[P1] Smoke Multi PR: safe_outputs fails on schedule runs (add_comment target:triggering) #24096
Description
Workflow Failure
Workflow: Smoke Multi PR
Failure rate: 5/5 recent schedule runs (Mar 29 – Apr 2, 2026)
Latest failed run: #604 (2026-04-02)
Error
##[error]✗ Message 3 (add_comment) failed: Target is "triggering" but not running
in issue or pull request context, skipping add_comment
Failed: 1
##[error]1 safe output(s) failed
Root Cause Analysis
The smoke-multi-pr workflow has status-comment: true in its frontmatter, which generates an add_comment safe output message with target: triggering. On schedule-triggered runs, there is no triggering issue or pull request context — causing the safe outputs system to fail hard (exit non-zero) instead of silently skipping.
The workflow frontmatter excerpt:
on:
schedule: every 24h
workflow_dispatch:
pull_request:
types: [labeled]
names: ["smoke-multi-pr"]
reaction: "eyes"
status-comment: true # ← This generates add_comment with target:triggeringThe agent job and PR creation appear to succeed — only the safe_outputs job fails due to this issue.
Evidence
| Run | Result | Event | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| #604 | ❌ failure | schedule | 2026-04-02 |
| #597 | ❌ failure | schedule | 2026-04-01 |
| #571 | ❌ failure | schedule | 2026-03-31 |
| #564 | ❌ failure | schedule | 2026-03-30 |
| #557 | ❌ failure | schedule | 2026-03-29 |
Impact
- Smoke Multi PR cannot report success/failure on schedule runs
- Every scheduled smoke test of the multi-PR creation feature is marked as failed
- Creates noise and masks genuine failures
Suggested Fixes
Option A (Recommended): Fix safe-outputs to silently skip status-comment on schedule runs
The safe outputs system should detect when there's no triggering context and silently skip add_comment with target: triggering rather than counting it as a failure.
Option B: Remove status-comment from workflow frontmatter
If the workflow doesn't need to comment on triggering PRs, remove status-comment: true from the frontmatter.
Option C: Add conditional logic
Use update-issue: target: triggering in frontmatter to only enable the feature when there's a triggering context.
Related
- Workflow Health Dashboard — 2026-04-02
- Previous related issue: [plan] Investigate and fix safe_outputs failures in Smoke Update Cross-Repo PR and Smoke Multi PR #22246 (closed)
Detected by Workflow Health Manager · 2026-04-02
Note
🔒 Integrity filter blocked 1 item
The following item were blocked because they don't meet the GitHub integrity level.
- #19836
search_issues: has lower integrity than agent requires. The agent cannot read data with integrity below "approved".
To allow these resources, lower min-integrity in your GitHub frontmatter:
tools:
github:
min-integrity: approved # merged | approved | unapproved | noneGenerated by Workflow Health Manager - Meta-Orchestrator · ◷
- expires on Apr 3, 2026, 12:13 PM UTC