create_issue not skipped

[pelikhan]

/q investigate why create_issue job was not cancelled as well in https://github.com/githubnext/gh-aw/actions/runs/18982474915

[github-actions]

Agentic Q triggered by this issue.

[github-actions]

Investigation Report: create_issue Job Not Cancelled

I investigated why the create_issue job was not cancelled in workflow run #18982474915.

Root Cause

The create_issue job configuration has a condition that allows it to run even when its dependencies are skipped:

create_issue:
  needs:
    - agent
    - detection
  if: (!cancelled())  # ⚠️ This is the problem

What Happened

1. Workflow was cancelled via GitHub Actions UI
2. agent job: conclusion = skipped (never ran)
3. detection job: conclusion = skipped (never ran)
4. create_issue job: Started running because:
   • The condition if: (!cancelled()) evaluates to true when dependencies are skipped (not cancelled)
   • GitHub Actions treats "skipped" differently from "cancelled"
   • The job attempted to download the agent_output.json artifact
   • Failed with: Error reading agent output file: ENOENT: no such file or directory

The Issue

The if: (!cancelled()) condition is designed to allow safe-output jobs to run even when the agent job fails, but it has an unintended side effect: it also runs when the workflow is cancelled and dependencies are skipped.

Solution

The create_issue job should check if its dependencies actually completed before running. The condition should be:

create_issue:
  needs:
    - agent
    - detection
  if: (!cancelled()) && (needs.agent.result != 'skipped')

This ensures:

• ✅ Runs when agent fails (safe-outputs can still process)
• ✅ Runs when agent succeeds
• ❌ Does NOT run when agent is skipped (workflow cancelled)

Recommended Fix

Update the job condition in the workflow compiler to include dependency result checks for safe-output jobs:

Current: if: (!cancelled())
Proposed: if: (!cancelled()) && (needs.agent.result != 'skipped')

This same pattern should be applied to all safe-output jobs (create_issue, add_comment, create_pull_request, etc.) to prevent them from running when the workflow is cancelled.

---

Alternative Solution: Use if: success() || failure() which explicitly only runs when dependencies complete (not when skipped or cancelled).

Related Items

• Pull Request: #2891

AI generated by Q for #2890