qubership-workflow-conventions

name	qubership-workflow-conventions
description	Single source of truth for Qubership GitHub Actions workflows. Use when designing, writing, reviewing, or debugging .github/workflows/*.yml that consume actions or templates from netcracker/qubership-workflow-hub or Netcracker/.github.

qubership-workflow-conventions

Single source of truth for any GitHub Actions workflow that consumes the Qubership ecosystem (netcracker/qubership-workflow-hub actions, Netcracker/.github templates).

Companion skills (navigators)

• qubership-templates-guide — fork-able Netcracker workflow-templates catalog.
• qubership-actions-guide — actions catalog, domain guides, and the Pin table for SHAs.

All rules live in this file.

Clarify before acting

Before designing any workflow, establish context with the minimum necessary questions. Never ask for information that can be read from a file.

Step 0 — one question first

Ask exactly one question:

"Do you have an existing workflow and/or .qubership/ config files, or are we starting from scratch?"

If the user has already provided a file or it is open in the IDE — skip this question and go straight to Path A.

Path A — existing workflow or configs

Read the workflow and any config files it references. Load the relevant domain guide from qubership-actions-guide (docker.md, helm.md, security.md, release.md, notifications.md, maven.md, cleanup.md, utilities.md, pr.md, cla.md) and use its migration table. Ask only about what is missing after reading. Return the full updated workflow file — preserve existing structure, change only what needs changing.

Path B — starting from scratch

Hand off to qubership-actions-guide Step 1 — it routes to the relevant domain guide (docker.md, helm.md, security.md, release.md, notifications.md, maven.md, cleanup.md, utilities.md, pr.md, cla.md) or returns to the catalog for operations without a guide (npm, Python). Clarifying questions for catalog-only operations live in the catalog (see qubership-actions-guide → Publishing).

Infer the trigger from the request — do not ask unless truly ambiguous. See workflow-patterns.md → Trigger rules for the three standard patterns.

Workflow design process

After Clarify before acting:

1. Read qubership-templates-guide/SKILL.md and search the catalog for a matching template. Do this when creating a new workflow or restructuring an existing one (changing jobs, triggers, or pipeline shape). Skip for small targeted edits (adding a timeout, changing a branch filter, updating an input value). If a match is found: show the user which template, use it as the base. If no match: proceed from scratch using actions-guide.
2. Hand off to qubership-actions-guide Step 1 — it loads the domain guide and picks actions. Use Pin table for SHAs. Fall back to standard actions only when no Qubership action fits.
3. Apply Mandatory conventions to every step — including Security checklist below.
4. Return the workflow per Preferred answer style.

Mandatory conventions

Anti-hallucination

LLMs invent plausible-sounding identifiers when they don't have the exact spelling at hand. This applies to any identifier: action names, input names, output names, fields inside JSON config payloads, environment variable names, step IDs, and tag formats.

Rules:

• Never write a Qubership action identifier or with: block from memory.
• Before writing any reference to an identifier from the action library, read the action's README via qubership-actions-guide, locate the relevant Inputs / Outputs / config-schema section, and copy the identifier verbatim.
• If the identifier you expect is not in the README — it does not exist. Pick a different action, restructure the workflow, or tell the user the action does not support that capability.
• This applies even when:
  • you remember the identifier from earlier in the session;
  • a similar action has a similar-looking identifier;
  • the identifier appears in another action's output JSON — outputs and inputs are different namespaces.
• When in doubt, re-read the README. The cost of an extra lookup is negligible; the cost of a hallucinated identifier is a broken workflow that silently no-ops or fails on first run.

Pinning

Pin every action — Qubership and third-party — as a full 40-character commit SHA with a trailing # vX.Y.Z comment showing the release:

uses: netcracker/qubership-workflow-hub/actions/<name>@<sha>  # vX.Y.Z

For actions listed in the Pin table (qubership-actions-guide → Pin table) — always use it.

For actions not in the Pin table (including actions/* and all third-party actions), resolve the SHA from a verifiable source (GitHub API/release metadata), then add it to the Pin table or ask the user to provide the SHA. Do not write SHAs from memory.

Forbidden: @main, short SHAs, bare tags (@v6, @v1.2.3). Always full SHA.

Permissions

• Set permissions: at the job level, not the workflow level.
• Start every job from contents: read and elevate only where the action's README says it needs more (e.g. packages: write for GHCR pushes, pull-requests: write for PR comments, id-token: write for OIDC, contents: write for tag/release creation).

Naming and structure

• Inputs are kebab-case (dry-run, force-create).
• Outputs are short singular nouns (version, tag, digest).
• Org name in uses: is always lowercase netcracker, never Netcracker.
• Boolean inputs default false; the input name describes the feature when enabled.

Configuration file placement

When a Qubership-authored action accepts an external config file (e.g. configuration-path, config-path):

• Place the file under .qubership/, not .github/. The .qubership/ directory is the conventional home for Qubership-specific configuration in consumer repos.
• Pass the path explicitly via the action's input — do not rely on the action's default path, which may point to .github/.
• Only create a config file when one of these conditions is met: the user explicitly asks for it; or the action's inline inputs are not sufficient (e.g. multiple branch patterns, reuse across workflows). If inline inputs cover the use case — use them directly in the step, do not create a file.

This rule applies only to actions authored by Netcracker/Qubership. Third-party actions (e.g. actions/checkout, helm/kind-action) keep their configs wherever their own documentation prescribes.

Security (zizmor rules)

Read zizmor-rules.md and apply all rules while writing the workflow. Violations must not appear in the generated output.

Secrets and PR safety

• Never put secret values in YAML. Use ${{ secrets.SECRET_NAME }}.
• Never echo secrets; never use set -x near secret usage.
• Treat pull requests from forks as untrusted. Do not expose secrets, deployment credentials, package publish tokens, registry tokens, or release tokens to untrusted PR code.
• Avoid pull_request_target unless the workflow is intentionally designed for it and does not check out or execute untrusted code unsafely. CLA assistant is one of the few legitimate uses.
• For production deployment workflows, prefer environment-scoped secrets (declared on a GitHub Environment) over repository-wide secrets — see security-model.md.

Supporting documents

Read these files when relevant:

• workflow-patterns.md — workflow structure, triggers, concurrency, timeouts, matrix, config-driven matrix, dry-run gating, reusable workflow contracts, artifacts.
• zizmor-rules.md — full zizmor security rules to apply at generation time.
• security-model.md — checkout credentials, environment-scoped secrets, GitHub App tokens for protected branches, environments.
• debugging-playbook.md — failure categories and the diagnosis procedure for broken workflows.

Preferred answer style

Match the user's language. Translate section headers; keep YAML, paths, action identifiers unchanged.

Always return a complete, copy-paste-ready workflow file — not a partial snippet, unless the user explicitly asks for one.

Structure:

File: .github/workflows/<name>.yml

<full YAML>

Actions used: <which Qubership actions or templates and why>
What to configure: <secrets / vars / environments / config files>
How to trigger: <push / PR / tag / workflow_dispatch>
How to verify: <Actions tab, expected artifact/image/release>