Cron Expression 0 0 * * * Daily at Midnight GitHub Actions (2026)
Cron expression 0 0 * * * means At 12:00 AM.
Cron expression 0 0 * * * daily at midnight for GitHub Actions in 2026. Learn the exact schedule behavior, UTC timing, and practical workflow safeguards.
Cron Expression
Common use cases
- Nightly CI maintenance workflows in GitHub Actions
- Daily dependency scanning and report generation
- Midnight content or data pipeline runs from Actions
- Daily repository housekeeping and artifact cleanup
How to use this cron schedule
For cron expression 0 0 * * * daily at midnight GitHub Actions, place `- cron: '0 0 * * *'` under `on.schedule` in your workflow file. In GitHub Actions, cron schedules are evaluated in UTC, so midnight UTC may map to a different local hour for your team. In 2026, this timezone detail is still the top source of confusion when people expect local midnight behavior. Always annotate the expected local run time in workflow comments and internal docs, especially when the output feeds dashboards or reports reviewed in the U.S. morning.
A strong GitHub Actions pattern is to keep the midnight trigger lightweight and move heavy processing into explicit jobs with retries and timeouts. Add concurrency control if duplicate runs are risky, and publish a simple success marker so downstream teams can confirm the workflow completed. For data-sensitive tasks, include idempotency checks before writes to storage or external APIs. This makes manual reruns safe after transient outages. Also monitor default runner limits and artifact retention so nightly jobs do not fail silently due to quota or cleanup policies.
When a nightly workflow fails, quick diagnosis depends on structured logging and clear step boundaries. Break long workflows into validation, processing, and publication steps rather than one monolithic command. Track duration trends so growing runtime does not eventually overlap with other scheduled jobs. If midnight UTC is not ideal, adjust the cron hour while preserving the intended business schedule. Use this page as the direct GitHub Actions reference for `0 0 * * *`, then compare related pages for Linux crontab, Kubernetes CronJob, and daily morning alternatives.
Want to customize this schedule?
Open it in the visual builder to tweak the expression interactively.
Open in BuilderNeed to monitor this cron job?
Cronhub tracks your scheduled jobs and alerts you if they fail or run late.
Platform usage examples
# Edit your crontab
crontab -e
# Add this line to run expression 0 0 * * * daily at midnight github actions (2026)
0 0 * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/script.php
# Or run a shell script
0 0 * * * /home/user/scripts/job.sh >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1# .github/workflows/scheduled.yml
name: Scheduled Job
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 0 * * *'
jobs:
run:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Run job
run: echo "Running expression 0 0 * * * daily at midnight github actions (2026)"apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
name: my-scheduled-job
spec:
schedule: "0 0 * * *"
jobTemplate:
spec:
template:
spec:
containers:
- name: job
image: my-image:latest
restartPolicy: OnFailureRelated developer tools
More free tools for engineering workflows that pair with scheduled jobs:
Frequently asked questions
What is the cron expression for expression 0 0 * * * daily at midnight github actions (2026)?
The cron expression is 0 0 * * *. Cron expression 0 0 * * * daily at midnight for GitHub Actions in 2026. Learn the exact schedule behavior, UTC timing, and practical workflow safeguards.
How do I schedule a cron job to run expression 0 0 * * * daily at midnight github actions (2026) in Linux?
Open your crontab with "crontab -e" and add a new line: 0 0 * * * /path/to/your/script.sh — this schedules your script to run expression 0 0 * * * daily at midnight github actions (2026). Save and exit; the cron daemon picks up the change immediately.
What does the cron expression "0 0 * * *" mean?
Cron expression 0 0 * * * daily at midnight for GitHub Actions in 2026. Learn the exact schedule behavior, UTC timing, and practical workflow safeguards.
Can I use "0 0 * * *" in GitHub Actions?
Yes. In your workflow YAML, set the schedule trigger: on: schedule: - cron: '0 0 * * *'. GitHub Actions uses standard 5-field Unix cron syntax, so this expression works as-is.