GitHub Actions Step Flake Audit

Detect flaky GitHub Actions job steps by finding mixed success/failure conclusions across runs.

Use this skill to catch flaky CI steps that alternate between passing and failing across workflow runs.

What this skill does

• Reads GitHub Actions run JSON exports (gh run view --json ...)
• Groups step outcomes by repository + workflow + job + step name
• Scores each step for flake risk when both success and failure outcomes are present
• Ranks the most unstable steps by failure rate and failed-run volume
• Supports text/json outputs and optional fail gate for CI enforcement

Inputs

Optional:

• RUN_GLOB (default: artifacts/github-actions/*.json)
• TOP_N (default: 20)
• OUTPUT_FORMAT (text or json, default: text)
• MIN_OCCURRENCES (default: 3) — minimum observed step runs before scoring
• WARN_FAILURE_RATE (default: 0.20) — flaky failure-rate threshold
• CRITICAL_FAILURE_RATE (default: 0.40) — critical flaky failure-rate threshold
• FAIL_ON_CRITICAL (0 or 1, default: 0)
• REPO_MATCH / REPO_EXCLUDE (regex, optional)
• WORKFLOW_MATCH / WORKFLOW_EXCLUDE (regex, optional)
• JOB_MATCH / JOB_EXCLUDE (regex, optional)
• STEP_MATCH / STEP_EXCLUDE (regex, optional)

Collect run JSON

bash

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

Run

Text report:

bash

RUN_GLOB='artifacts/github-actions/*.json' \
MIN_OCCURRENCES=5 \
WARN_FAILURE_RATE=0.15 \
CRITICAL_FAILURE_RATE=0.35 \
bash skills/github-actions-step-flake-audit/scripts/step-flake-audit.sh

JSON output + fail gate:

bash

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

Run against bundled fixtures:

bash

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

Output contract

• Exit 0 in reporting mode (default)
• Exit 1 when FAIL_ON_CRITICAL=1 and one or more flaky step groups are critical
• Text mode prints summary + top flaky steps
• JSON mode prints summary + ranked groups + critical groups