# Cancel all of the Approval jobs in the branch

**URL:** <https://discuss.circleci.com/t/cancel-all-of-the-approval-jobs-in-the-branch/45950>\
**Category:** Tips, Tricks, and Hacks\
**Tags:** api\
**Created:** [October 31, 2022, 9:03am UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/cancel-all-of-the-approval-jobs-in-the-branch/45950 "2022-10-31T09:03:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![naoya](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/circleci/user_avatar/discuss.circleci.com/naoya/32/28147_2.png) [@naoya](https://discuss.circleci.com/u/naoya)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 9:03am UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/cancel-all-of-the-approval-jobs-in-the-branch/45950/1 "2022-10-31T09:03:15Z")

</div>

CircleCI has a feature to [hold a job](https://circleci.com/blog/adding-approval-jobs-to-your-ci-pipeline/) until someone approves it. However, when users commits a lot, each workflow will remain on hold until canceled, and if there are many workflows, the canceling might be time-consuming. Especially when a terraform-related jobs; user would like to cancel the workflow to ensure no one accidentally approves the workflow.

> **[Time-Limit for Approval/Hold Job](https://support.circleci.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043401212-Time-Limit-for-Approval-Hold-Job)**
>
> Approval/Hold Jobs
> Approval/hold jobs have a 90-day limit on when they can be approved.
>  
> On-Hold Workflows
> While after 90 days they can't be approved, workflows will remain on hold until canceled,...

1. The following script will require you to set some parameter depending on your project and will retrive the initial request to get the required pipeline information. [CircleCI API](https://circleci.com/docs/api/v2/index.html#operation/listPipelinesForProject)

```auto
org_name='nanophate' # Organization Name
prj_name='circleci-template' # Project / Repository Name
branch_name='main' # Branch Name

initail_req=$(curl -s -H "Circle-Token: ${CIRCLECI_PERSONAL_TOKEN}" "https://circleci.com/api/v2/project/gh/${org_name}/${prj_name}/pipeline?branch=${branch_name}")
pipeline_ids+=$(echo $initail_req | jq -r '.items[].id')
next_page_token=$(echo $initail_req | jq -r '.next_page_token')

```

1. During the `start pipeline while` phase it would retrive and store all of the pipeline\_id into `pipeline_ids` to further use it in the code.
2. After completing the above `start workflow while` now requires to retrive all the workflow id with `on_hold` status. The `.items[].status == "on_hold"` might be needed to a adjust depending on your approval job’s name.
3. Finally from the `workflow_ids` the cancel API gets called and each workflow would be canceled.

```auto
while ["$next_page_token" != "null"]
do
  echo "start pipeline while"
  echo $next_page_token
  reqs=$(curl -s -H "Circle-Token: ${CIRCLECI_PERSONAL_TOKEN}" "https://circleci.com/api/v2/project/gh/${org_name}/${prj_name}/pipeline?page-token=${next_page_token}")
  pipeline_ids="${pipeline_ids}\n$(echo $reqs | jq -r '.items[].id')"
  next_page_token=$(echo $reqs | jq -r '.next_page_token')
  echo $next_page_token
  echo "end pipeline while"
done

echo ${pipeline_ids} | while read pip_id; do 
  initail_wf_req=$(curl -s -H "Circle-Token: ${CIRCLECI_PERSONAL_TOKEN}" "https://circleci.com/api/v2/pipeline/${pip_id}/workflow")
  workflow_ids+="$(echo $initail_wf_req | jq -r 'select(.items[].status == "on_hold") | .items[].pipeline_id')"
  

  while ["$wf_next_page_token" != "null"]
  do
    echo "start workflow while"
    echo $wf_next_page_token
    echo $pip_id
    wf_reqs=$(curl -s -H "Circle-Token: ${CIRCLECI_PERSONAL_TOKEN}" "https://circleci.com/api/v2/pipeline/${pip_id}/workflow?page-token=${next_page_token}")
    workflow_ids+="$(echo $initail_wf_req | jq -r 'select(.items[].status == "on_hold") | .items[].pipeline_id')"
    wf_next_page_token=$(echo $wf_reqs | jq -r '.next_page_token')
    echo $wf_next_page_token
    echo "end workflow while"
  done
done

echo ${workflow_ids} | while read wf_id; do curl -fsS -X POST -H "Circle-Token: ${CIRCLECI_PERSONAL_TOKEN}" "https://circleci.com/api/v2/workflow/${wf_id}/cancel"; done

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bjd2385](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/circleci/user_avatar/discuss.circleci.com/bjd2385/32/32866_2.png) [@bjd2385](https://discuss.circleci.com/u/bjd2385)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2022, 6:09am UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/cancel-all-of-the-approval-jobs-in-the-branch/45950/2 "2022-11-14T06:09:11Z")

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Can confirm this has been an issue at a former company, where an app deployment from earlier in the day was later approved and ended up causing an outage, as later changes introduced breaking changes with previous versions. It would be great if a linear approval history could be enforced.