[workflow-analysis] Weekly Workflow Analysis: Critical Build Failures Detected (Jan 12-19)

[github-actions[bot]]

Executive Summary

Analysis of 57 workflow runs over the past 7 days reveals significant reliability issues, with an overall success rate of only 29.8%. Three critical issues require immediate attention:

1. CI Workflow - 45% success rate (missing template file blocking all builds)
2. Daily News Workflow - 0% success rate (MCP gateway failures)
3. CI Failure Doctor - No job execution despite 20 runs

🔴 Critical Issue: Missing Template File

All CI build failures (100%) stem from a single missing file:

cp: cannot stat '.github/agents/agentic-campaigns.agent.md': No such file or directory
make: *** [Makefile:573: sync-templates] Error 1

Affected Platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows (all builds blocked)
Location: Makefile:573 (sync-templates target)

Recommended Fix: Either create the missing file or remove it from the Makefile target.

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Full Report

Detailed Statistics

Overall Metrics (Jan 12-19, 2026)

• Total Runs: 57
• Success Rate: 29.8% (17/57)
• Failure Rate: 24.6% (14/57)
• Cancelled: 3.5% (2/57)

Workflow Breakdown

1. CI Workflow

• Success: 9/20 (45.0%)
• Failure: 5/20 (25.0%)
• Issue: Missing template file blocks builds
• Failed Runs: §21132567301, §21131418072, §21130796890

2. Daily News Workflow

• Success: 0/8 (0%)
• Failure: 8/8 (100%)
• Issue: MCP gateway fails to start (Step 31)
• Failed Runs: §21131810833, §21078196360, §21078070403

3. Audit Workflows

• Success: 8/9 (88.9%) ✅
• Failure: 1/9 (11.1%)
• Status: Best performing workflow

4. CI Failure Doctor

• Runs: 20 records, but zero job executions
• Issue: Workflow activation logic appears broken

Failure Patterns

Pattern 1: Build System Failures

Jobs Affected: build, lint-go, update, mcp-server-compile-test, cross-platform tests

All failures trace to the same root cause - missing agentic-campaigns.agent.md file referenced in Makefile.

Pattern 2: Infrastructure Failures

Daily News workflow consistently fails at MCP gateway startup. This suggests an infrastructure or configuration issue rather than code problems.

Pattern 3: Silent Failures

CI Failure Doctor shows 20 workflow runs with zero job execution. The workflow appears to start but never actually runs, indicating a trigger or activation problem.

Recommendations

🔥 Immediate Actions (Critical)

1. Fix Missing Template File

   • Impact: Resolves 100% of CI build failures
   • Options:
     • Create .github/agents/agentic-campaigns.agent.md
     • OR remove from Makefile:573 sync-templates target
   • Urgency: CRITICAL - currently blocking all builds

2. Investigate MCP Gateway Failures

   • Impact: Restores Daily News workflow (currently 100% failure)
   • Action: Review MCP gateway logs and startup configuration
   • Workflow: .github/workflows/daily-news.lock.yml
   • Urgency: HIGH

3. Debug CI Failure Doctor Activation

   • Impact: Restore automated failure detection
   • Action: Review workflow triggers and activation conditions
   • Workflow: .github/workflows/ci-doctor.lock.yml
   • Urgency: MEDIUM

🔧 Medium-Term Improvements

1. Go Code Formatting - Add pre-commit hooks to prevent formatting failures

2. Workflow Monitoring - Implement alerts for consecutive failures

3. Build Resilience - Add validation before file operations in Makefile

Performance Observations

✅ Positive Metrics

• Go cache hits consistently across all runs
• Audit workflow demonstrates 88.9% reliability
• No performance degradation in successful runs

⚠️ Areas of Concern

• Build system has zero tolerance for missing optional files
• Silent failures provide no error visibility
• MCP gateway is a single point of failure

Cost Impact

The 24.6% failure rate represents wasted compute resources. Fixing the template file issue alone could:

• Reduce failed runs by ~25%
• Save 5-7 workflow runs per week
• Eliminate false-negative build failures

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References:

• §21132567301 - Recent CI failure example
• §21131810833 - Daily News MCP gateway failure
• §21131418072 - Another CI build failure

AI generated by Weekly Workflow Analysis

• expires on Jan 26, 2026, 9:56 AM UTC

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This discussion was automatically closed because it expired on 2026-01-26T09:56:07.761Z.