Workflow Fixer Skills

Overview

This skill provides expertise in diagnosing CI/CD workflow failures and implementing automated fixes. It combines log analysis, pattern recognition, and targeted repairs to quickly resolve pipeline issues.

Activation Triggers

The workflow-fixer skill activates when:

• User mentions workflow/CI/build failures
• A GitHub Actions run has failed status
• Error patterns are detected in discussion
• Keywords match: failed, broken, ci, workflow, pipeline, fix

Log Analysis

Fetching Logs

# Via GitHub CLI
gh run list --status failure --limit 5
gh run view <run-id> --log-failed

# Via MCP Tools (preferred when available)
# Use github-mcp-server-actions_list with method: "list_workflow_runs"
# Use github-mcp-server-get_job_logs with run_id and failed_only: true

Error Pattern Matching

Pattern	Category	Common Fix
npm ERR! ERESOLVE	Dependency	Update lockfile, use --legacy-peer-deps
pip: No matching distribution	Dependency	Pin version, check Python version
nix: error: path .* does not exist	Build	Check flake inputs, rebuild
colcon build returned nonzero	Build	Fix ROS2 package CMakeLists/setup.py
FAILED.*test_	Test	Fix test logic or mark as flaky
Error: Process completed with exit code 137	Resource	OOM - optimize or increase memory
Error: The operation was canceled	Resource	Timeout - increase timeout-minutes
Error: Resource not accessible	Permission	Check GITHUB_TOKEN permissions

Log Parsing Commands

# Extract error lines
grep -E "error|ERROR|Error|failed|FAILED|Failed" logs.txt | head -20

# Find stack traces
grep -A 10 "Traceback\|at .*\.ts:\|at .*\.js:" logs.txt

# Nix-specific errors
grep -E "error: |builder for .* failed" logs.txt

Fix Strategies

Dependency Issues

# NPM
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
npm install

# Pip/Python
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install -r requirements.txt --upgrade

# Nix
nix flake update
nix flake check --no-build

# Pixi
rm -f pixi.lock
pixi install

Build Failures

# Clean rebuild
rm -rf build install log
colcon build --symlink-install

# Nix rebuild
nix develop --command echo "rebuilt"

# Check for missing dependencies
nix flake show

Test Failures

# Run specific test with verbose output
pytest -xvs path/to/test.py::test_name

# Run with coverage to find issues
coverage run -m pytest path/to/test.py
coverage report -m

# Mark flaky test (last resort)
@pytest.mark.flaky(reruns=3)
def test_sometimes_fails():
    ...

Environment Issues

# Add missing environment variable
env:
  MY_VAR: ${{ secrets.MY_SECRET }}

# Fix permission issues
permissions:
  contents: read
  packages: write

# Add required setup step
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.11'

Workflow Debugging

Step-by-step Investigation

1. Identify the failed run

   gh run list --status failure --limit 1
   

2. Get failed job details

   gh run view <run-id> --json jobs --jq '.jobs[] | select(.conclusion=="failure")'
   

3. Extract relevant logs

   gh run view <run-id> --log-failed 2>&1 | tail -100
   

4. Identify error pattern

   • Look for Error:, error:, FAILED, Exception
   • Check exit codes (137 = OOM, 143 = SIGTERM)

5. Trace to source

   • Find file and line number from error
   • Check recent commits that touched that file

6. Implement minimal fix

   • Change only what's necessary
   • Test locally if possible

7. Verify fix

   • Push and monitor new run
   • Check related jobs don't break

Common Workflow Patterns

Nix + Pixi (This Repository)

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: DeterminateSystems/nix-installer-action@v21
  - uses: DeterminateSystems/magic-nix-cache-action@v13
  - run: nix develop .#default --command pixi install
  - run: nix develop .#default --command pixi run <command>

Common Fixes for This Repository

Issue	Fix
pixi.lock mismatch	Remove pixi.lock, run pixi install
Flake evaluation error	Check flake.nix, run nix flake check
ROS2 build failure	Check package.xml, CMakeLists.txt
macOS CUDA error	Ensure CUDA shell only on Linux
Disk space	Add cleanup step before build

Integration with MCP

When GitHub MCP tools are available, use them for structured data:

# List failed workflow runs
actions_list(
    method="list_workflow_runs",
    owner="FlexNetOS",
    repo="ripple-env",
    workflow_runs_filter={"status": "failure"}
)

# Get failed job logs
get_job_logs(
    owner="FlexNetOS",
    repo="ripple-env",
    run_id=12345,
    failed_only=True,
    return_content=True
)

Related Skills

• DevOps - CI/CD pipeline management
• Nix Environment - Nix-specific debugging
• ROS2 Development - ROS2 build issues

Best Practices

1. Always read logs first - Don't guess at the problem
2. Look for the first error - Later errors are often cascading failures
3. Check recent changes - Most failures come from recent commits
4. Test fixes locally - When possible, verify before pushing
5. Document non-obvious fixes - Add comments explaining why
6. Don't mask errors - Fix root causes, not symptoms
7. Consider flakiness - Some failures are intermittent