analyze-ci-failures

name	analyze-ci-failures
description	Analyze CI failures on Azure SDK for .NET pull requests and post a comment with how-to-fix instructions. Use when a PR has failing checks, CI is red, or someone asks for help fixing CI.

Skill: analyze-ci-failures

Analyze CI failures on an Azure SDK for .NET pull request and post a GitHub comment with actionable fix instructions.

When Invoked

Trigger phrases: "analyze CI failures", "fix CI", "why is CI failing", "help with CI", "analyze PR checks", "CI is red", "failing checks".

Inputs

The user must provide a PR number, PR URL, or pipeline build ID. If not provided, ask the user.

Workflow

1. Gather information

• Fetch PR details, check statuses, changed files, and workflow runs using GitHub MCP tools.
• Extract service directory and package name from changed file paths (sdk/<service>/<package>/).
• Identify the CI provider from each failed check URL before fetching logs:
  • For an Azure DevOps URL (dev.azure.com), extract the buildId. Use azure-sdk-mcp:azsdk_analyze_pipeline when available.
  • If that tool is unavailable, query the public Azure DevOps timeline API with curl: https://dev.azure.com/<organization>/<project>/_apis/build/builds/<buildId>/timeline?api-version=7.1. Inspect issues on failed task records first. If the issues are insufficient, fetch the failed record's log.url.
  • For a GitHub Actions URL, use github-mcp-server-get_job_logs with return_content: true.
• Do not use GitHub Actions job-log tools for Azure DevOps checks; their job IDs and run IDs are unrelated.

2. Identify failures

Classify each failure using the CI check mapping and log symptom patterns below. Also inspect the PR's code directly (e.g., read generated files for compile errors, check for missing scaffolding files).

Diagnosis must be based on the failed task's actual error text:

• Quote the decisive error and name the affected file or project.
• Do not infer the root cause from the check name, because Build/Pack jobs also run changelog verification, package validation, and ApiCompat.
• Do not call a failure transient or flaky unless the logs contain infrastructure evidence (for example, an agent disconnect, timeout, service outage, or network failure). A documentation-only last commit does not establish flakiness because packaging validates files such as CHANGELOG.md.
• If logs cannot be retrieved, state that the root cause is unconfirmed and provide the failed task link. Do not substitute a guessed compilation or ApiCompat diagnosis.

3. Post a comment

Compose a GitHub comment with:

• Header: ## 🔍 CI Failure Analysis for PR #<number>
• Summary table: All checks with ✅ ❌ ⏳ status
• Per-failure sections: Specific to THIS PR — include actual error messages, affected files, and concrete fix commands with <service>/<package> filled in
• Quick fix command at the end if applicable

Before posting, check existing comments for ## 🔍 CI Failure Analysis to avoid duplicates.

CI Check Name → Failure Mapping

These are the Azure DevOps and GitHub checks that run on SDK PRs. The check names are repo-specific and not discoverable from general knowledge.

Check Name Pattern	What It Validates	Key Script
Build Analyze PRBatch	Umbrella: code generation, API export, snippets, spelling, CPM, build + pack	eng/scripts/CodeChecks.ps1
Verify Generated Code	Generated code matches what the generator produces	eng/scripts/CodeChecks.ps1
Validate CPM Compliance	Central Package Management policy	eng/scripts/Validate-CpmCompliance.ps1
Build / Pack	Compilation + package validation, including changelog verification and ApiCompat	dotnet pack
Analyze	Samples, READMEs, snippets compile	eng/scripts/Build-Snippets.ps1
check-spelling	Spell-checking changed files	cspell via eng/common/scripts/check-spelling-in-changed-files.ps1
verify-links	Markdown link validation	eng/common/scripts/Verify-Links.ps1
checkenforcer	Meta-check: waits for all other checks to pass	.github/workflows/event-processor.yml

Log Symptom → Root Cause Mapping

These are exact strings/patterns to search for in CI logs. They are specific to this repo's scripts and not inferrable from general knowledge.

Log symptom	Root cause	Category
Generated code is not up to date	Generated code out of sync	Regenerate code
git diff --exit-code failure in CodeChecks	Generated or API files changed after re-running scripts	Regenerate + export API
error CS####:	C# compilation error	Build failure — inspect the specific error code
Build FAILED	Compilation failure	Build failure
MembersMustExist / TypesMustExist	ApiCompat breaking change (only surfaces in dotnet pack)	API compatibility
changelog entry has the following sections with no content	Release-dated changelog contains empty template sections	Changelog validation
ChangeLog verification failed / Verify-ChangeLog.ps1	Changelog format or content validation failed; use the preceding error for the exact issue	Changelog validation
ManagePackageVersionsCentrally / VersionOverride	CPM policy violation	CPM compliance
cspell unknown words	Spelling error in code or API surface	Spelling
Spell check failed	Spelling error in API surface files	Spelling
README instruction format / NuGet\\Install-Package	README uses wrong install format (must use dotnet add package)	README validation
verify-links broken URL	Broken markdown links	Link verification
Path length exceeded	File path > 210 chars	File path issue

New Package Checklist

For PRs that introduce a new SDK package (all files are added, no prior version exists), also check for these commonly missing scaffolding files:

• CHANGELOG.md
• README.md
• Directory.Build.props (must import parent props)
• ci.mgmt.yml (for management-plane) or CI pipeline config
• api/*.cs (public API surface listings — generated via Export-API.ps1)
• assets.json (test recording assets)

Without ci.mgmt.yml, the Azure DevOps CI pipeline won't trigger — this is a common reason for checkenforcer staying permanently pending.