no-invalid-concurrency-context

Rule catalog ID: R042

Targeted pattern scope

GitHub Actions workflow YAML files that define workflow-level concurrency or jobs.<job_id>.concurrency expressions.

What this rule reports

This rule reports concurrency expressions that reference contexts GitHub does not allow at that location.

Top-level concurrency may only reference github, inputs, and vars
Job-level concurrency may only reference github, needs, strategy, matrix, inputs, and vars

Why this rule exists

Concurrency is evaluated before steps run, so step-only and runner-time contexts such as steps, secrets, env, job, or runner are not available there. Using unsupported contexts makes concurrency groups invalid and can break workflow scheduling behavior.

❌ Incorrect

concurrency:
  group: deploy-${{ secrets.ENVIRONMENT }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    concurrency:
      group: deploy-${{ steps.meta.outputs.lock }}
    steps:
      - id: meta
        run: echo "lock=prod" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"

✅ Correct

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      environment:
        description: Deployment target
        required: true
        type: string

concurrency:
  group: deploy-${{ github.workflow }}-${{ inputs.environment }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      lock: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.lock }}
    steps:
      - id: meta
        run: echo "lock=prod" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"

  deploy:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    concurrency:
      group: deploy-${{ needs.build.outputs.lock }}
      cancel-in-progress: ${{ inputs.environment == 'prod' }}
    steps:
      - run: echo "Deploying"

Additional examples

For larger repositories, this rule is often enabled together with one of the published presets so violations are caught in pull requests before workflow changes are merged.

ESLint flat config example

import githubActions from "eslint-plugin-github-actions-2";

export default [
  {
    files: ["**/*.{yml,yaml}"],
    plugins: {
      "github-actions": githubActions,
    },
    rules: {
      "github-actions/no-invalid-concurrency-context": "error",
    },
  },
];

When not to use it

You can disable this rule when its policy does not match your repository standards, or when equivalent enforcement is already handled by another policy tool.

Targeted pattern scope​

What this rule reports​

Why this rule exists​

❌ Incorrect​

✅ Correct​

Additional examples​

ESLint flat config example​

When not to use it​

Further reading​