Your GitHub Actions cron can stop without telling you

Running anything on a GitHub Actions schedule:? GitHub's own docs say:

1. Scheduled runs can be delayed at busy times, and some queued runs can be dropped. The top of the hour is busiest.
2. In public repos, scheduled workflows are turned off after 60 days with no repository activity.
3. Schedules only run from the default branch.

None of these throws an error; the job just doesn't run. (GitHub Docs)

The fix: make the job check in, and get alerted when it doesn't. End it with a step that curls a heartbeat URL.

• Move off :00. Schedule at an odd minute, with a 30–60 minute grace window.
• Check the output, not just the exit code. Send the output as the ping body so an empty "green" run still alerts.

Full GitHub Actions recipe, free for 3 watches.