[BUG]: Potentially incorrect "updated_at" field

[ethanrweber]

What happened?

I'm working on a personal prototype project to pull data from github and compute some metrics on it.

My current goal is to use the "List Workflow Runs for a Repository" endpoint to retrieve data on Workflow Runs. I'm using this block of code to retrieve the data:

const workflowRuns = await octokitClient.paginate(octokitClient.actions.listWorkflowRunsForRepo, {
    owner,
    repo,
});

I actually pulled data from this octokit/rest.js repository since it has a lot of data I can analyze for testing purposes, which is where I noticed the potential issue.

This is a partial copy of one of the Workflow Run entries in the response where I noticed the issue:

{
  id: 8900779163,
  name: 'Issue/PR response',
  node_id: 'WFR_kwLOFWkwyc8AAAACEoccmw',
  head_branch: 'main',
  head_sha: 'b4e210293dda57f66e8b0391f4dc5d67b2cb5025',
  path: '.github/workflows/immediate-response.yml',
  ... (more data),
  url: 'https://api.github.com/repos/octokit/rest.js/actions/runs/8900779163',
  html_url: 'https://github.com/octokit/rest.js/actions/runs/8900779163',
  pull_requests: [
    {
      url: 'https://api.github.com/repos/AmirulAndalib/rest.js/pulls/28',
      id: 2535943355,
      number: 28,
      head: [Object],
      base: [Object]
    }
  ],
  created_at: '2024-04-30T19:53:37Z',
  updated_at: '2025-06-05T03:59:41Z',
  ... (more data),
  run_started_at: '2024-04-30T19:53:37Z',
}

Specifically, the created_at/run_started_at and updated_at fields seem to indicate that it took over a year for this workflow run to complete. However, if you look at the actual workflow run, the duration is listed as 14 seconds.

Is there an actual bug here, or am I assuming incorrectly that I can use the updated_at field as a proxy for when a workflow run finished?

If I am making an incorrect assumption, would it be possible to update the endpoint to include a run_finished_at datapoint or something similar?

Versions

I'm using:

• "@octokit/rest": "^21.1.1"
• Node v22.12.0

Relevant log output

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[octokit]

👋 Hi! Thank you for this contribution! Just to let you know, our GitHub SDK team does a round of issue and PR reviews twice a week, every Monday and Friday! We have a process in place for prioritizing and responding to your input. Because you are a part of this community please feel free to comment, add to, or pick up any issues/PRs that are labeled with Status: Up for grabs. You & others like you are the reason all of this works! So thank you & happy coding! 🚀

[wolfy1339]

This isn't an issue with Octokit.

This is a question you should ask GitHub.

The updated_at field is whenever there was an update that was made. It isn't related to the duration