Cannot distinguish between branches with long names in UI for workflow dispatch

[GideonPARANOID]

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When triggering an invocation of a workflow manualy, & selecting to run the workflow on a branch, it is not possible to see the full branch name, making it impossible to distinguish between multiple branches with the same long prefix.

There is no mouseover text etc.

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[SouriRishik]

The Run workflow branch selector truncates long branch names in the dropdown, and currently there is no tooltip or expand option to display the full ref. While this can make it difficult to distinguish branches with similar prefixes, the behavior is expected and not considered broken functionality.

As a workaround, you can:

Type the unique part of the branch name in the search field

Copy and paste the full branch name into the input

Trigger the workflow from the specific branch page

Use the GitHub CLI:

gh workflow run <workflow-file> --ref <full-branch-name>

[GideonPARANOID]

Thanks, I have been using these workarounds, however it still is poor UX & should be addressed.

[Om-singh-ui]

Thanks for outlining the workarounds especially the CLI approach, which is definitely the most precise option.

That said, even if this is “expected behavior,” the lack of a tooltip or full-ref preview does create usability friction, particularly for teams with structured long branch naming. Small UX improvements (like hover-to-preview) would go a long way in reducing dispatch errors.

[SouriRishik]

Agreed, the UX could definitely be improved. Since the current behavior appears to be by design, it would likely be better addressed as a feature request rather than a bug i think