CI Reviews Enhancement Plan (v2)

[sylvansys]

Branch: claude-elegant-falcon-hlwid2wp
Plan file: /home/ben/.claude/plans/humble-swinging-kazoo.md

---

CI Reviews Enhancement Plan (v2)

Intent

Fix job output propagation so dependent reviews actually run, and refactor workflow to use the composite actions that were already created.

Current State (PR #17)

• ✅ Heredoc syntax errors fixed
• ✅ 8 composite actions created in .github/actions/
• ✅ 5 agent prompt files in .claude/agents/reviewers/
• ✅ Requirements review passes
• ❌ Code Quality, Context skip - needs.requirements.outputs.passed is empty
• ❌ Visual, UX skip - Expected (no app in this repo)
• ❌ Workflow not using composite actions - all logic still inline

Root Cause: Job Outputs Not Propagating

The requirements job outputs are showing as null in the GitHub API:

{
  "name": "Reviews / Requirements",
  "conclusion": "success",
  "outputs": null   // <-- Should be {"passed": "true", "result": "..."}
}

This causes needs.requirements.outputs.passed == 'true' to fail for downstream jobs.

Implementation Plan

Phase 1: Fix Composite Actions (Ensure Outputs Always Set)

Update each composite action to ensure outputs are always set, even on failure.

Files to update:

• .github/actions/requirements-reviewer/action.yml
• .github/actions/code-quality-reviewer/action.yml
• .github/actions/context-reviewer/action.yml
• .github/actions/visual-reviewer/action.yml
• .github/actions/ux-reviewer/action.yml

Pattern for Extract result step:

# Initialize defaults
PASSED="true"
RESULT='{"passed":true,"summary":"Review completed"}'

EXEC="${{ steps.review.outputs.execution_file }}"
if [ -f "$EXEC" ]; then
  TEXT=$(jq -r '[.[] | select(.type=="assistant") | .message.content[]? | select(.type=="text") | .text] | last // ""' "$EXEC" 2>/dev/null || echo "")
  JSON=$(echo "$TEXT" | sed -n '/```json/,/```/{/```/d;p;}' | head -50)
  if echo "$JSON" | jq . >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    PASSED=$(echo "$JSON" | jq -r '.passed // true')
    RESULT=$(echo "$JSON" | jq -c '.')
  fi
fi

# Always output (never skip these lines)
echo "passed=$PASSED" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
echo "result=$RESULT" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

Phase 2: Refactor Workflow to Use Composite Actions

Replace ALL inline review jobs with composite action calls.

Pattern for each review job:

requirements:
  name: "Reviews / Requirements"
  needs: [unit, e2e]
  if: github.event_name == 'pull_request' && !failure() && !cancelled()
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  outputs:
    passed: ${{ steps.review.outputs.passed }}
    result: ${{ steps.review.outputs.result }}
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0

    - name: Run requirements review
      id: review
      uses: ./.github/actions/requirements-reviewer
      with:
        claude_code_oauth_token: ${{ secrets.CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN }}
        pr_number: ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
        branch: ${{ github.head_ref }}
        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

    - name: Update comment
      if: always()
      uses: ./.github/actions/review-comment
      with:
        review_name: Requirements
        passed: ${{ steps.review.outputs.passed }}
        result_json: ${{ steps.review.outputs.result }}
        pr_number: ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
        sha: ${{ github.sha }}
        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Jobs to refactor (all follow same pattern):

1. requirements → uses ./.github/actions/requirements-reviewer
2. code-quality → uses ./.github/actions/code-quality-reviewer
3. context → uses ./.github/actions/context-reviewer
4. visual → uses ./.github/actions/visual-reviewer
5. ux → uses ./.github/actions/ux-reviewer

Phase 3: Use Fallback Condition

Add resilient condition that works even if outputs aren't propagating:

code-quality:
  needs: [requirements]
  if: |
    github.event_name == 'pull_request' &&
    needs.requirements.result == 'success'

This uses needs.requirements.result (always set by GitHub) instead of relying on custom outputs.

Files to Modify

File	Action	Description
.github/workflows/ci-pipeline.yml	REWRITE	Replace ~400 lines of inline logic with ~100 lines using composite actions
.github/actions/requirements-reviewer/action.yml	MODIFY	Fix output propagation
.github/actions/code-quality-reviewer/action.yml	MODIFY	Fix output propagation
.github/actions/context-reviewer/action.yml	MODIFY	Fix output propagation
.github/actions/visual-reviewer/action.yml	MODIFY	Fix output propagation
.github/actions/ux-reviewer/action.yml	MODIFY	Fix output propagation

Success Criteria

• All 5 composite actions have robust output handling
• ci-pipeline.yml uses composite actions (not inline logic)
• Requirements outputs propagate to dependent jobs
• Code Quality and Context reviews run after Requirements passes
• Visual and UX skip for non-app repos (expected behavior)
• All review results appear in consolidated PR comment
• Workflow file reduced from ~700 lines to ~300 lines