Canceled active automation runs when an automation is disabled

[EvanHahn]

closes https://linear.app/ghost/issue/NY-1358

When an automation is marked inactive, we now cancel any active runs.

How it works

To do this, we:

• Mark all pending steps canceled.
• If an automation is deactivated while a step is running:
  • Don't enqueue subsequent steps.
  • Don't retry failed steps.

Note that, if a step is already locked and running, we may not be able to stop it.

Manual test

In addition to automated tests, I manually tested this by:

1. Temporarily set automations.fakeWaitHoursMultiplier to 2500 (one day becomes one minute).
2. Created a "send email, wait 2 days, send email" automation.
3. Signed up a member and got the first email.
4. Deactivated then reactivated the automation.
5. Verified that I never received the second email.

I also ran through this without deactivating the automation and made sure I got both emails.

[coderabbitai]

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between b8df697 and cc1cc41.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)

• ghost/core/core/server/services/automations/database-automations-repository.ts
• ghost/core/core/server/services/automations/stale-lock-cutoff.ts
• ghost/core/test/unit/server/services/automations/automations-repository.test.ts
• ghost/core/test/unit/server/services/automations/stale-lock-cutoff.test.ts

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (4)

• ghost/core/test/unit/server/services/automations/stale-lock-cutoff.test.ts
• ghost/core/core/server/services/automations/stale-lock-cutoff.ts
• ghost/core/test/unit/server/services/automations/automations-repository.test.ts
• ghost/core/core/server/services/automations/database-automations-repository.ts

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Walkthrough

A new getStaleLockCutoff(now) utility is extracted into its own file, computing a stale-lock cutoff by subtracting LOCK_TIMEOUT_MS from a given timestamp. The repository replaces its inline cutoff calculation with this helper in fetchAndLockSteps. The edit transaction now cancels pending (unlocked or expired-lock) automation run steps by marking them 'automation disabled' when an automation's status transitions to 'inactive', using a new cancelCancelablePendingStepsForAutomation bulk-update helper. New isStepRunAutomationActive / isRunAutomationActive / selectExists helpers are added, and early guards using them are inserted into finishStepAndEnqueueNext (returns null if inactive) and retryStep (marks step terminal as 'automation disabled' and returns false if inactive). Unit tests cover all new behaviors.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately and specifically describes the main change: canceling active automation runs when an automation is disabled.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description clearly explains the purpose, implementation approach, and manual testing methodology, all directly related to the changeset.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch ny1358-cancel-active-automation-runs

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☁️ Nx Cloud last updated this comment at 2026-06-23 00:53:51 UTC