# CI Health Check: a /ci Skill for Claude Code > Source: > Published: 2026-07-11 23:44:04+00:00 **By Hudson Atwell, GBTI Network Member.** Originally published on Claude Code loads any markdown file at `.claude/skills//SKILL.md` as a reusable slash command (a "skill"). This one gives your agent a `/ci` command that audits your GitHub Actions: a red/green health board, real failure triage, a post-push watcher, and a living inventory of what every workflow does. It exists because agents (and humans) keep re-deriving the same motions every time CI goes red: which runs failed, how to actually get the logs, whether the failure is your commit or something that was already broken. The skill encodes those motions once, including a few non-obvious `gh` behaviors that cost me real debugging time. `.claude/skills/ci/` in your repo.`.claude/skills/ci/SKILL.md` .`/ci` (or `/ci health check` ) in Claude Code.Requires the `gh` CLI authenticated against your repo. The skill runs from the project folder, so the repo is already known: `gh` resolves it from the working directory, and the `{owner}/{repo}` tokens in API paths are native `gh api` placeholders it fills in for you. Nothing to configure. ``` --- name: ci description: ">" Inspect and diagnose this repo's GitHub Actions CI. Invoke for "/ci", "/ci health", "/ci health check", "/ci watch", "/ci schedule", "/ci diagnose ", "/ci list", or when the user asks whether CI is green, why a workflow failed, or what a workflow does. Pulls recent runs with gh, downloads failed job logs the reliable way, and triages failures to their real root cause. --- # CI operations All commands run from the repo root with the `gh` CLI (it resolves the repo from the working directory; `{owner}/{repo}` in API paths is a native gh placeholder). Default action when none is named: `health`. ## Tooling lore (read first) - **Fetching logs:** `gh run view --log-failed` often returns NOTHING. The reliable recipe: ``` bash JOB=$(gh run view --json jobs -q '.jobs[0].databaseId') gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/jobs/$JOB/logs > /tmp/job.log ``` Then grep the file; strip the timestamp column with `cut -c30-` when quoting. Multi-job runs: iterate `.jobs[]` and pick by `.conclusion == "failure"`. Step-level status without logs: `gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs//jobs -q '.jobs[0].steps[] | .name + " " + .conclusion'`. - **Scheduled-failure attribution:** the failure email for a SCHEDULED workflow cites the LATEST main sha, which is often NOT the commit that broke it. Always check `gh run list --workflow --limit 5 --json conclusion,createdAt,event` first; if the failures predate the cited commit, it is a standing provisioning or external problem, not a regression. - **Secrets vs variables:** repo secrets via `gh secret list`, plain variables via `gh variable list`. A workflow reading `secrets.X` where X was never created gets an EMPTY string, not an error, so the symptom is a downstream "not set" message, a 401, or an empty env var in the step header. - **Setting secrets may be gated:** an agent session may be blocked from `gh secret set` by permission policy. Prepare the value in a local untracked file and hand the human the one command. ## Failure triage (a starting taxonomy — extend it to fit the project) Classify every red into a named bucket, because the bucket decides the response. These three cover most repos; add project-specific buckets as you meet them (examples: environment/toolchain drift, a dependency or upstream API regression, resource exhaustion such as OOM or disk or rate limits, data- or state-dependent failures, expired credentials). When a failure fits no bucket, name a new one in the report rather than forcing it into a wrong response. 1. **Broken by commit:** the failure starts at a specific sha and the log implicates changed files. Fix the root cause (see Fix discipline below); verify with a rerun on the fix commit. 2. **Provisioning gap:** missing or empty secret, unset variable, an external account not configured. Route to the human with the exact command; do not retry. 