feat: add CI drift check for workflow markdown vs generated lock files

[Copilot]

Stale .lock.yml files were a recurring CI friction point — agents and contributors were committing .github/workflows/*.md edits without regenerating the corresponding lock files.

What changed

scripts/check-workflow-drift.sh (new)

• Recompiles all workflow markdown via gh aw compile --validate --no-check-update --purge, then checks git diff / git ls-files for any .lock.yml that changed, appeared, or was deleted
• Exits 0 when in sync; exits 1 with the drifted filenames and an explicit make recompile remediation message
• Uses || true per loop iteration to prevent set -e+pipefail from killing the subshell when all drift captures are empty

Makefile

• New check-workflow-drift target (requires built binary)
• Added to agent-report-progress — drift in committed lock files now fails the pre-PR gate before report_progress is called

.github/workflows/ci.yml

• New check-workflow-drift job (needs changes + update) runs the check against the uploaded binary artifact
• Added .github/workflows/*.md to on.push.paths so the job triggers when workflow sources change

Failure output example

ERROR: Workflow lock files are out of sync with their markdown sources.

  .github/workflows/my-workflow.lock.yml

Fix: Run the following commands to regenerate the lock files and commit them:

  make recompile
  git add .github/workflows/*.lock.yml
  git commit -m 'chore: regenerate workflow lock files'

Lock files must always be committed together with their .md sources.

[github-actions]

✅ Design Decision Gate 🏗️ completed the design decision gate check.

No ADR enforcement needed: PR #43747 does not have the 'implementation' label and has 0 new lines of code in business logic directories (threshold: 100).

[github-actions]

✅ Test Quality Sentinel completed test quality analysis.

No test files were added or modified in this PR. Test Quality Sentinel skipped.

[github-actions]

⚠️ PR Code Quality Reviewer failed during code quality review.

[github-actions]

🧠 Matt Pocock Skills Reviewer has completed the skills-based review. ✅

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Adds a workflow drift guardrail to detect when .github/workflows/*.md sources and their generated .lock.yml outputs are out of sync, so contributors/agents are prompted to regenerate lock files before committing.

Changes:

• Added scripts/check-workflow-drift.sh to recompile workflows and fail if any .github/workflows/*.lock.yml would be modified/added/deleted.
• Added make check-workflow-drift and wired it into agent-report-progress as a pre-PR gate.
• Added a new CI job check-workflow-drift and ensured the CI workflow triggers when .github/workflows/*.md changes.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
scripts/check-workflow-drift.sh	New drift-check script that recompiles and detects changed/untracked/deleted lock files.
Makefile	Adds check-workflow-drift target and includes it in agent-report-progress + help output.
.github/workflows/ci.yml	Adds a CI job to run the drift check and triggers CI on workflow markdown changes.

Review details

Tip

Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

• Files reviewed: 3/3 changed files
• Comments generated: 2
• Review effort level: Low

[github-actions]

Skills-Based Review 🧠

Applied /codebase-design and /tdd — requesting changes on a blocking CI correctness issue and several design/test gaps.

📋 Key Themes & Highlights

Blocking issue

• Missing Go toolchain in CI job (ci.yml:439): make check-workflow-drift invokes build: go build ..., but the new job has no setup-go step. The job will fail every time unless the binary invocation is decoupled from the Makefile's build prerequisite.

Design issues

• Working-tree mutation: gh aw compile writes lock files in place; any CI step that runs after this (or a concurrent job sharing the same checkout) will observe unexpected state.
• Binary default silently duplicates BINARY_NAME: the ./gh-aw fallback can diverge from the Makefile variable.
• Remediation message recommends a raw git commit that bypasses the repo's pre-PR gate (make agent-report-progress).
• check-workflow-drift: build always rebuilds even for standalone local runs; other targets use a conditional guard instead.

Test coverage

• No smoke tests for either the happy path or the error paths. Compile-flag changes would silently break the script.

Positive highlights

• ✅ Excellent error messaging and exit-code discipline throughout the script
• ✅ Color/TTY detection (NO_COLOR, TERM=dumb) is a great CI-hygiene touch
• ✅ Clean separation: new Makefile target + standalone script + CI job are all independent invocation surfaces
• ✅ Adding .github/workflows/*.md to on.push.paths ensures the check triggers exactly when needed

🧠 Reviewed using Matt Pocock's skills by Matt Pocock Skills Reviewer · 107.8 AIC · ⌖ 7.95 AIC · ⊞ 6.7K
_{Comment /matt to run again}

[github-actions]

[/codebase-design] make check-workflow-drift triggers the build PHONY target (go build), but this CI job has no setup-go step — it will fail on ubuntu-latest without Go in $PATH.\n\n

\n

💡 Suggested fix: invoke the script directly

\n\nSince the job already downloads and prepares ./gh-aw, bypass make and call the script directly:\n\nyaml\n- name: Check workflow drift\n run: bash scripts/check-workflow-drift.sh ./gh-aw\n\n\nThis avoids an implicit go build in a job that has no Go toolchain setup.\n\n

\n\n@copilot please address this.

[github-actions]

[/tdd] The compilation failure path (exit 1 on compile error) is distinct from a drift failure, but there are no tests covering either path. If the compile flag names change (--validate, --no-check-update, --purge) or the binary interface evolves, this silently breaks.\n\n

\n

💡 Suggested improvement: add a bats/shunit2 smoke test

\n\nA minimal integration test would:\n1. Copy a known .md source, run the script → assert exit 0\n2. Tamper a .lock.yml file, run the script → assert exit 1 with the expected filename in output\n3. Run the script with a missing binary → assert a clear error\n\nEven a single shell-based test in scripts/test-check-workflow-drift.sh would catch regressions.\n\n

\n\n@copilot please address this.

