workflows: Let a label pre-authorize protected-file edits - #20
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drafter.md and fix.md both fall back to gh-aw's request_review policy whenever an agent-authored change touches protected files (README.md, the workflow definitions themselves, actions-lock.json, etc.) -- see issue #19, where the label-standardization drafter run got stuck there because renaming labels necessarily touches the .md/.lock.yml sources and README.md. Some tasks legitimately need that access (the label rename is a good example). gh-aw's protected-files.policy field accepts a GitHub Actions expression string, so instead of hardcoding a literal we key it off a label: agent/workflow-edits-allowed on the issue -> drafter.md may write protected files for that run; on the PR -> fix.md may too. The label has to be present on the triggering issue/PR before the event fires, so it's a human's decision made ahead of time, not something the agent can grant itself mid-run: neither workflow's safe-outputs expose add-labels, and both hold issues:read/ pull-requests:read rather than write. Absent the label, the expression falls back to request_review, so this changes nothing for ordinary agent-code runs. Assisted-by: https://github.com/cgwalters/cgwalters#llms
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The && ternary idiom (cond && 'allowed' || 'request_review') broke drafter.lock.yml and fix.lock.yml outright: gh-aw's compiler JSON-encodes this policy string with Go's default HTML-escaping, turning the literal && into \u0026\u0026 inside the heredoc-embedded config blob. GitHub Actions' expression parser can't parse that, so the whole workflow file was rejected as invalid on push -- see https://github.com/cgwalters/gh-aw-fullsend-mini/actions/runs/30547055376 (zero jobs even attempted; both drafter.md and fix.md were effectively disabled since the merge of #20). Switch to GitHub Actions' case() function, which expresses the same if/else without &, <, or > -- the only characters Go's json.Marshal HTML-escapes by default -- so it survives gh-aw's config serialization intact. Assisted-by: https://github.com/cgwalters/cgwalters#llms
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Follow-up from #19: the label-standardization drafter run got stuck at
request_reviewbecause renaming labels necessarily touchesREADME.mdand the.md/.lock.ymlworkflow sources, which are allprotected files.
drafter.mdandfix.mdnow key theirprotected-files.policyoffthe
agent/workflow-edits-allowedlabel (a supported gh-aw GitHubActions expression string), instead of hardcoding
request_review:drafter.mdruns -> that run maywrite protected files without the review gate.
fix.mdgets the same treatmentfor follow-up commits.
Absent the label, both fall back to
request_reviewexactly asbefore, so this changes nothing for ordinary
agent-coderuns. Thelabel has to already be on the issue/PR when the triggering event
fires — neither workflow's safe-outputs expose
add-labels, and bothhold read-only
issues/pull-requestspermissions — so an agentcan't grant itself this mid-run.
See "Letting the agent edit protected files" in README.md for the
full writeup.
The
agent/workflow-edits-allowedlabel has already been created onthe repo.