Question

Your team wants a workflow to run automatically every night at 2:30 AM US Eastern Time (which is UTC-5 during standard time). The workflow file uses a schedule trigger. Which cron expression correctly configures the trigger, and what should the team keep in mind?

Accepted Answer

Use `- cron: '30 7 * * *'` because GitHub Actions schedules are evaluated in UTC, so 2:30 AM Eastern (UTC-5) equals 07:30 UTC; note the offset shifts to UTC-4 during daylight saving time.

Answer

Use `- cron: '30 2 * * *'` and set a `timezone: America/New_York` key alongside the cron entry so the schedule runs in local Eastern time.

Answer

Use `- cron: '2 30 * * *'` because the schedule format places the hour first, then the minute, both in local runner time.

Answer

Use `- cron: '30 7 * * *'` and rely on GitHub automatically adjusting the run for daylight saving time so it always fires at 2:30 AM Eastern.