diagnose-ci Skill

Fetch CI logs for a failing branch, classify the failure type, and write a structured diagnosis report to {{AUTOSKILLIT_TEMP}}/diagnose-ci/. Called by the orchestrator on ci_watch failure before routing to resolve-failures.

Invocation

/autoskillit:diagnose-ci {branch} [run_id] [ci_failed_jobs] [workflow] [event]

Positional args:

• branch — the git branch whose CI run to investigate
• run_id (optional) — specific workflow run ID; if absent, discover from gh run list
• ci_failed_jobs (optional) — JSON array of failed job names from wait_for_ci, used to scope log fetching
• workflow (optional) — workflow filename (e.g. tests.yml); if provided, scopes gh run list to that workflow only; use - to skip
• event (optional) — GitHub Actions trigger event (e.g. push, pull_request); if provided, scopes gh run list to that event only; use - to skip

Critical Constraints

NEVER:

• Modify any source code files
• Run the test suite
• Write files outside {{AUTOSKILLIT_TEMP}}/diagnose-ci/
• Block on missing gh CLI — write a minimal failure_type=unknown diagnosis instead

ALWAYS:

• Write the diagnosis file before emitting output tokens
• Emit the four output tokens (diagnosis_path, failure_type, failure_subtype, is_fixable) at the end of the response on their own lines

Context Limit Behavior

When context is exhausted mid-execution, the diagnosis file may be partially written or absent. The recipe routes to on_context_limit: resolve_ci, which proceeds best-effort with whatever diagnosis was written (or none).

Before emitting structured output tokens:

1. If the diagnosis file was not fully written, emit diagnosis_path = (empty)
2. Emit failure_type = unknown, failure_subtype = unknown, is_fixable = false as fallback values when analysis was interrupted

Workflow

Step 1: Discover Run ID (if not provided)

If run_id is not provided as an argument (or is -), construct the gh run list command with any provided filters:

# Base command (always used):
gh run list --branch {branch} --limit 1 --json databaseId,status,conclusion

# If workflow is provided and is not `-`, add:
  --workflow {workflow}

# If event is provided and is not `-`, add:
  --event {event}

Example with both filters:

gh run list --branch {branch} --workflow {workflow} --event {event} --limit 1 --json databaseId,status,conclusion

Parse the JSON to extract databaseId as run_id.

When gh is not accessible or the command fails, proceed to Step 5 (write diagnosis report).

Step 2: Fetch Failure Summary

gh run view {run_id} --log-failed

Capture the output (stdout). This is the primary failure log.

Step 3: Fetch Per-Job Logs

For each failing job in ci_failed_jobs (or all failed jobs from gh run view if not provided):

gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs/{run_id}/jobs

For each failed job, fetch last 200 lines of logs via:

gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/jobs/{job_id}/logs

Use gh repo view --json nameWithOwner to resolve {owner}/{repo} if needed.

Step 4: Classify Failure

Analyze the log output to classify failure_type as one of:

• test — pytest/jest/unit test failures
• lint — ruff, flake8, eslint, or formatting failures
• build — compilation or build errors
• type_check — mypy, pyright, or TypeScript type errors
• env — missing environment variables, secrets, or infrastructure issues
• unknown — cannot determine from logs

Step 4a: Subtype Classification

After determining failure_type, classify failure_subtype using the following error-pattern decision tree (first match wins):

Pattern match in log output	failure_subtype
TimeoutError, deadline exceeded, flake, intermittent	timing_race
pytest.*FLAKY, rerun, three-or-more identical test runs	flaky
ImportError, ModuleNotFoundError	import
fixture, pytest.fixture, collection error	fixture
environ, missing ENV_VAR, KeyError.*environ	env
Assertion error with stable stack trace (same file/line across runs)	deterministic
No pattern matched	unknown

Guidance for resolve-failures: Include a supplementary "Suggested Starting Verdict" field in the Recommended Fix Approach section that maps the subtype to an initial verdict for resolve-failures to consider (not authoritative — resolve-failures makes its own verdict decision from the subtype + local test result):

failure_subtype	Suggested starting verdict
flaky or timing_race	flake_suspected
deterministic	ci_only_failure (if local tests pass) or real_fix (if fixable locally)
fixture or import	flake_suspected (if local tests pass)
env	flake_suspected
unknown	flake_suspected

Determine is_fixable:

• true for test, lint, build, type_check
• false for env, unknown

Step 5: Write Diagnosis Report

Create directory {{AUTOSKILLIT_TEMP}}/diagnose-ci/ if it doesn't exist. Write the diagnosis file:

# CI Diagnosis: {branch}

**Run ID:** {run_id}
**Failure Type:** {failure_type}
**Failure Subtype:** {failure_subtype}
**Is Fixable:** {is_fixable}
**Branch:** {branch}

## Structured Output (machine-readable)

failure_subtype = {failure_subtype}

## Log Excerpt

{first 200 lines of failure log}

## Recommended Fix Approach

{1-3 sentences describing how resolve-failures should approach this}

**Suggested Starting Verdict:** {suggested starting verdict from the subtype table above}

Save to {{AUTOSKILLIT_TEMP}}/diagnose-ci/diagnosis_{timestamp}.md. (relative to the current working directory)

Step 6: Emit Output Tokens

Emit these tokens on their own lines at the end of your response:

IMPORTANT: Emit the structured output tokens as literal plain text with no markdown formatting on the token names. Do not wrap token names in **bold**, *italic*, or any other markdown. The adjudicator performs a regex match on the exact token name — decorators cause match failure.

diagnosis_path = /absolute/path/to/{{AUTOSKILLIT_TEMP}}/diagnose-ci/diagnosis_{timestamp}.md
failure_type = test|lint|build|type_check|env|unknown
failure_subtype = flaky|timing_race|deterministic|fixture|import|env|unknown
is_fixable = true|false

gh Unavailable Fallback

When gh is not accessible at any step, write a minimal diagnosis:

• failure_type = unknown
• failure_subtype = unknown
• is_fixable = false
• Diagnosis body: "gh CLI unavailable — logs could not be fetched. Manual inspection required."

Then emit the output tokens and exit.