GitHub Actions Rerun Waste Audit

Quantify wasted GitHub Actions minutes caused by reruns so flaky workflows can be fixed with data.

Use this skill to measure CI waste caused by reruns and repeated attempts in GitHub Actions.

What this skill does

• Reads one or more run JSON exports (gh run view --json ...)
• Groups attempts by repository + workflow + branch + commit + job name
• Estimates rerun waste from all attempts except the latest attempt in each group
• Flags severity using waste-minute thresholds
• Emits text or JSON output for triage dashboards and CI quality reviews

Inputs

Optional:

• RUN_GLOB (default: artifacts/github-actions/*.json)
• TOP_N (default: 20)
• OUTPUT_FORMAT (text or json, default: text)
• WARN_MINUTES (default: 10)
• CRITICAL_MINUTES (default: 30)
• FAIL_ON_CRITICAL (0 or 1, default: 0)
• WORKFLOW_MATCH, WORKFLOW_EXCLUDE (regex, optional)
• JOB_MATCH, JOB_EXCLUDE (regex, optional)
• REPO_MATCH, REPO_EXCLUDE (regex, optional)
• BRANCH_MATCH, BRANCH_EXCLUDE (regex, optional)

Collect run JSON

bash

gh run view <run-id> --json databaseId,workflowName,headBranch,headSha,runAttempt,url,repository,jobs \
  > artifacts/github-actions/run-<run-id>.json

If runAttempt is missing, this skill also checks run_attempt and job-level attempt.

Run

Text report:

bash

RUN_GLOB='artifacts/github-actions/*.json' \
WARN_MINUTES=8 \
CRITICAL_MINUTES=20 \
bash skills/github-actions-rerun-waste-audit/scripts/rerun-waste-audit.sh

JSON output + fail gate:

bash

RUN_GLOB='artifacts/github-actions/*.json' \
OUTPUT_FORMAT=json \
FAIL_ON_CRITICAL=1 \
bash skills/github-actions-rerun-waste-audit/scripts/rerun-waste-audit.sh

Repo/workflow filter:

bash

RUN_GLOB='artifacts/github-actions/*.json' \
REPO_MATCH='^flowcreatebot/' \
WORKFLOW_MATCH='(CI|Build)' \
bash skills/github-actions-rerun-waste-audit/scripts/rerun-waste-audit.sh

Run with bundled fixtures:

bash

RUN_GLOB='skills/github-actions-rerun-waste-audit/fixtures/*.json' \
bash skills/github-actions-rerun-waste-audit/scripts/rerun-waste-audit.sh

Output contract

• Exit 0 in reporting mode
• Exit 1 when FAIL_ON_CRITICAL=1 and at least one critical group exists
• Text output includes summary, thresholds, and top rerun-waste groups
• JSON output includes summary, ranked groups, and critical_groups