🏥 Safe Output Health Report - October 26, 2025

[github-actions[bot]]

🏥 Safe Output Health Report - October 26, 2025

This report analyzes safe output job health across all agentic workflows in the last 24 hours. Safe output jobs create GitHub discussions, issues, comments, and pull requests based on agent outputs.

Key Finding: 68.6% success rate with 37 failures out of 118 executed jobs (170 jobs were skipped due to upstream failures). Most failures stem from two root causes: missing artifacts (agent job failures) and missing GH_TOKEN configuration.

Full Report Details

Executive Summary

• Period: Last 24 hours (October 25-26, 2025)
• Runs Analyzed: 125 workflow runs
• Workflows Active: 123 had safe output jobs
• Safe Output Jobs Total: 288 jobs scheduled
• Safe Output Jobs Executed: 118 jobs (170 skipped due to upstream failures)
• Safe Output Jobs Failed: 37 failures (31.4% failure rate among executed jobs)
• Error Clusters Identified: 4 distinct error patterns

Safe Output Job Statistics

Job Type	Total Executions	Failures	Skipped	Success Rate
create_issue	40	5	5	85.7%
create_discussion	19	0	12	100.0%
add_comment	18	0	8	100.0%
create_pull_request	41	13	15	50.0% ⚠️
push_to_pull_request_branch	47	10	19	64.3%
missing_tool	123	9	111	25.0% *

*Note: missing_tool jobs are expected to be mostly skipped; low success rate is not concerning

Most Reliable: create_discussion and add_comment (100% success rate)
Most Problematic: create_pull_request (50% success rate - needs urgent attention)

Error Clusters

Cluster 1: Missing GH_TOKEN Environment Variable

• Count: 6 occurrences
• Affected Jobs: create_pull_request (5), create_issue (1)
• Affected Workflows: Q, Tidy, Daily Documentation Updater, Duplicate Code Detector
• Sample Error:

  gh: To use GitHub CLI in a GitHub Actions workflow, set the GH_TOKEN
  environment variable. Example:
    env:
      GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
  

• Root Cause: The GH_TOKEN environment variable is not being passed to safe output jobs that need to use the GitHub CLI (gh) command. The environment variable is defined but set to an empty string.
• Impact: HIGH - Prevents creation of pull requests and assignment of issues to Copilot bot. This is the primary cause of create_pull_request failures (46% of all create_pull_request failures).

Affected Runs: 18808728870, 18808915922, 18809411897, 18812386568, 18813905477, 18808429389

Cluster 2: Artifact Not Found (agent_output.json)

• Count: 4 occurrences
• Affected Jobs: create_issue
• Affected Workflows: Smoke Claude, Smoke Copilot
• Sample Error:

  ##[error]Unable to download artifact(s): Artifact not found for name: agent_output.json
  ##[error]Error reading agent output file: ENOENT: no such file or directory,
  open '/tmp/gh-aw/safe-outputs/agent_output.json'
  

• Root Cause: The agent job failed or did not produce the expected agent_output.json artifact. This is an upstream failure - the safe output job cannot execute because its input is missing.
• Impact: MEDIUM - Indicates agent job health issues rather than safe output job issues. Safe output job correctly fails when prerequisite artifact is missing.

Affected Runs: 18769519086, 18769543228, 18810304059, 18802153054

Cluster 3: Branch Does Not Exist on Origin

• Count: 1 occurrence
• Affected Jobs: push_to_pull_request_branch
• Affected Workflows: Changeset Generator
• Sample Error:

  ##[error]Branch copilot/add-workflow-dispatch-changeset-generator does not exist
  on origin, can't push to it: The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128
  

• Root Cause: The safe output job attempted to push changes to a pull request branch that doesn't exist on the remote repository. This could happen if the PR branch was deleted after the workflow was triggered, or if the target configuration is incorrect.
• Impact: MEDIUM - Prevents pushing changes to PR branches. Relatively rare but causes complete failure of the push operation.

Affected Runs: 18802773502

Cluster 4: Git Patch Application Failed

• Count: 1 occurrence
• Affected Jobs: push_to_pull_request_branch
• Affected Workflows: Mergefest
• Sample Error:

  ##[error]Failed to apply patch: The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128
  ##[error]Failed to apply patch
  

• Root Cause: The git patch generated by the agent could not be applied to the target branch. This typically indicates:
  • Patch conflicts with existing code
  • Malformed patch file
  • Files in patch don't exist in target branch
• Impact: MEDIUM - Prevents applying agent-generated changes to branches. Requires investigation of patch generation quality.