3. **Flaky / external:** network hiccup, provider outage, rate limit; the same job passed before and after without a related change. `gh run rerun --failed` once, then re-check. ## Fix discipline (failing tests especially) When a test fails, evaluate the REAL defect the test is exposing and propose a fix for that root cause. Never patch the symptom, and never modify a test so it passes while the underlying failure remains — if you find yourself weakening an assertion, deleting a case, or special-casing the test input, stop and re-derive what the test was protecting. Changing a test is only correct when the test itself is wrong about the intended behavior, and the report must say that explicitly and justify it. The same rule generalizes beyond tests: a fix that makes the red go away without explaining WHY it was red is a symptom patch, not a fix. ## Actions ### /ci health [N] (also: /ci health check; the default) 1. `gh run list --limit ${N:-30} --json databaseId,workflowName,conclusion,headSha,event,createdAt` and group by workflow. Report a red/green board: latest conclusion per workflow, streak (consecutive fails), and the event (push vs schedule). 2. For each currently-red workflow: pull its recent history (`--workflow --limit 5`) to date the breakage, download the failed job log (recipe above), and triage it (the taxonomy above) with a one-line root cause and the proposed fix. 3. End with the board, the diagnoses, and what to do next. Offer to make low-risk code-side fixes (root cause, per Fix discipline); provisioning gaps go to the human. ### /ci watch The post-push ritual. Find the runs for the current HEAD and watch until all conclude: ``` bash SHA=$(git rev-parse HEAD) gh run list --limit 15 --json databaseId,workflowName,conclusion,headSha \ -q ".[] | select(.headSha==\"$SHA\")" gh run watch --exit-status # per unfinished run ``` Report each result; diagnose any red as in health. ### /ci drift (only if your repo commits build artifacts) The LOCAL pre-push check that committed artifacts match their source: ``` bash git diff --name-only -- ``` Empty diff = safe to push. Non-empty = stage those files with the commit that changed the source. Fill in EVERY build command: partial rebuilds that skip one artifact are the classic way this check reds your main branch anyway. ### /ci schedule Staleness audit of the scheduled workflows. For each one (list yours here with cadences): pull the last 5 runs and report the last SUCCESS date. Alarm on any workflow whose last success is older than 2x its cadence. A scheduled job can be silently red for days; nobody rereads yesterday's failure email. Note which scheduled jobs are load-bearing (a backup, a data sync something else depends on) so staleness there is escalated, not just listed. ### /ci diagnose Deep-dive one run (or the latest run of a named workflow): step table, failed job log to disk, triage bucket, root cause, fix proposal. ### /ci rerun `gh run rerun --failed` then watch it. Only for the flaky/external bucket; never rerun a provisioning gap (it cannot pass) or a broken-by-commit red (fix the root cause first). ### /ci list Print this workflow inventory (keep it current when workflows are added or changed): | Workflow (file) | Trigger | What it does | Needs | |---|---|---|---| | (.yml) | push / PR / cron | | | To seed it, read every file in `.github/workflows/` and summarize: name, trigger, the job's purpose (the header comment usually says), and which secrets it reads. ## Reporting conventions - Lead with the board (workflow, latest state, streak), then diagnoses, then actions taken or proposed. ``` There is nothing to configure for the repo itself: `gh` infers it from the working directory, so the skill works the moment you drop it in. Only two parts are inherently repo-specific: `.github/workflows/` and then treat it as living documentation. This is the part future sessions (and new contributors) thank you for.And treat the failure taxonomy as a starting point, not a fixed set: projects fail in project-shaped ways, so add the buckets yours actually produces. Each lore item is a real failure mode: `--log-failed` silently returning nothing while the jobs API works; a scheduled backup that failed for four days while its failure emails blamed whatever commit happened to be newest on main; a workflow reading a secret nobody ever created and reporting it as a vague downstream error instead of failing fast; a drift check that stayed red because the rebuild command regenerated only one of two committed bundles. The Fix discipline section is there because agents notoriously "fix" a failing test by editing the test — the classification buckets plus that rule keep the agent from the three classic wastes: rerunning a job that can never pass, "fixing" code that was never broken, and silencing a test that was telling the truth.