analyze-github-action-logs

Analyze GitHub Action Logs

Fetch and analyze recent GitHub Actions runs for a given workflow. Review agent/step performance, identify wasted effort and mistakes, and produce a report with actionable improvements.

Input

You need:

• `workflow` (required) — The workflow file name or ID (e.g., issue-triage.yml, deploy.yml).
• `repo` (optional) — The GitHub repository in OWNER/REPO format. Defaults to withastro/astro.
• `count` (optional) — Number of recent completed runs to analyze. Defaults to 5.

Step 1: List Recent Runs

Fetch the most recent completed runs for the workflow. Filter by --status=completed:

gh run list --workflow=<workflow> -R <repo> --status=completed -L <count>

Present the list to orient yourself: run IDs, titles, status (success/failure), and duration. Pick the runs to analyze — prefer a mix of successes and failures if available, and prefer runs that exercised more steps (longer runs tend to go through more stages, while shorter runs may exit early).

Step 2: Fetch Logs

For each run you want to analyze, save the full log to a temp file:

gh run view <run_id> -R <repo> --log > /tmp/actions-run-<run_id>.log

Step 3: Identify Step/Skill Boundaries

Search each log file for markers that indicate where each step or skill starts and ends. The markers depend on the workflow — look for patterns like:

• Flue skill markers: [flue] skill("..."): starting / completed
• GitHub Actions step markers: Step name headers in the log output
• Custom markers: Any START/END or similar delimiters the workflow uses

grep -n "skill(\|step\|START\|END\|starting\|completed" /tmp/actions-run-<run_id>.log | head -50

From this, determine which line ranges correspond to each step/skill. Also find any result markers:

grep -n "RESULT_START\|RESULT_END\|extractResult" /tmp/actions-run-<run_id>.log

Note: Some log files may contain binary/null bytes. Use grep -a if needed.

Step 4: Analyze Each Step (Use Subagents)

For each step/skill that ran, launch a subagent to analyze that section's log. This is critical to avoid polluting your context with thousands of log lines.

For each subagent, provide:

1. The log file path and the line range for that step
2. If skill instruction files exist for the workflow, tell the subagent to read them first for context
3. The run title/context so the subagent understands what was being done
4. The analysis criteria below

Analysis Criteria

Tell each subagent to evaluate:

1. Correctness — Was the step's final result/verdict correct?
2. Efficiency — How long did it take? What's a reasonable baseline? Where was time wasted?
3. Mistakes — Wrong tool calls, failed commands retried without changes, unnecessary rebuilds, etc.
4. Instruction compliance — If skill instructions exist, did the agent follow them? Where did it deviate?
5. Scope creep — Did the agent do work that belongs in a different step?
6. Suggestions — Specific, actionable changes that would prevent the issues found.

Tell each subagent to return a structured response with: Summary, Time Analysis, Issues Found (with estimated time wasted for each), and Suggestions for Improvement.

Step 5: Consolidate Report

After all subagents return, synthesize their findings into a single report. Structure it as:

Per-Run Summary Table

For each run analyzed, include a table:

Cross-Cutting Patterns

Identify issues that appeared across multiple runs or multiple steps. These are the highest-value improvements. Common patterns to look for:

• TodoWrite abuse — Agent wasting time on task list management during automated runs
• Server management failures — Port conflicts, failed process kills, stale log files
• Tool misuse — Using curl instead of gh, jq not found, etc.
• Scope creep — One step doing work that belongs in another
• Unnecessary rebuilds — Building packages multiple times without changes
• Test timeouts — Running slow E2E/Playwright tests that time out
• Instruction violations — Agent doing something the instructions explicitly forbid
• Redundant work — Re-reading files, re-running searches, re-installing dependencies

Prioritized Recommendations

Rank your improvement suggestions by estimated time savings across all runs. For each recommendation:

1. What to change — Which file(s) to edit and what to add/modify
2. Why — What pattern it addresses, with evidence from the runs
3. Estimated impact — How much time it would save per run

Output

Present the full consolidated report. Do NOT edit any workflow or skill files — only report findings and recommendations. The user will decide which changes to apply.