PR: Fix metrics update workflow by handling detached HEAD and explicit checkout

[ashleyshaw]

---

name: "Pull Request"
about: "General changes, refactors, and maintenance"
title: "PR: Fix metrics update workflow by handling detached HEAD and explicit checkout"
labels: ["status:needs-review"]

General Pull Request

This PR resolves a critical bug in the branding workflow where the metrics-update job failed with fatal: You are not currently on a branch due to operating in a detached HEAD state. This occurred because a prior step (which pushed changes) left the workflow without an active branch context for subsequent operations.

Key changes:

• Explicitly set ref and fetch-depth in the actions/checkout step to ensure full branch history is available
• Add a step to fetch the latest changes and explicitly checkout the correct branch
• Update the push step to always specify the branch name

This ensures that the workflow jobs reliably operate on the intended branch and can perform pushes as needed.

Fixes: #branding-workflow-detached-head

This repository enforces changelog, release, and label automation for all PRs and issues.
See the Automation Governance & Release Strategy for contributor rules.

Linked issues

Closes #branding-workflow-detached-head

Changelog

Fixed

• Ensured metrics update workflow always operates on the correct branch by performing explicit checkout and branch reference, resolving detached HEAD and failed branch pushes.

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Risk Assessment

Risk Level: Low

Potential Impact:

• Low: This affects only the workflow configuration for internal CI jobs; risk is limited to update/push steps and does not modify code deployed to production sites.

Mitigation Steps:

• Validated workflow by running updated jobs in a branch
• Workflow changes are reversible and limited in scope
• Rollback possible by restoring previous workflow configuration

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How to Test

Prerequisites

• Access to repository Actions tab
• Ability to trigger branding workflow (push or manual)

Test Steps

1. Push changes to the branch: Ensure normal workflow completion.
2. Verify metrics-update job: This job should checkout the correct branch, perform fetch and push operations without errors.
3. Check Action logs: Confirm no fatal errors related to detached HEAD; verify that updates are pushed as expected.

Expected Results

• Workflow completes without fatal: You are not currently on a branch.
• Changes are successfully pushed to the correct branch in the metrics update step.

Edge Cases to Verify

• Multiple successive pushes do not cause detached HEAD failures
• Operation works on both PR and main branches

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Checklist (Global DoD / PR)

• All acceptance criteria met and demonstrated
• Test coverage (workflow executed)
• Docs/readme/changelog updated
• Label and automation requirements satisfied
• Risk assessment and testing instructions included

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References

• Contribution Guidelines
• Branching Strategy
• Automation Governance
• PR Labels

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 63e4bdb and 4d66ba3.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• .github/workflows/branding.yml (2 hunks)

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The branding metrics update workflow is enhanced to handle branch-specific operations: checkout now retrieves full git history with fetch-depth: 0, a new step explicitly fetches and checks out the current branch, and the final metrics push targets the specific branch by name using {{ github.ref_name }}.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
GitHub Actions workflow enhancement .github/workflows/branding.yml	Modified checkout step to include ref parameter and fetch-depth: 0 for full history retrieval; added "Fetch latest changes" step to explicitly fetch, checkout, and pull the current branch; updated metrics push to use specific branch name ({{ github.ref_name }}) instead of default push behavior

Sequence Diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant GH as GitHub
    participant WF as Workflow
    
    rect rgb(230, 245, 255)
    Note over WF: Checkout phase (Updated)
    WF->>GH: Checkout with ref + fetch-depth: 0
    GH-->>WF: Full git history fetched
    end
    
    rect rgb(245, 230, 255)
    Note over WF: New branch sync phase
    WF->>GH: Fetch latest changes (explicit)
    GH-->>WF: Current branch pulled
    end
    
    rect rgb(230, 255, 245)
    Note over WF: Metrics update & push (Updated)
    WF->>WF: Update metrics
    WF->>GH: Push to {{ github.ref_name }}
    GH-->>WF: Commit pushed to branch
    end

Loading

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~8 minutes

• Single workflow file modification with parameter and step additions
• Changes are straightforward and follow standard GitHub Actions patterns
• Verify that the new "Fetch latest changes" step is necessary and doesn't duplicate existing checkout behavior
• Confirm {{ github.ref_name }} correctly targets the intended branch in all contexts

Possibly related PRs

• PR: Set up comprehensive branding automation scaffolds and workflows #87: Introduced the branding workflow that is now being updated with branch-specific handling enhancements

Pre-merge checks and finishing touches

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main purpose of the changes—fixing the metrics update workflow by handling detached HEAD issues and explicit checkout.
Description check	✅ Passed	The PR description follows the template structure with linked issues, changelog entries, risk assessment, testing instructions, and a completed checklist.

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[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR fixes a workflow failure in the branding metrics update job caused by git operations running in a detached HEAD state. The fix adds explicit branch checkout and ensures the workflow can successfully commit and push metrics updates.

Key Changes:

• Adds explicit ref specification to the checkout action to maintain branch context
• Introduces a new step to fetch latest changes and explicitly checkout the branch
• Updates the push command to specify the target branch explicitly

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