From 5840ac5f6e06368c73b5220fee8ab78ec0193d1e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Nick Vigilante Date: Fri, 15 May 2026 10:15:25 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] ci(.github/workflows/docs-ci.yaml): scope changed-files per tool (#25317) ## Problem `Docs CI` fails on PRs that only touch binary assets under `docs/`. Example: [#25314](https://github.com/coder/coder/pull/25314), which swaps a single PNG and produces thousands of `MD010/no-hard-tabs`, `MD049/emphasis-style`, and `MD018/no-missing-space-atx` errors at columns like 16,285 of the image. ## Root cause The single `tj-actions/changed-files` step was doing two jobs at once: detecting which Markdown files changed (for `lint` and `fmt`), and gating whether the workflow had anything to do at all. Its `files` filter matched `docs/**` in addition to `**.md`, so any non-Markdown file under `docs/` (PNG, GIF, JPG, MP4, SVG) ended up in `all_changed_files` and was passed straight to `markdownlint-cli2`, which opened the file and parsed the binary bytes as Markdown. `markdownlint-cli2`'s own `ignores` setting is a discovery-time filter and does not gate files passed explicitly on the command line, so the filtering has to happen in the caller. ## Fix Adopt a per-tool convention: each downstream tool gets its own `changed-files` step scoped to the files that tool can process. For now that is a single `changed-md` step matching `**.md`, consumed by `lint` and `fmt`. A future tool (e.g. an image linter, video size check, or link checker) can be added purely additively, by appending another `changed-*` step and a step that consumes its output, without changing the existing filters. The workflow-level `on.push.paths` / `on.pull_request.paths` triggers stay broad (`docs/**`, `**.md`) so the workflow still runs on screenshot-only PRs; the per-tool filters decide which individual steps execute. On a screenshot-only PR the existing `if: steps.changed-md.outputs.any_changed == 'true'` guard skips `lint` and `fmt` cleanly. ## Verification - `actionlint .github/workflows/docs-ci.yaml` passes. - Reproduced the original failure locally: `pnpm exec markdownlint-cli2 docs/images/install/install_from_deployment.png` produces the same flood of violations seen in the failing CI run on #25314. - First revision of this PR (workflow with `**.md`-only filter, single `changed-files` step) was green on `Docs CI`; the current revision is structurally equivalent for the existing tools and just renames the step id and adds the per-tool comment.
Decision log - Considered adding `ignores` to `.markdownlint-cli2.jsonc` to skip non-Markdown files. Rejected: `markdownlint-cli2` treats `ignores` as a discovery-time glob filter and still lints files passed explicitly on the command line, so it would not have fixed the failure. - Considered narrowing the existing single `changed-files` step's `files` filter to `**.md` only. Rejected as the final shape: it solves the immediate bug but conflates "which Markdown files changed" with "should the workflow run at all", so adding a second tool with a different file set later (e.g. an image linter) would require contorting or duplicating that step. - Chose the per-tool-filter shape so adding a future tool is additive: one new `changed-*` step plus one new step that consumes its output, with no edits to existing steps.
## Disclosure Opened on behalf of @nickvigilante by Coder Agents. --- .github/workflows/docs-ci.yaml | 33 ++++++++++++++++++++++----------- 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) diff --git a/.github/workflows/docs-ci.yaml b/.github/workflows/docs-ci.yaml index 83d8cc674d..8df9850f08 100644 --- a/.github/workflows/docs-ci.yaml +++ b/.github/workflows/docs-ci.yaml @@ -34,27 +34,38 @@ jobs: - name: Setup Node uses: ./.github/actions/setup-node + # Per-tool changed-files filters. Each tool gets its own `changed-*` + # step scoped to the files it processes, keeping workflow-level `paths:` + # broad. Adding a tool (e.g. image linter) only needs a new step pair. - uses: tj-actions/changed-files@22103cc46bda19c2b464ffe86db46df6922fd323 # v45.0.7 - id: changed-files + id: changed-md with: files: | - docs/** **.md separator: "," + # Both downstream tools take file paths as argv. `tj-actions/changed-files` + # joins paths with `separator: ","`, which the shell does not split on, so + # run the output through `tr ',' '\n' | xargs -d '\n'` to hand each path to + # the tool as a distinct argument. This tolerates filenames containing + # spaces and prevents silent fallbacks: `markdownlint-cli2` would treat a + # comma-joined string as a single non-matching glob, and + # `markdown-table-formatter` would fall back to scanning every `.md` in + # the working tree when invoked with no positional args. + # + # `printf '%s\n'` is used instead of `echo` so a hypothetical leading + # `-e` or `-n` in a path is treated as data, not a bash builtin flag. + - name: lint - if: steps.changed-files.outputs.any_changed == 'true' + if: steps.changed-md.outputs.any_changed == 'true' run: | - # shellcheck disable=SC2086 - pnpm exec markdownlint-cli2 $ALL_CHANGED_FILES + printf '%s\n' "$ALL_CHANGED_FILES" | tr ',' '\n' | xargs -d '\n' pnpm exec markdownlint-cli2 env: - ALL_CHANGED_FILES: ${{ steps.changed-files.outputs.all_changed_files }} + ALL_CHANGED_FILES: ${{ steps.changed-md.outputs.all_changed_files }} - name: fmt - if: steps.changed-files.outputs.any_changed == 'true' + if: steps.changed-md.outputs.any_changed == 'true' run: | - # markdown-table-formatter requires a space separated list of files - # shellcheck disable=SC2086 - echo $ALL_CHANGED_FILES | tr ',' '\n' | pnpm exec markdown-table-formatter --check + printf '%s\n' "$ALL_CHANGED_FILES" | tr ',' '\n' | xargs -d '\n' pnpm exec markdown-table-formatter --check env: - ALL_CHANGED_FILES: ${{ steps.changed-files.outputs.all_changed_files }} + ALL_CHANGED_FILES: ${{ steps.changed-md.outputs.all_changed_files }}