docs(merge-gate-watcher): --workflow takes the file name, and the rerun burned its retry - #344
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…mple did not `gh run list --workflow CI` reads better and is the form that breaks: where a repository holds both a workflow file and a workflow name a prefix matches, gh answers "could not resolve to a unique workflow" on stderr with empty stdout. A polling loop that captures that output never sees its terminating value and spins on the error indefinitely — from outside indistinguishable from a run that has not finished. Observed on netresearch/.github, hours of polling against a run that had long completed. The rerun example in this file used exactly that shape; it now passes ci.yml. The new section sits beside "gh api writes its error to stdout", which is the same class: a command whose failure never reaches the caller as a failure. Signed-off-by: Sebastian Mendel <info@sebastianmendel.de>
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Understand this PR’s impact Explore downstream dependencies and potential security impact with Blast Radius. 📝 WalkthroughWalkthroughThe infra-flake rerun lookup now uses the uniquely identified Priority: ⬇️ Low Change: Other · Severity of issue fixed: Low Merge Risk: 🟡 Moderate · up to A lookup failure can silently prevent the intended CI rerun. Correct the example’s failure handling and selector guidance before merging. 🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5✅ Passed checks (5 passed)
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Inline comments:
In `@skills/git-workflow/references/merge-gate-watcher.md`:
- Line 90: Update the rerun branch containing gh run rerun to capture and
validate the workflow run ID before rerunning: handle gh run list failure,
reject an empty ID, and stop if gh run rerun fails. Only set RERUN_DONE=1 after
all these operations succeed.
- Around line 574-578: Update the `--workflow` guidance to state that workflow
names, IDs, and filenames are accepted; unique names remain valid, while
selectors matching multiple workflows can fail. Recommend workflow filenames for
unambiguous resolution, and revise the heading and example text without claiming
display names are invalid.
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… dispatch Two review findings. The heading said a display name is never valid. It is: --workflow takes a name, an id or a file name, and a unique name resolves fine. What fails is ambiguity, so the section now recommends the file name for being unique by construction and unable to start colliding when somebody adds a workflow later. The second is a defect in the example this PR already touched: RERUN_DONE=1 was set unconditionally, so a `gh run list` that returned nothing, or a rerun that failed to dispatch, still burned the single retry and every later iteration skipped the rerun that never happened. The id is resolved into a variable, checked, and the retry is marked used only once the dispatch succeeded; otherwise the watcher holds and says which of the two failed. Signed-off-by: Sebastian Mendel <info@sebastianmendel.de>
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Self-review: ae7e6b1 The bot review this pull request demands is unsatisfiable (Copilot quota wall or repeated bot failures on this head). The diff on this head was reviewed by the PR author; this comment is the on-the-record attestation the merge gate reads back. It stops matching on the next push. |
Summary
Two fixes to the rerun example in
merge-gate-watcher.md, plus the section explaining the first.1.
--workflow CIis the fragile form.--workflowaccepts a name, an id or a file name, so a display name is valid — right up to the moment the selector matches more than one workflow. Thenghrefuses:— on stderr, with zero-length stdout. A polling loop that captures that output never sees its terminating value, so it spins on the error for as long as it is left running, and from outside that is indistinguishable from "the run has not finished yet". Observed on
netresearch/.github: a watcher polled a resolution error for hours while the run it was waiting for had long since completed. A file name is unique by construction and cannot start colliding when somebody adds a workflow later, so the example now passesci.yml.2. The example burned its single retry on a rerun that never happened.
RERUN_DONE=1was set unconditionally: an empty run id (gh run listmatching nothing) or a failinggh run rerunleft the flag set, so every later iteration skipped the rerun and fell straight through toHOLD. The id is now resolved and checked before the flag is set, and a rerun that cannot be dispatched holds with the reason instead of pretending it ran. This defect predates the PR; it sits in the lines the--workflowfix touches.The new section sits beside "
gh apiwrites its error to stdout — test a field, never emptiness", which is the same class of trap: a command whose failure never reaches the caller as a failure. It closes with the general rule — when a loop's condition is built from a command that can fail, make the failure terminate the loop rather than feed it.Type of Change
Test Plan
markdownlint-cli2clean on the edited file. The failure mode was produced against a live repository: the ambiguity is real fornetresearch/.github, which holds bothcodeql.ymland a workflow namedcodeql, and--workflow codeql.ymlresolves there where--workflow CodeQLdoes not.Review
CodeRabbit raised two findings, both addressed in
ae7e6b1: the heading claimed a display name is never valid, which is wrong — it fails on ambiguity, not on being a name; and theRERUN_DONEbookkeeping above, which was pre-existing and is fixed here rather than filed.