Ov Agentic Workflows

Work on OpenVINO Agentic Workflows

Guides changes to any gh-aw agentic workflow in this repository and its shared jobs — not just the ones that exist today. New agentic workflows are expected to be added over time; treat every .github/workflows/*.md file with gh-aw frontmatter (on:, engine:, safe-outputs:, etc.) as in scope for this skill.

Read docs/dev/ci/github_actions/agentic_workflows.md first — it documents the workflows that exist today (ci-doctor, ci-doctor-mq) in detail: what they are, how they are built, their algorithms, and the shared jobs. Treat it as the worked example of the concepts in this skill, and keep it up to date (see the Skill self-improvement section below) whenever a new agentic workflow is added or an existing one changes meaningfully.

For the framework itself, consult the official GitHub Agentic Workflows (gh-aw) documentation — the authoritative reference for frontmatter keys, imports, safe-outputs, tools, and the gh aw compile workflow.

Identifying agentic workflows

• Source files: .github/workflows/*.md with a gh-aw YAML frontmatter (on:, engine:, safe-outputs:, tools:, ...) — as opposed to a plain .yml workflow.
• Compiled output: each source <name>.md compiles to a generated <name>.lock.yml in the same directory. This is what GitHub Actions actually runs.
• Shared building blocks: step/job fragments imported by one or more agentic workflows live under .github/workflows/shared/agentic-workflows/*.md. Each such .md defines only the job interface and wiring (inputs, permissions:, steps); the actual logic lives in standalone Python scripts under .github/scripts/agentic-workflows/*.py (one per job, plus a shared common.py). A shared job step sparse-checks-out that scripts directory and runs its script.
• Known examples today: ci-doctor.md (on-demand PR investigator) and ci-doctor-mq.md (automatic merge-queue investigator). Do not assume this is the complete list — check .github/workflows/*.md for the current set of gh-aw sources, since more will be added over time.

Golden rules

1. Never edit a .lock.yml by hand. It is generated. Edit the .md source (or an imported shared file), then recompile. If a user skips recompilation, tell them to recompile themselves before committing.
2. Never read .lock.yml file directly. It is a generated artifact; the source .md is the authoritative description of the workflow.
3. Always recompile after editing any .md source or imported file:

   gh aw compile
   

   Commit the .md and the regenerated .lock.yml together in the same change.
4. Keep trigger guards intact. Agentic workflows commonly gate execution with an if: condition (an actor allow-list, a specific event/conclusion combination, a slash command, etc.). Do not loosen a guard without explicit intent — re-read the workflow's own description of how it is invoked/triggered first.
5. Preserve source-inspection safeguards. Investigative workflows typically cap how much of the codebase the agent may read (file/search budgets, PR-diff-first, "stop and report" conditions). Keep these bounds when editing a prompt — they bound cost and blast radius.
6. Respect safe-outputs as the only side-effect boundary. The agent itself must never be granted permission to directly comment, notify, merge, or otherwise mutate shared state — that must go through a safe-outputs job with its own narrowly-scoped permissions:.

Common tasks

Create a new agentic workflow

1. Author .github/workflows/<name>.md with gh-aw frontmatter (on:, permissions:, engine:, network:, tools:, safe-outputs:, imports: as needed) and a natural-language body describing the mission and investigation/action protocol.
2. Reuse existing shared jobs/steps under .github/workflows/shared/agentic-workflows/ instead of duplicating logic (for example log pre-download, notification jobs) — add a new shared file only for genuinely new, reusable behavior.
3. Give the workflow the narrowest permissions: and the smallest safe-outputs surface it needs.
4. Recompile (gh aw compile) and commit the .md and the generated .lock.yml together.
5. Extend docs/dev/ci/github_actions/agentic_workflows.md with the new workflow, and apply the Skill self-improvement guidance below.

Edit a workflow's prompt, triggers, tools, or permissions

1. Edit the frontmatter or body of the relevant .md source.
2. If you touch on:/if:, re-read that workflow's own "how it is invoked/triggered" description (in the doc, or in the workflow's frontmatter comment) to keep the guard semantics correct.
3. Recompile and commit both files.