Affected Runs: 18816855563

Cluster 5: Cancelled Jobs (Expected Behavior)

• Count: 24 occurrences (not counted in failure statistics)
• Affected Jobs: create_pull_request, push_to_pull_request_branch, missing_tool
• Affected Workflows: Tidy (primary), various others
• Root Cause: Workflow was cancelled before safe output jobs could execute, typically due to upstream agent or detection job failures.
• Impact: LOW - This is expected behavior when agent jobs fail. Not a safe output job issue.

Root Cause Analysis

Critical Issues (Requiring Immediate Action)

1. GH_TOKEN Configuration Missing (CRITICAL)

Problem: The most common failure mode is safe output jobs trying to use GitHub CLI without the GH_TOKEN environment variable set.

Technical Details:

• Affects primarily create_pull_request jobs that need to add reviewers or perform other GitHub API operations
• The token variable is defined in the workflow but not populated with an actual value
• Error occurs when gh CLI commands are executed

Why This Happens:

• Workflow configuration may have GH_TOKEN: without a value assignment
• Token may not be available in the workflow context
• Safe output job configuration may not inherit tokens from parent workflow

Fix Required: Update workflow templates to properly pass GitHub tokens to safe output jobs.

2. Upstream Agent Job Failures

Problem: Safe output jobs fail because agent jobs didn't produce required artifacts.

Technical Details:

• Agent job fails before creating agent_output.json artifact
• Safe output job attempts to download artifact and fails
• Common in smoke test workflows

Why This Happens:

• Agent timeouts
• Agent errors or crashes
• Agent doesn't reach safe output generation phase

Fix Required: This is primarily an agent health issue, not a safe output issue. Focus on agent stability.

Data Validation Issues

3. Git Operations Failing

Problem: Git commands (patch application, branch pushing) fail during safe output execution.

Technical Details:

• Branch doesn't exist on remote
• Patch cannot be applied due to conflicts
• Git exit code 128 indicates fatal errors

Why This Happens:

• Race conditions (branch deleted after workflow triggered)
• Patch generation quality issues
• Missing validation before git operations

Fix Required: Add defensive checks before git operations; improve patch generation.

Recommendations

Critical Issues (Immediate Action Required)

1. Fix GH_TOKEN Configuration in create_pull_request Jobs

• Priority: 🔴 CRITICAL
• Root Cause: GH_TOKEN environment variable not properly set for safe output jobs using GitHub CLI
• Recommended Action:
  1. Update all workflow files that use create_pull_request safe output jobs
  2. Ensure GH_TOKEN is passed with proper value: GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
  3. Verify token has necessary permissions (pull_requests: write, issues: write)
• Affected Workflows: Q, Tidy, Daily Documentation Updater
• Expected Impact: Will fix 6 of 13 create_pull_request failures (46% improvement)
• Files to Update:
  • Workflow template files in .github/workflow-templates/
  • Individual workflow files that use create_pull_request

2. Add Missing Artifact Detection and Graceful Handling

• Priority: 🟡 HIGH
• Root Cause: Safe output jobs fail ungracefully when agent_output.json artifact is missing
• Recommended Action:
  1. Add conditional execution to safe output jobs: if: ${{ success() || failure() }}
  2. Improve error messaging when artifact is missing
  3. Add artifact existence check before attempting download
• Expected Impact: Better error reporting; jobs will skip gracefully instead of failing
• Files to Update: Safe output job step definitions in workflow templates

Bug Fixes Required

3. Add Branch Existence Check in push_to_pull_request_branch

• Priority: 🟡 MEDIUM
• File/Location: .github/actions/safe-outputs/push-to-pull-request-branch (or equivalent)
• Problem: Job attempts to push to non-existent branches and fails
• Fix:

  // Before pushing, verify branch exists
  const branchExists = await exec.exec('git ls-remote --heads origin ' + branchName);
  if (branchExists.exitCode !== 0) {
    core.setFailed(`Branch ${branchName} does not exist on origin`);
    return;
  }

• Affected Jobs: push_to_pull_request_branch

4. Improve Patch Application Error Handling

• Priority: 🟡 MEDIUM
• File/Location: .github/actions/safe-outputs/push-to-pull-request-branch
• Problem: Patch application fails with cryptic git error messages
• Fix:
  1. Add patch validation before application
  2. Capture full git error output
  3. Provide actionable error messages
  4. Consider adding dry-run option to test patches
• Affected Jobs: push_to_pull_request_branch

Configuration Changes

5. Standardize Token Passing Across All Safe Output Jobs

• Current: Inconsistent token configuration across workflows
• Recommended: Create a standard safe output job configuration snippet
• Reason: Ensures all safe output jobs have necessary permissions
• Example Configuration:

  env:
    GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

6. Add Artifact Retention Policies

• Current: Artifacts may be cleaned up too quickly
• Recommended: Ensure agent_output.json artifacts persist until safe output jobs complete
• Reason: Prevents race conditions where artifacts are deleted before safe output jobs run

