Safe Output Health Report - 2026-03-31

[github-actions[bot]]

Executive Summary

• Period: 2026-03-31 (last 24 hours)
• Total Runs Analyzed: 67
• Workflows with Full Agent Execution: 10
• Safe Output Jobs Executed: 4 (56 skipped — trigger conditions not met, expected behavior)
• Safe Output Messages Processed: 7
• Safe Output Messages Failed: 1
• Error Clusters Identified: 1
• Overall Safe Output Success Rate: 85.7% (6/7 messages)

Good news: today's failure count (1) is significantly lower than recent days (4 on 2026-03-29, 5 on 2026-03-30). The two recurring patterns from previous days — non-issue-context-target-triggering and add_labels-no-issue-number — were not observed today.

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Safe Output Job Statistics

Job Type	Total	Successes	Failures	Success Rate
create_issue	2	2	0	100%
add_comment	2	2	0	100%
create_pull_request	1	1	0	100%
push_to_pull_request_branch	1	0	1	0%
Total	7	6	1	85.7%

---

Error Clusters

Cluster 1: push_to_pull_request_branch — Missing Remote Branch (NEW)

• Count: 1 occurrence
• Affected Workflow: Smoke Update Cross-Repo PR
• Run: §23798477085
• Target: pr-branch in githubnext/gh-aw-side-repo

Sample Error:

##[error]✗ Message 2 (push_to_pull_request_branch) failed: Failed to fetch branch pr-branch:
  The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128
fatal: couldn't find remote ref pr-branch
```

**Additional Warning**:
```
##[warning]Could not check branch protection rules for "pr-branch" (insufficient permissions):
  Resource not accessible by personal access token

• Root Cause: The target branch pr-branch does not exist in githubnext/gh-aw-side-repo. The git fetch operation attempts to fetch the branch before applying the patch, but the branch cannot be found. This can occur when: (a) the test PR was merged/closed and the branch deleted, (b) the branch was never created, or (c) the smoke test setup is out of sync.
• Recovery Behavior: The safe output handler gracefully prepended a code push failure note to the add_comment message, which was processed successfully. Issues and comments were still created.
• Impact: Medium — smoke test infrastructure affected, but graceful degradation worked correctly.

---

Root Cause Analysis

Infrastructure Issue: Missing Cross-Repo Test Branch

The Smoke Update Cross-Repo PR workflow is designed to push a new line to an Odyssey poem in githubnext/gh-aw-side-repo PR #1. Today's run could not find branch pr-branch in that repo. This is a new pattern not seen in previous audits.

The permission warning (Resource not accessible by personal access token) for branch protection rules check is a separate, lower-severity issue that did not cause the failure — it was noted but allowed execution to continue.

Previously-Recurring Patterns: Resolved or Not Triggered

Pattern	2026-03-29	2026-03-30	2026-03-31
non-issue-context-target-triggering	2 occurrences	3 occurrences	Not seen
add_labels-no-issue-number	—	2 occurrences	Not seen
upload-assets-missing-action-setup	2 occurrences	—	Not seen

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Recommendations

Immediate Actions

1. Investigate missing pr-branch in githubnext/gh-aw-side-repo
   • Priority: Medium
   • Action: Check whether PR rejig docs #1 in githubnext/gh-aw-side-repo still exists and whether the pr-branch branch is intact. If the branch was deleted, recreate it or update the smoke test to target a valid branch.
   • Affected Workflow: Smoke Update Cross-Repo PR

Bug Fixes / Configuration

1. Fix insufficient permissions for branch protection rules check
   • Priority: Low
   • Root Cause: The token used for push_to_pull_request_branch in Smoke Update Cross-Repo PR lacks permissions to read branch protection rules via the GitHub REST API.
   • Fix: Ensure the github-token used for this operation has administration:read permission, or configure digest-mismatch: warn rather than error for this check.

Process Improvements

1. Add smoke test branch health check as a pre-flight step
   • Proposed: In workflows that use push_to_pull_request_branch targeting a cross-repo PR, add a validation step that confirms the target branch exists before invoking the agent. This prevents the agent from running only to have the safe output fail on missing branch.
   • Benefits: Early failure with clear message vs. late failure after agent compute.

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Work Item Plans

Work Item 1: Restore Smoke Test Cross-Repo PR Branch

• Type: Investigation / Fix
• Priority: Medium
• Description: The Smoke Update Cross-Repo PR workflow failed because pr-branch does not exist in githubnext/gh-aw-side-repo. The smoke test is designed to add lines to an Odyssey poem PR sequentially. If the PR or branch was deleted, it needs to be recreated.
• Acceptance Criteria:
  • Verify PR rejig docs #1 status in githubnext/gh-aw-side-repo
  • Confirm pr-branch branch exists
  • Run smoke test successfully (push completes without git fetch error)
• Technical Approach: Check githubnext/gh-aw-side-repo for branch pr-branch. If missing, either recreate it or update smoke test configuration to point to an active branch.
• Estimated Effort: Small

Work Item 2: Pre-flight Branch Existence Validation

• Type: Enhancement
• Priority: Low
• Description: Add a reusable check in the safe output handler that validates the target branch exists before attempting git fetch. Return a clear user-facing error (not raw git exit code 128) and optionally allow the workflow to create the branch if it doesn't exist.
• Acceptance Criteria:
  • push_to_pull_request_branch returns a clear error when branch is not found
  • Error message includes repo name, branch name, and suggested remediation
  • Optionally: add create_branch_if_missing: true config option
• Estimated Effort: Medium

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Historical Context

Trend Analysis (Last 3 Days)

Date	Runs	SO Jobs Executed	Failures	Success Rate
2026-03-29	42	~15	4	~73%
2026-03-30	127	43	5	94%
2026-03-31	67	4	1	85.7%

Trend: Failure volume is decreasing. The two patterns that drove failures on March 29-30 (non-issue-context-target-triggering, add_labels-no-issue-number) did not appear today. A new isolated pattern emerged (push_to_pull_request_branch missing branch).

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Metrics and KPIs

• Overall Safe Output Success Rate (today): 85.7%
• Most Reliable Job Types: create_issue, add_comment, create_pull_request (100%)
• Most Problematic Job Type: push_to_pull_request_branch (0% today, 1 attempt)
• Recurring Issues from Prior Days: 0 (both previously-recurring patterns absent)
• New Patterns Introduced: 1 (push_to_pull_request_branch missing remote branch)

---

Next Steps

• Verify pr-branch in githubnext/gh-aw-side-repo — restore if deleted
• Monitor Smoke Update Cross-Repo PR in next run for recurrence
• Confirm non-issue-context-target-triggering pattern remains resolved
• Confirm add_labels-no-issue-number pattern remains resolved

References:

• §23798477085 — Smoke Update Cross-Repo PR (safe_outputs failure)
• §23798765353 — Smoke Create Cross-Repo PR (safe_outputs success)
• §23798826875 — Agent Container Smoke Test (safe_outputs success)

AI generated by Safe Output Health Monitor · history

• expires on Apr 1, 2026, 1:21 PM UTC