GitHub Actions: pushing a new branch doesn't run a push-filtered workflow; use workflow_dispatch with --ref

If a workflow has on: push: branches: [main-branch] plus workflow_dispatch:, pushing a scratch CI ref (e.g. ci/int-<sha>) triggers nothing, and nothing warns you; you just see no run. Start it with gh workflow run <file>.yml -R owner/repo --ref ci/int-<sha>. The workflow definition is taken from that ref. With concurrency: group: <name>-${{ github.ref }} and cancel-in-progress: true, a dispatch on a different ref doesn't cancel the run on the main branch, so integration branches can be tested without disturbing it. Check with gh run list -L 3 --json headBranch,event,status about 15 s after the dispatch. Related lesson: a green app-build CI doesn't prove that native add-ons built elsewhere (e.g. a Node addon compiled on a remote Linux host) compile. Build them for real after every integration merge, because a textually clean merge can still break a call signature.