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coder/.github/workflows
Nick Vigilante 5840ac5f6e 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.

<details>
<summary>Decision log</summary>

- 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.

</details>

## Disclosure

Opened on behalf of @nickvigilante by Coder Agents.
2026-05-15 10:15:25 -04:00
..