Idea: Introduce better syntax for concurrency rules

[Krzysztof-Cieslak]

So this

concurrency:
   group: "triage-${{ github.event.issue.number }}"

is taken directly from actions synteax.

It feels we should introduce some "higher level" syntax for this thing like concurrency: per-issue or concurrency: single and let compiler generate action-specific syntax

[github-actions]

🎯 Agentic Issue Triage

This issue proposes introducing higher-level concurrency syntax abstractions for agentic workflows, replacing low-level GitHub Actions syntax with more intuitive options like concurrency: per-issue or concurrency: single.

📋 Analysis Summary

Issue Type: Enhancement/Feature Request
Priority: Medium (workflow improvement, not urgent)
Complexity: Medium (requires compiler changes and syntax design)
Author: Team member (@Krzysztof-Cieslak)

Current State: The issue highlights that users currently need to write GitHub Actions-specific syntax like:

concurrency:
   group: "triage-${{ github.event.issue.number }}"

Proposed Solution: Replace with semantic, high-level syntax that the compiler can translate to appropriate GitHub Actions YAML.

🔍 Implementation Considerations

This enhancement would likely require changes to:

1. Parser/Compiler (pkg/parser/ and pkg/workflow/compiler.go):

   • Add support for new concurrency syntax options
   • Map high-level syntax to GitHub Actions concurrency patterns
   • Maintain backward compatibility with existing syntax

2. Documentation: Update workflow syntax documentation

3. Testing: Add test cases for new concurrency syntax patterns

Suggested concurrency options to consider:

• concurrency: per-issue → group: "workflow-${{ github.event.issue.number }}"
• concurrency: single → group: "workflow-single"
• concurrency: per-pr → group: "workflow-${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}"
• concurrency: per-user → group: "workflow-${{ github.actor }}"

🎯 Implementation Checklist

• Design high-level concurrency syntax options
• Update frontmatter parser to recognize new concurrency values
• Implement compiler logic to translate high-level syntax to GitHub Actions YAML
• Add unit tests for new concurrency syntax
• Update workflow documentation with new syntax examples
• Test backward compatibility with existing concurrency configurations
• Consider validation/error handling for invalid concurrency options

💡 Resources & References

• GitHub Actions Concurrency Documentation
• Current compiler implementation: pkg/workflow/compiler.go
• Parser implementation: pkg/parser/
• Example workflows in .github/workflows/*.md

This is a well-defined enhancement that would improve the developer experience by providing more intuitive concurrency configuration options. The implementation should focus on maintaining backward compatibility while providing clear, semantic alternatives to low-level GitHub Actions syntax.

AI-generated content by Agentic Triage may contain mistakes.

[pelikhan]

Also per-ref for PR workflows

[pelikhan]

It should probably be a new field that we compile to group:

concurrency:
strategy: per-ref

Also consider enough cancelling by default when those are used? Keeps the queue short.

[dsyme]

I think we tackled this one sufficiently by changing the defaults to be sensible