BTW as a work around, I tried subscribing to Actions notifications by email, in aim to receive all action results.
Strangely, I only receive an email if the run passes, but not if if fails - in that case, only the faceless account that triggered it gets notified, super unhelpful!

[GuilhermeH98]

+1

[Gecko51]

Few options that don't involve stuffing SMTP creds into secrets.

Cleanest for a team of 4 is to route through a chat webhook (Slack, Discord, Teams) and let the chat tool handle the fanout to email/mobile however each person prefers:

- name: Notify on failure
  if: failure()
  uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v1
  with:
    webhook: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
    webhook-type: incoming-webhook
    payload: |
      {"text": "Workflow ${{ github.workflow }} failed on ${{ github.ref }}"}

Webhook URL is the only secret you store.

If it has to be email specifically, use a transactional service (SendGrid, Mailgun, SES) and store an API key instead of your personal email password. SendGrid's free tier covers 100 emails a day which is plenty for CI. The API key is scoped to sending mail only so even if leaked it can't touch your inbox.

Third option with zero extra services: file a GitHub issue on failure and assign the team. Every assignee gets notified through whatever channel they configured:

- uses: actions/github-script@v7
  if: failure()
  with:
    script: |
      github.rest.issues.create({
        owner: context.repo.owner,
        repo: context.repo.repo,
        title: `CI failed on ${context.sha.substring(0, 7)}`,
        body: `Run: ${context.serverUrl}/${context.repo.owner}/${context.repo.repo}/actions/runs/${context.runId}`,
        assignees: ['user1', 'user2', 'user3', 'user4']
      })

For a team of 4, Slack or Discord webhook is far and away the lowest friction, would go with that.