Automated diagnosis of GitHub Actions CI/CD failures.

Install

mkdir -p .claude/skills/gha && curl -L -o skill.zip "https://agentskills.codes/api/skills/download/4201" && unzip -o skill.zip -d .claude/skills/gha && rm skill.zip

Installs to .claude/skills/gha

Activation

This is the description your AI agent reads to decide when to run this skill — the better it matches your request, the more reliably it fires.

Analyze GitHub Actions failures and identify root causes
56 charsno explicit “when” trigger
Intermediate

Key capabilities

  • Extract specific exit code 1 triggers from GitHub Actions logs
  • Assess job flakiness by analyzing the last 10-20 runs of a specific job
  • Identify the specific commit that introduced a job failure
  • Search for existing open pull requests related to failure patterns

How it works

The tool uses the gh CLI to retrieve job logs and run history, then correlates failure patterns with commit history to isolate the root cause.

Inputs & outputs

You give it
GitHub Actions workflow run URL
You get back
Report detailing failure trigger, flakiness, breaking commit, and relevant open PRs

When to use gha

  • Debugging CI/CD failures
  • Identifying flaky tests
  • Tracing breaking commits
  • Analyzing workflow logs

About this skill

Investigate this GitHub Actions URL: $ARGUMENTS

Use the gh CLI to analyze this workflow run. Your investigation should:

  1. Get basic info & identify actual failure:

    • What workflow/job failed, when, and on which commit?
    • CRITICAL: Read the full logs carefully to find what SPECIFICALLY caused the exit code 1
    • Distinguish between warnings/non-fatal errors vs actual failures
    • Look for patterns like "failing:", "fatal:", or script logic that determines when to exit 1
    • If you see both "non-fatal" and "fatal" errors, focus on what actually caused the failure
  2. Check flakiness: Check the past 10-20 runs of THE EXACT SAME failing job:

    • IMPORTANT: If a workflow has multiple jobs, you must check history for the SPECIFIC JOB that failed, not just the workflow
    • Use gh run list --workflow=<workflow-name> to get run IDs, then gh run view <run-id> --json jobs to check the specific job's status
    • Is this a one-time failure or recurring pattern for THIS SPECIFIC JOB?
    • What's the success rate for THIS JOB recently?
    • When did THIS JOB last pass?
  3. Identify breaking commit (if there's a pattern of failures for the specific job):

    • Find the first run where THIS SPECIFIC JOB failed and the last run where it passed
    • Identify the commit that introduced the failure
    • Verify by checking: does THIS JOB fail in ALL runs after that commit? Does it pass in ALL runs before?
    • If verified, report the breaking commit with high confidence
  4. Root cause: Based on logs, history, and any breaking commit, what's the likely cause?

    • Focus on what ACTUALLY caused the failure (not just any errors you see)
    • Verify your hypothesis against the logs and failure logic
  5. Check for existing fix PRs: Search for open PRs that might already address this issue:

    • Use gh pr list --state open --search "<keywords>" with relevant error messages or file names
    • Check if any open PR modifies the failing file/workflow
    • If a fix PR exists, note it in your report and skip the recommendation section

Write a final report with:

  • Summary of failure (what specifically triggered the exit code 1)
  • Flakiness assessment (one-time vs recurring, success rate)
  • Breaking commit (if identified and verified)
  • Root cause analysis (based on the ACTUAL failure trigger)
  • Existing fix PR (if found - include PR number and link)
  • Recommendation (skip if fix PR already exists)

When not to use it

  • When the provided URL does not point to a GitHub Actions workflow run

Prerequisites

gh CLI

Limitations

  • Requires specific job-level history analysis rather than workflow-level summaries
  • Relies on the presence of identifiable error patterns like fatal or failing tags in logs

How it compares

Unlike manual log inspection, this tool automates the cross-referencing of job-specific run history and commit logs to verify failure patterns.

Compared to similar skills

gha side by side with the closest alternatives in the catalog.

SkillInstallsUpdatedSafetyDifficulty
gha (this skill)16moNo flagsIntermediate
github-actions-failure-debugging17moNo flagsIntermediate
github-actions-templates73moNo flagsIntermediate
toolhive-release13moReviewIntermediate

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