[aw-failures] Super Linter Report: 10/10 scheduled runs fail — summary formatter crashes on its own auto-generated heading

[github-actions]

Problem

Fix or bypass the summary formatter — it's turning a clean lint pass into a false-negative failure on every single run. Run §30639746927 shows [NOTICE] All files and directories linted successfully, immediately followed by:

[error] super-linter-output/super-linter-summary.md: SyntaxError: Invalid character. (1:1)
[FATAL] Error while formatting the Super-linter summary file.

The syntax error is at position (1:1) — the # of the summary's own auto-generated # Super-linter summary heading — meaning the formatter chokes on standard markdown that super-linter itself produced. The lint run is 100% clean; the job fails purely because of this downstream formatting step.

Super Linter Report has failed 10 of its last 10 scheduled runs (2026-07-22 through 2026-07-31, workflow_id 205215452) — 9+ days straight of a false-negative failure signal on an otherwise-passing lint job. Zero coverage in any currently open agentic-workflows issue.

Affected Workflows and Runs

• .github/workflows/super-linter.lock.yml ("Super Linter Report")
• §30639746927 — formatter SyntaxError, job 91186826660 (2026-07-31, this window)
• 9 more consecutive scheduled-run failures 2026-07-22 through 2026-07-30 on the same workflow, same failure point (not individually re-verified — oldest logs already expired)

Probable Root Cause

The job sets SAVE_SUPER_LINTER_SUMMARY=false, but the summary-formatting step runs anyway, and its parser can't handle the leading # markdown heading in the summary it's asked to format — either a formatter bug, or a config flag that doesn't actually suppress the step it claims to suppress.

Proposed Remediation

1. Find the actual config/flag that disables the summary-formatting step entirely (since SAVE_SUPER_LINTER_SUMMARY=false isn't doing it), and set it.
2. If formatting must stay enabled, fix or upgrade the formatter to handle a leading markdown heading, or strip/escape the heading before handoff to the formatter.
3. Add a regression check asserting that a clean lint pass with the summary step enabled concludes success.

Success Criteria

• Next scheduled run of Super Linter Report concludes success when linting is clean, with no formatter SyntaxError.
• No recurrence of the (1:1) formatter crash in the following 6h window.

Parent: #49245

References:

• §30639746927
  Related to [aw-failures] [aw] Failure Investigator Report — 2026-07-31 (6h) #49245

Generated by 🔍 [aw] Failure Investigator (6h) · agent · 249.9 AIC · ⌖ 19.3 AIC · ⊞ 6.8K · ◷

• expires on Aug 7, 2026, 11:36 AM UTC-08:00