feat: enhance channel management with unique ID support

- Update tasks to use channel IDs alongside channel names for unique identification
- Add RELEASE_CHANNEL_ID parameter support to channel-create, channel-delete, customer-create
- Update GitHub Actions workflows to propagate channel IDs between jobs
- Enhance customer-helm-install to accept both CHANNEL_ID and CHANNEL_SLUG parameters
- Update task dependency graph with variable inputs/outputs and channel ID enhancements
- Fix markdownlint formatting issues in documentation

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.ai/code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude <[email protected]>

Author: adamancini

.github/actions/replicated-release/action.yml

@@ -7,23 +7,35 @@ inputs:
   channel-name:
     description: 'Release channel name'
     required: true
+  channel-id:
+    description: 'Release channel ID (optional, takes precedence over channel-name)'
+    required: false
   release-version:
     description: 'Release version'
     default: '0.0.1'
   release-notes:
     description: 'Release notes'
     default: 'Release created via GitHub Actions'
 
+outputs:
+  channel-id:
+    description: 'Channel ID created or found'
+    value: ${{ steps.channel.outputs.channel-id }}
+
 runs:
   using: 'composite'
   steps:
     - name: Setup tools
       uses: ./.github/actions/setup-tools
 
     - name: Create channel
+      id: channel
       shell: bash
       working-directory: ${{ inputs.app-dir }}
-      run: task channel-create RELEASE_CHANNEL="${{ inputs.channel-name }}"
+      run: |
+        CHANNEL_ID=$(task channel-create RELEASE_CHANNEL="${{ inputs.channel-name }}" --silent | tail -1)
+        echo "channel-id=$CHANNEL_ID" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+        echo "Created/found channel with ID: $CHANNEL_ID"
     
     - name: Create release
       shell: bash

.github/actions/test-deployment/action.yml

@@ -12,7 +12,10 @@ inputs:
     required: true
   channel-name:
     description: 'Channel name for testing'
-    required: true
+    required: false
+  channel-id:
+    description: 'Channel ID for testing (optional, takes precedence over channel-name)'
+    required: false
   helm-version:
     description: 'Helm version to use'
     default: '3.17.3'
@@ -38,9 +41,15 @@ runs:
       shell: bash
       working-directory: ${{ inputs.app-dir }}
       run: |
-        task customer-create \
-          CUSTOMER_NAME="${{ inputs.customer-name }}" \
-          RELEASE_CHANNEL="${{ inputs.channel-name }}"
+        if [ -n "${{ inputs.channel-id }}" ]; then
+          task customer-create \
+            CUSTOMER_NAME="${{ inputs.customer-name }}" \
+            RELEASE_CHANNEL_ID="${{ inputs.channel-id }}"
+        else
+          task customer-create \
+            CUSTOMER_NAME="${{ inputs.customer-name }}" \
+            RELEASE_CHANNEL="${{ inputs.channel-name }}"
+        fi
 
     - name: Get customer license
       id: license
@@ -72,11 +81,19 @@ runs:
       shell: bash
       working-directory: ${{ inputs.app-dir }}
       run: |
-        task customer-helm-install \
-          CUSTOMER_NAME="${{ inputs.customer-name }}" \
-          CLUSTER_NAME="${{ inputs.cluster-name }}" \
-          CHANNEL_SLUG="${{ inputs.channel-name }}" \
-          REPLICATED_LICENSE_ID="${{ steps.license.outputs.license-id }}"
+        if [ -n "${{ inputs.channel-id }}" ]; then
+          task customer-helm-install \
+            CUSTOMER_NAME="${{ inputs.customer-name }}" \
+            CLUSTER_NAME="${{ inputs.cluster-name }}" \
+            CHANNEL_ID="${{ inputs.channel-id }}" \
+            REPLICATED_LICENSE_ID="${{ steps.license.outputs.license-id }}"
+        else
+          task customer-helm-install \
+            CUSTOMER_NAME="${{ inputs.customer-name }}" \
+            CLUSTER_NAME="${{ inputs.cluster-name }}" \
+            CHANNEL_SLUG="${{ inputs.channel-name }}" \
+            REPLICATED_LICENSE_ID="${{ steps.license.outputs.license-id }}"
+        fi
 
     - name: Run tests
       shell: bash

.github/workflows/wg-easy-pr-validation.yaml

@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ jobs:
   create-release:
     runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
     needs: [setup, build-and-package]
+    outputs:
+      channel-id: ${{ steps.release.outputs.channel-id }}
     steps:
       - name: Checkout code
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -97,6 +99,7 @@ jobs:
           path: ${{ env.APP_DIR }}/release
 
       - name: Create Replicated release
+        id: release
         uses: ./.github/actions/replicated-release
         with:
           app-dir: ${{ env.APP_DIR }}
@@ -116,7 +119,7 @@ jobs:
           app-dir: ${{ env.APP_DIR }}
           customer-name: ${{ needs.setup.outputs.channel-name }}
           cluster-name: ${{ needs.setup.outputs.channel-name }}
-          channel-name: ${{ needs.setup.outputs.channel-name }}
+          channel-id: ${{ needs.create-release.outputs.channel-id }}
           helm-version: ${{ env.HELM_VERSION }}
           cleanup: 'false'
 

applications/wg-easy/CLAUDE.md

@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ This file contains common commands and workflows for working with the WG-Easy He
 - **Optimized GitHub Actions workflows** with Task-based operations and reusable actions
 - **Added chart validation tasks** for consistent linting and templating across environments
 - **Implemented PR validation cycle** with automated cleanup and better error handling
+- **Enhanced channel management** with unique channel ID support to avoid ambiguous channel names
 
 ## Core Principles
 
@@ -173,7 +174,8 @@ task helm-install
 # Install charts for a specific customer (requires pre-setup)
 # By default, use current git branch name for customer, cluster, and channel names
 # Note: names are automatically normalized (/, _, . replaced with -) by the tasks
-task customer-helm-install CUSTOMER_NAME=$(git branch --show-current) CLUSTER_NAME=$(git branch --show-current) REPLICATED_LICENSE_ID=xxx CHANNEL_SLUG=$(git branch --show-current)
+# Use CHANNEL_ID for precise channel targeting or CHANNEL_SLUG for channel name
+task customer-helm-install CUSTOMER_NAME=$(git branch --show-current) CLUSTER_NAME=$(git branch --show-current) REPLICATED_LICENSE_ID=xxx CHANNEL_ID=your-channel-id
 
 # Run tests
 task test
@@ -200,10 +202,15 @@ task release-prepare
 # Create and promote a release
 task release-create RELEASE_VERSION=x.y.z RELEASE_CHANNEL=Unstable
 
+# Channel management (returns channel ID for unique identification)
+task channel-create RELEASE_CHANNEL=channel-name
+task channel-delete RELEASE_CHANNEL_ID=channel-id
+
 # Customer management
 # By default, use current git branch name for customer name
 # Note: names are automatically normalized (/, _, . replaced with -) by the tasks
-task customer-create CUSTOMER_NAME=$(git branch --show-current)
+# Use RELEASE_CHANNEL_ID for precise channel targeting or RELEASE_CHANNEL for channel name
+task customer-create CUSTOMER_NAME=$(git branch --show-current) RELEASE_CHANNEL_ID=your-channel-id
 task customer-ls
 task customer-delete CUSTOMER_ID=your-customer-id
 ```