CI Workflow Optimization Plan

Executive Summary

After aggressive analysis of all 11 CI workflows and 4 supporting actions, identified 10 optimization opportunities ranging from critical to low priority. Estimated total savings: 30-50% reduction in CI time and significant reduction in log noise.

Critical Optimizations

1. Remove Verbose Diagnostics from Actions (Est. savings: 1-2 min/workflow)

Problem: build-module and test-module actions have extensive diagnostic steps that run on every invocation, adding significant log noise and time.

Files affected:

.github/actions/build-module/action.yaml (lines 163-227)
.github/actions/test-module/action.yaml (lines 116-210)

Changes:

# Remove or make conditional (only on failure):
- Pre-Upload Diagnostics (build-module)
- Post-Upload Diagnostics (build-module)
- Pre-Download Diagnostics (test-module)
- Post-Download Diagnostics (test-module)

Action: Delete diagnostic steps or add if: failure() condition.

2. Merge Build+Test Jobs for Simple Modules (Est. savings: 30-60s/workflow)

Problem: Separate build and test jobs incur overhead:

Job startup time (~15-30s each)
Artifact upload from build job
Artifact download to test job
Redundant checkout in test job

Workflows affected (simple Go modules with no cross-platform tests):

ci-eac-core.yaml
ci-eac-commands.yaml
ci-eac-mcp-commands.yaml
ci-vscode-ext-commit.yaml
ci-docs.yaml
ci-books.yaml

Proposed structure:

jobs:
  build-and-test:
    name: Build & Test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - name: Build Module
        uses: ./.github/actions/build-module
        with:
          module: eac-commands
          upload-artifact: 'false'  # Don't upload, test runs locally
      - name: Test Module
        uses: ./.github/actions/test-module
        with:
          module: eac-commands
          download-artifact: 'false'  # Already have local artifacts

Keep separate for:

ci-r2r-cli.yaml - needs cross-platform tests (Linux + Windows)
ci-ext-eac.yaml - complex container workflow
ci-scripts-* - need cross-platform tests

3. Eliminate Double Commands Binary Build in change-trigger (Est. savings: 30-60s)

Problem: change-trigger.yaml builds commands binary in build-tooling, then detect-changes downloads it again. Unnecessary artifact round-trip.

Current flow:

build-tooling → uploads commands-binary artifact
detect-changes → downloads commands-binary artifact

Proposed flow:

build-tooling → build + upload artifact
detect-changes → download artifact (only if not local)

Or better: Merge build-tooling into detect-changes since they run sequentially anyway.

Medium Optimizations

4. Remove Legacy "(stage 1-7)" from Workflow Names

Problem: All CI workflow names include (stage 1-7) which is legacy from layered execution and no longer meaningful.

Change: Remove from all 11 CI workflows.

# Before
name: "ci-eac-commands (stage 1-7)"

# After
name: "ci-eac-commands"

5. Remove Dead Code in ci-r2r-cli.yaml

Problem: Lines 79-84 "Restore Executable Permissions" runs after tests complete but serves no purpose.

# DELETE THIS (dead code)
- name: Restore Executable Permissions
  run: |
    chmod +x out/build/r2r-cli/r2r-linux-amd64
    chmod +x out/build/r2r-cli/r2r-linux-arm64
    chmod +x out/build/r2r-cli/r2r-darwin-amd64
    chmod +x out/build/r2r-cli/r2r-darwin-arm64

6. Remove Auto-Release Trigger from docs/books CI

Problem: ci-docs.yaml and ci-books.yaml auto-trigger release workflows on main branch. This is aggressive - releases should be explicit.

Files affected:

ci-docs.yaml (lines 80-101)
ci-books.yaml (lines 80-100)

Action: Remove trigger-release job entirely. Releases should be manual or via changelog-based triggering.

7. Simplify test-module Artifact Handling

Problem: test-module always downloads build artifacts, even when running in same workflow where build just completed.

Change: Add skip-download mode for in-workflow testing.

# test-module/action.yaml - add new mode
inputs:
  use-local-artifacts:
    description: 'Use local artifacts from build step (skip download)'
    default: 'false'

Low Priority Optimizations

8. Consolidate Workflow Input Definitions

Problem: All 11 CI workflows have identical on: trigger definitions (40+ lines each). Total duplication: ~440 lines.

Option A: Accept duplication (YAML doesn't support includes) Option B: Generate workflows from template

Recommendation: Accept for now, document pattern.

9. Reduce setup-commands Complexity

Problem: 258-line action with complex Windows cross-compilation logic.

Observation: Windows cross-compilation happens on every Linux build, even if no Windows tests needed.

Potential fix: Only cross-compile when workflow explicitly needs Windows.

10. Remove r2r-eac CI (Questionable Value)

Problem: ci-r2r-eac.yaml is a "static module" CI that only validates config and triggers release. It adds a CI workflow that doesn't actually test anything.

Current behavior:

validate:  # Just checks module exists in config
trigger-release:  # Auto-triggers on main

Consideration: Is this necessary? The release bundle doesn't need CI validation.

Implementation Priority

Priority	Optimization	Est. Savings	Complexity
1	Remove verbose diagnostics	1-2 min/workflow	Low
2	Merge build+test jobs	30-60s/workflow	Medium
3	Fix change-trigger double build	30-60s	Low
4	Remove "(stage 1-7)" names	Cosmetic	Trivial
5	Remove r2r-cli dead code	Cosmetic	Trivial
6	Remove auto-release triggers	Behavior change	Low
7	Simplify test-module downloads	10-20s/workflow	Medium

Estimated Total Impact

Before optimization (typical eac-commands CI):

build-tooling: 45s
build: 90s (including 30s diagnostics)
test: 120s (including 40s artifact download + diagnostics)
Total: ~4.5 minutes

After optimization:

build-and-test (merged): 150s
Total: ~2.5 minutes

Savings: ~45% per simple module workflow