Safe Output Health Report - November 25, 2025

[github-actions[bot]]

🏥 Safe Output Health Report - November 25, 2025

Safe output jobs demonstrated excellent overall health with a 96.6% success rate across 29 job executions. All job types except one achieved 100% success rates, with the single failure being a non-critical permission issue during PR reviewer assignment.

Executive Summary

• Period: Last 24 hours (November 24-25, 2025)
• Runs Analyzed: 82 workflow runs
• Workflows Active: Multiple workflows using safe output jobs
• Safe Output Jobs Executed: 29 jobs
• Safe Output Jobs Failed: 1 job (3.4% failure rate)
• Error Clusters Identified: 1 (PR reviewer permission error)

Full Report Details

Safe Output Job Statistics

Job Type	Total Executions	Failures	Success Rate
create_discussion	12	0	100%
create_issue	3	0	100%
add_comment	6	0	100%
create_pull_request	3	1	66.7%
missing_tool	5	0	100%
Total	29	1	96.6%

Key Observations

• create_discussion jobs are the most frequently used (12 executions) with perfect reliability
• add_comment jobs handled 6 comment operations without any failures
• create_issue and missing_tool jobs executed less frequently but maintained 100% success rate
• create_pull_request had one failure out of three attempts, but the failure was post-creation (reviewer assignment)

Error Clusters

Cluster 1: PR Reviewer Permission Error

• Count: 1 occurrence
• Affected Jobs: create_pull_request
• Affected Workflows: Security Fix PR
• Sample Error:

  gh: Resource not accessible by personal access token (HTTP 403)
  {"message":"Resource not accessible by personal access token",
   "documentation_url":"https://docs.github.com/rest/pulls/review-requests#request-reviewers-for-a-pull-request",
   "status":"403"}
  

• Root Cause: The GitHub token used by the workflow lacks sufficient permissions to request reviewers via the GitHub REST API
• Impact: Medium severity - PR #4525 was created successfully, but the automated reviewer (copilot-pull-request-reviewer[bot]) could not be added

Detailed Analysis

The create_pull_request safe output job in run §19585797303 successfully:

1. Downloaded the patch artifact
2. Checked out the repository
3. Applied the patch
4. Pushed the branch
5. Created PR [security-fix] Security Fix: Prevent clear-text logging of sensitive information (Alert #34) #4525

However, the final step to add a reviewer failed with HTTP 403. The PR creation itself was successful, making this a non-critical failure.

Root Cause Analysis

Permission-Related Issues

Issue: GitHub API permission denied when requesting PR reviewers

Affected Job Type: create_pull_request

Technical Details:

• The workflow uses a GitHub token (either GITHUB_TOKEN or a personal access token)
• The token has write permissions for pull requests
• However, requesting reviewers requires additional permissions that may not be available to certain token types
• According to GitHub's documentation, requesting reviewers for a pull request requires specific permissions

Why This Happens:

• Personal access tokens (classic) may not support the reviewer request API
• Fine-grained personal access tokens need explicit permission for this operation
• The GITHUB_TOKEN in GitHub Actions workflows may have restrictions on certain operations

Recommendations

Critical Issues (Immediate Action Required)

No critical issues identified. All safe output job types are functioning reliably.

Medium Priority Issues

1. Handle Reviewer Assignment Failures Gracefully

• Priority: Medium
• Root Cause: create_pull_request job fails when reviewer cannot be added due to token permissions
• Recommended Action: Modify the create_pull_request script to treat reviewer assignment as optional
• Affected: create_pull_request jobs in workflows that attempt to add reviewers
• Implementation:
  • Wrap the reviewer request API call in a try-catch block
  • Log a warning if reviewer assignment fails but continue execution
  • Mark the job as successful if PR creation succeeded, regardless of reviewer assignment outcome
  • Consider adding a comment to the PR noting that manual reviewer assignment is needed

Technical Approach:

// In create_pull_request script
try {
  await github.rest.pulls.requestReviewers({
    owner: context.repo.owner,
    repo: context.repo.repo,
    pull_number: prNumber,
    reviewers: reviewers
  });
  core.info(`Successfully requested reviewers: ${reviewers.join(', ')}`);
} catch (error) {
  core.warning(`Could not automatically add reviewers: ${error.message}`);
  core.info(`PR created successfully at ${prUrl}. Please add reviewers manually if needed.`);
  // Don't fail the job - PR was created successfully
}

2. Consider Token Permission Documentation

• Priority: Medium
• Description: Document which token permissions are required for each safe output job type
• Benefits: Helps users understand which operations require which permissions
• Implementation: Add a permissions matrix to the documentation showing:
  • Required permissions for each safe output job type
  • Which token types support each operation
  • Fallback behaviors when permissions are insufficient

Process Improvements

1. Add Retry Logic for Transient Failures

• Current State: Safe output jobs don't retry on transient failures
• Proposed: Implement exponential backoff retry for API rate limits and transient network errors
• Benefits: Improves resilience against temporary GitHub API issues

2. Enhanced Error Reporting

• Current State: Errors are logged but context may be limited
• Proposed: Include more context in error logs (workflow name, run ID, job type, operation being performed)
• Benefits: Easier debugging and faster resolution of issues

Work Item Plans

Work Item 1: Graceful Reviewer Assignment Failure Handling

• Type: Bug Fix
• Priority: Medium
• Description: Modify create_pull_request safe output job to handle reviewer assignment failures gracefully and not fail the entire job when reviewer request returns HTTP 403
• Acceptance Criteria:
  • create_pull_request job succeeds even when reviewer assignment fails with HTTP 403
  • Warning is logged when reviewer cannot be added
  • PR URL is still set as output even when reviewer assignment fails
  • Job summary indicates successful PR creation with note about manual reviewer assignment
• Technical Approach:
  1. Locate the reviewer request code in the create_pull_request script
  2. Wrap the GitHub API call in try-catch block
  3. Log warning instead of throwing error
  4. Continue execution and mark job as successful
• Estimated Effort: Small (1-2 hours)
• Dependencies: None
• Files to Modify:
  • .github/workflows/.aw/safe-outputs/create_pull_request.js (or similar)

Metrics and KPIs

• Overall Safe Output Success Rate: 96.6%
• Most Reliable Job Type: create_discussion, create_issue, add_comment, missing_tool (all 100%)
• Most Problematic Job Type: create_pull_request (66.7% success, but non-critical failure)
• Average Executions per Day: 29 jobs across 82 workflow runs

Historical Context

This is the first safe output health audit in the cache memory system. Future audits will compare trends including:

• Error rate trends (increasing/decreasing/stable)
• Most common recurring issues
• Improvements since last audit
• New issue types discovered

Conclusion

The safe output job infrastructure is performing excellently with only one non-critical failure in 29 executions. The identified issue with PR reviewer assignment is a minor inconvenience rather than a blocking problem, as PRs are still created successfully. Implementing the recommended graceful failure handling will bring the success rate to 100%.

Next Steps

• Implement graceful failure handling for reviewer assignment in create_pull_request job
• Document required permissions for each safe output job type
• Consider adding retry logic for transient API failures
• Schedule next safe output health audit for November 26, 2025

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References:

• §19585797303

AI generated by Safe Output Health Monitor