[github-actions]

[/codebase-design] check-workflow-drift: build rebuilds the binary every time the drift check runs locally, even when the binary is already up-to-date. When called from agent-report-progress (which already depends on build), make deduplicates it — but running make check-workflow-drift standalone will always trigger a rebuild, which is slow and unexpected.\n\n

\n

💡 Consider making the binary prerequisite conditional

\n\nOther targets like compile-cli-workflows already check for the binary and skip building when present. Consider either removing the build dep (and documenting that the user must build first) or adding a guard similar to compile-cli-workflows.\n\n

\n\n@copilot please address this.

[github-actions]

Blocking: CI job always fails due to prerequisite

The Makefile target unconditionally invokes — including in the new CI job that has no step. The job downloads a pre-built artifact, then Syncing actions-lock.json from .github/aw to pkg/actionpins/data/action_pins.json and pkg/workflow/data/action_pins.json...
✓ Action pins synced successfully
Syncing install-gh-aw.sh to actions/setup-cli/install.sh...
✓ Action scripts synced successfully
go build -ldflags "-s -w -X main.version=26e9201-dirty" -o gh-aw ./cmd/gh-aw immediately discards it and attempts a Go compilation that fails. The drift check never runs. Two inline comments detail the specific fix locations.

Warning

Firewall blocked 1 domain

The following domain was blocked by the firewall during workflow execution:

• proxy.golang.org

To allow these domains, add them to the network.allowed list in your workflow frontmatter:

network:
  allowed:
    - defaults
    - "proxy.golang.org"

See Network Configuration for more information.

🔎 Code quality review by PR Code Quality Reviewer · 212.1 AIC · ⌖ 6.57 AIC · ⊞ 5.5K
_{Comment /review to run again}

[github-actions]

CI job will always fail here: make check-workflow-drift triggers the build Makefile prerequisite, which unconditionally runs go build — but this job has no setup-go step and no Go toolchain configured. Every run fails before the drift check ever executes.

💡 Suggested fix

Either:

Option A — call the script directly (cheapest; matches the intent of downloading the artifact):

- name: Check workflow drift
  run: bash scripts/check-workflow-drift.sh ./gh-aw

Option B — fix the Makefile target to guard the build like compile-cli-workflows does:

check-workflow-drift:
	`@if` [ ! -x "./$(BINARY_NAME)" ]; then \
		echo "./$(BINARY_NAME) not found; building it first..."; \
		$(MAKE) build; \
	fi
	`@bash` scripts/check-workflow-drift.sh ./$(BINARY_NAME)

Option A is simplest since the script already accepts a binary path and ./gh-aw is already present and executable in this job.

[github-actions]

build is an unconditional prerequisite: check-workflow-drift: build always runs go build, even when the binary already exists. The sibling target compile-cli-workflows avoids this exact problem with an explicit existence guard. Without the same guard here, any environment that has the binary but lacks Go (e.g., the CI job that downloads the artifact) will fail at the go build step — never reaching the actual drift check.

💡 Suggested fix

Match the pattern already used by compile-cli-workflows:

.PHONY: check-workflow-drift
check-workflow-drift:
	`@if` [ ! -x "./$(BINARY_NAME)" ]; then \
		echo "./$(BINARY_NAME) not found; building it first..."; \
		$(MAKE) build; \
	fi
	`@bash` scripts/check-workflow-drift.sh ./$(BINARY_NAME)

This lets the CI job (which downloads a pre-built artifact) use it without triggering a Go compilation, while still building locally if the binary is absent.

[github-actions]

🤖 PR Triage

Field	Value
Category	feature
Risk	medium
Priority Score	46/100
Recommended Action	⏸ defer

Score breakdown: Impact 20 + Urgency 14 + Quality 12

Rationale: Adds CI drift check for workflow markdown vs generated lock files. 3 files (ci.yml, Makefile, check-workflow-drift.sh). CI has CHANGES_REQUESTED from github-actions (automated). Good concept but needs CI resolution before merge. Monitor agent follow-up.

Run §28795034579

Generated by 🔧 PR Triage Agent · 78.2 AIC · ⌖ 8.88 AIC · ⊞ 5.5K · ◷

[gh-aw-bot]

@copilot please run the pr-finisher skill, address any remaining unresolved review feedback, and rerun checks once the branch is up to date.

Triggered by PR Sous Chef: https://github.com/github/gh-aw/actions/runs/28797012897

Generated by 👨‍🍳 PR Sous Chef · 12.3 AIC · ⌖ 4.98 AIC · ⊞ 4.6K · ◷
_{Comment /souschef to run again}

[Copilot]

@copilot please run the pr-finisher skill, address any remaining unresolved review feedback, and rerun checks once the branch is up to date.

Triggered by PR Sous Chef: https://github.com/github/g...

Addressed the remaining drift-check feedback in f17c223. I switched the CI job to invoke the downloaded binary directly, made make check-workflow-drift build only when ./gh-aw is missing, added binary preflight errors, kept the working tree clean by snapshotting/restoring lock files, updated the remediation text, and added smoke coverage for the script. Re-ran local checks; CI on this head still needs a maintainer re-trigger because agent pushes do not start workflows.

Done

[github-actions]

🎉 This pull request is included in a new release.

Release: v0.82.3