Process Improvements

7. Add Safe Output Job Health Monitoring Dashboard

• Current State: Manual log analysis required to identify safe output issues
• Proposed:
  • Create daily health reports (this workflow!)
  • Track success rates over time
  • Alert on success rate drops
• Benefits: Proactive issue detection; trend analysis; faster incident response

8. Improve Safe Output Job Documentation

• Current State: Limited documentation on safe output job configuration and troubleshooting
• Proposed:
  • Document all safe output job types and their requirements
  • Create troubleshooting guide for common errors
  • Add configuration examples for each safe output job type
• Benefits: Faster issue resolution; fewer configuration errors

Work Item Plans

Work Item 1: Fix GH_TOKEN Configuration

• Type: Bug Fix
• Priority: 🔴 Critical
• Description: Multiple safe output jobs are failing because GH_TOKEN is not properly configured. This affects create_pull_request jobs that need to add reviewers or perform GitHub API operations.
• Acceptance Criteria:
  • All create_pull_request safe output jobs have GH_TOKEN properly configured
  • No workflows fail with "GH_TOKEN environment variable is required" error
  • create_pull_request success rate increases from 50% to >85%
  • Documentation updated with correct token configuration
• Technical Approach:
  1. Audit all workflow files that use create_pull_request safe output
  2. Update each workflow to include: env: GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
  3. Verify token permissions include pull_requests: write and issues: write
  4. Test with representative workflows (Q, Tidy, Daily Documentation Updater)
  5. Deploy to production
• Estimated Effort: Small (2-4 hours)
• Dependencies: None
• Files to Modify:
  • .github/workflow-templates/ (template files)
  • Individual workflow files using create_pull_request
  • Safe output documentation

Work Item 2: Improve Artifact Handling

• Type: Enhancement
• Priority: 🟡 High
• Description: Safe output jobs fail ungracefully when agent_output.json artifact is missing due to upstream agent failures. Need better error handling and graceful degradation.
• Acceptance Criteria:
  • Safe output jobs check for artifact existence before attempting download
  • Clear error messages when artifact is missing
  • Jobs marked as "skipped" instead of "failed" when artifact is missing
  • Summary reports distinguish between safe output failures and upstream failures
• Technical Approach:
  1. Add conditional if: always() to safe output job steps
  2. Implement artifact existence check using GitHub API
  3. Update error messaging to indicate upstream failure
  4. Modify job conclusion logic to use "skipped" status for missing artifacts
  5. Update workflow templates
• Estimated Effort: Medium (4-8 hours)
• Dependencies: None

Work Item 3: Add Git Operation Validation

• Type: Bug Fix
• Priority: 🟡 Medium
• Description: push_to_pull_request_branch jobs fail when branches don't exist or patches can't be applied. Need defensive validation before git operations.
• Acceptance Criteria:
  • Branch existence checked before push attempts
  • Patch validated before application
  • Clear error messages for git failures
  • Dry-run option available for testing
  • Success rate of push_to_pull_request_branch increases from 64% to >80%
• Technical Approach:
  1. Add git ls-remote check to verify branch exists
  2. Add patch validation (check format, files exist)
  3. Implement dry-run mode with git apply --check
  4. Improve error capture from git commands
  5. Provide actionable error messages with remediation steps
• Estimated Effort: Medium (4-6 hours)
• Dependencies: None
• Files to Modify:
  • Safe output action for push_to_pull_request_branch
  • Shared git utility functions

Work Item 4: Create Safe Output Configuration Standard

• Type: Process Improvement
• Priority: 🟢 Medium
• Description: Safe output job configuration is inconsistent across workflows. Need standardized configuration templates and documentation.
• Acceptance Criteria:
  • Standard configuration snippet created for each safe output job type
  • Documentation covers all safe output jobs with examples
  • Configuration validation script created
  • All existing workflows audited and updated to use standard configuration
• Technical Approach:
  1. Document current configuration patterns
  2. Define standard configuration for each safe output job type
  3. Create reusable workflow composition patterns
  4. Write configuration validation script
  5. Update all workflow files to use standard patterns
  6. Create developer guide for safe output configuration
• Estimated Effort: Large (8-12 hours)
• Dependencies: Work Item 1 (GH_TOKEN fix should be included in standard)

Work Item 5: Implement Safe Output Health Monitoring

• Type: Feature
• Priority: 🟢 Low
• Description: Currently running this audit manually. Need automated monitoring dashboard to track safe output health over time.
• Acceptance Criteria:
  • Daily safe output health reports generated automatically
  • Historical trends tracked in cache memory
  • Alerts sent when success rat
    [Content truncated due to length]

AI generated by Safe Output Health Monitor

[pelikhan]

/plan

[github-actions[bot]]

Agentic Plan Command triggered by this discussion comment.