Artifact Storage Management

Added: 2026-01-24 Status: Active in production PR: #477

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Overview

GitHub Actions artifact storage has quota limits that can cause CI failures. This system proactively manages storage to prevent quota exhaustion.

Key Components:

1. Scheduled cleanup workflow - Deletes old artifacts weekly
2. Non-blocking uploads - CI continues even if upload fails
3. Self-hosted runner migration - Reduces quota pressure

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The Problem

GitHub artifact storage has several constraints:

Tier	Storage Quota	Retention
Free	500 MB	90 days
Pro	2 GB	90 days

Critical Issue: After deleting artifacts, quota recalculation is delayed 6-12 hours. During this window, CI can still fail with quota exhaustion errors even though artifacts were deleted.

Symptoms of quota exhaustion:

Error: Not enough artifact storage quota available

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Solution 1: Artifact Cleanup Workflow

File: .github/workflows/artifact-cleanup.yml

Scheduled Execution

Runs automatically every Sunday at 3 AM UTC to delete artifacts older than 3 days.

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 3 * * 0'  # Every Sunday at 3 AM UTC

Manual Trigger

Can be triggered manually with configurable options:

• max_age_days: Delete artifacts older than N days (default: 3)
• dry_run: Preview what would be deleted without actually deleting

To run manually:

1. Go to Actions tab
2. Select “Artifact Cleanup” workflow
3. Click “Run workflow”
4. Set options and run

How It Works

// Lists all artifacts and deletes those older than cutoff
const cutoffDate = new Date(Date.now() - maxAgeDays * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
 
for (const artifact of artifacts) {
  if (createdAt < cutoffDate) {
    await github.rest.actions.deleteArtifact({
      owner: context.repo.owner,
      repo: context.repo.repo,
      artifact_id: artifact.id
    });
  }
}

Required Permissions

The workflow requires actions: write permission to delete artifacts:

permissions:
  actions: write  # Required to delete artifacts

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Solution 2: Non-Blocking Artifact Uploads

All artifact upload steps now include continue-on-error: true to prevent CI failures when quota is exhausted.

Before (Blocking)

- name: Upload test reports
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with:
    name: test-reports
    path: build/reports/

CI fails if upload fails.

After (Non-Blocking)

- name: Upload test reports
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  continue-on-error: true  # Don't fail CI if upload fails
  with:
    name: test-reports
    path: build/reports/

CI continues even if upload fails. The upload failure is logged but doesn’t block the workflow.

Affected Workflows

Workflow	Artifacts Made Non-Blocking
android-ci.yml	Lint reports, JaCoCo coverage, test reports, OWASP reports
ios-ci.yml	Unit test results, UI test results
android-integration-tests.yml	Integration test results, UI test results

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Solution 3: Self-Hosted Runner Migration

PR #477 also migrated android-integration-tests.yml to use self-hosted runners by default. This reduces GitHub-hosted runner quota consumption.

Key Changes

1. Added decide_runner job - Platform-conditional runner selection
2. Made KVM setup Linux-only - Software rendering on Windows/macOS
3. Added [github] escape hatch - Force GitHub-hosted if needed

Runner Selection Logic

decide_runner:
  runs-on: self-hosted  # Decision runs on self-hosted (no quota)
  outputs:
    runner_label: ${{ steps.decide.outputs.runner_label }}

Jobs queue when self-hosted runners are offline instead of auto-fallback.

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Monitoring

Check Current Storage Usage

1. Go to Repository Settings > Actions > General
2. Look for “Artifact and log storage used”

Check Cleanup Results

After cleanup runs, check the workflow summary for:

• Number of artifacts deleted
• Total storage freed (in MB)

Emergency Cleanup

If CI is failing due to quota:

1. Manually trigger cleanup:

   • Go to Actions > Artifact Cleanup
   • Run with max_age_days: 1 for aggressive cleanup

2. Wait 6-12 hours for quota to recalculate

3. Use [self-hosted] flag in commit messages to bypass GitHub-hosted runners temporarily

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Best Practices

Do’s

• Keep retention low (3 days is usually sufficient)
• Schedule cleanup during low-activity hours (weekends)
• Use dry-run before aggressive cleanup
• Monitor quota weekly (see Maintenance Tasks)

Don’ts

• Don’t rely on immediate quota recalculation
• Don’t upload large binary artifacts (APKs, IPAs)
• Don’t keep artifacts for weeks/months
• Don’t skip continue-on-error on artifact uploads

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Related Documentation

• CD Maintenance Tasks - Weekly quota review procedures
• Hybrid Runner System - Self-hosted runner setup
• CD Operations Index - Operations overview

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Tags: ci-cd github-actions artifacts quota-management Status: Active in production