Add or change a shared safe-output job or step

1. Decide what you are changing:
   • Job logic (what the step actually does) lives in .github/scripts/agentic-workflows/<name>.py (shared helpers in common.py) — edit the Python there.
   • Job interface / wiring (inputs, permissions:, which script runs, step order) lives in the shared .md under .github/workflows/shared/agentic-workflows/ — edit that, then recompile.
2. A step fragment has no on: and is prepended to importers; a safe-output job lives under safe-outputs.jobs:.
3. Ensure every consuming workflow lists the file under imports: and that its body instructs the agent when to call the new safe output.
4. Give each safe-output job the narrowest permissions: it needs.
5. Recompile every workflow that imports the file (only needed when the .md changed).

Add a new safe output

• Define the job (inputs, permissions, steps) in a shared file (or inline if genuinely single-use), import it, and document in the workflow body exactly when the agent may emit it and any valid combinations with other safe outputs. Remember: all numeric-looking safe-output fields must be passed as strings (see pitfalls).

Change a workflow's persisted-state / schema format

Some agentic workflows persist structured JSON state across runs (for example via the repo-memory tool). If a workflow you're changing does this:

1. Update the matching JSON Schema file (typically under a workflow-specific directory such as .github/ci-doctor-mq/schemas/).
2. Update the write/validation instructions in the workflow's .md body so the agent writes conforming artifacts.
3. Validate a sample artifact against the schema, e.g.:

   python3 -c "import jsonschema, json, sys; jsonschema.validate(json.load(open(sys.argv[1])), json.load(open(sys.argv[2])))" sample.json path/to/schema.json
   

Pitfalls to check before finishing

General, applies to any agentic workflow:

• Lock file out of date — did you run gh aw compile and stage the .lock.yml?
• Safe-output typing — every numeric-looking field (e.g. pr_number, counts) must be a quoted string, never a bare number, unless the field is explicitly typed otherwise.
• Permission creep — did you give the agent job or a safe-output job broader permissions: than it needs?
• Guard regressions — does the workflow still only run for the intended trigger/actor/event after your change?

Known pitfalls from existing workflows (check whether they still apply, and add new ones as you find them — see below):

• Teams markdown (ci-doctor-mq) — Adaptive Cards render a limited subset; use ~~~ (tilde) fences for log excerpts, no raw HTML (<details>, <br>, <table>).
• Signature hashing (ci-doctor-mq) — the pattern hash must stay job-agnostic (normalized error + category, no job name), or recurrence counting breaks.
• Read-only knowledge base (ci-doctor) — must never write under /tmp/gh-aw/repo-memory/default/; only ci-doctor-mq writes to it.
• Secrets — new Teams/queue-style behavior may need dedicated secrets (e.g. TEAMS_WEBHOOK_URL, MERGE_QUEUE_TOKEN); the default GITHUB_TOKEN cannot re-trigger merge_group runs.

Skill self-improvement

This skill must evolve alongside the agentic workflows it describes. Whenever you make a change that reveals a new rule, reusable pattern, shared job, or footgun, update this file (and its mirror, see below) before finishing:

• New agentic workflow added — update the "Known examples today" note, and make sure docs/dev/ci/github_actions/agentic_workflows.md documents it.
• New shared job/step introduced — mention it under "Common tasks" if it changes how a common task should be done (e.g. a new reusable notification or remediation pattern).
• New footgun discovered (a safe-output typing quirk, a rendering limitation, a required permission/secret, a validation step that was missed) — add it to "Pitfalls to check before finishing".
• A rule becomes obsolete (a workflow is removed, a schema path changes, a guard is redesigned) — update or remove the corresponding entry instead of leaving stale guidance in place.
• Keep it concise — prefer linking to the (now-updated) doc over duplicating detail here; this skill should stay a short, actionable checklist, not a second copy of the documentation.
• Keep mirrors in sync — this skill is duplicated under .claude/skills/ov-agentic-workflows/SKILL.md for tool compatibility. When you edit one copy, apply the identical edit to the other so they never drift apart.