attempt_ci_fix cannot handle commit message formatting failures

[abhiramnarayana]

Problem

When CI fails due to commit message validation (e.g., title too long, missing topic prefix, missing Signed-off-by trailer), the attempt_ci_fix mechanism in ci_evaluator.py is unable to resolve the failure. It correctly identifies the issue from CI logs but can only modify files and create new commits — it cannot amend or squash existing commit messages.

This results in:

1. Agent analyzes CI log → correctly identifies commit message formatting is the problem
2. Agent attempts to fix → but there are no file changes to make
3. git commit fails with: nothing added to commit but untracked files present
4. CI fix exhausts its attempts → workflow escalates to forge:blocked
5. Manual intervention required (squash commits, reformat message, force-push)

Reproduction

1. Target a repository with a check-commits CI gate that enforces:
   • Title length ≤ 72 characters
   • Lowercase topic prefix (e.g., ipv6:, openflow:)
   • Signed-off-by trailer
2. Run the bug workflow through implementation → PR creation
3. Forge generates commits with messages like: [OSPRH-33668] Fix EPIPE errors in openstack-network-exporter OpenFlow stats collection (too long, no topic prefix, no Signed-off-by)
4. CI git-commits check fails
5. attempt_ci_fix analyzes the failure, recognizes it's a commit message issue, but cannot fix it
6. Workflow blocks after exhausting attempts

Observed CI errors

./check-commits 9013baa..e438ab0
error [1/2] title is longer than 72 characters, please make it shorter
error [1/2] title lacks a lowercase topic prefix (e.g. 'ipv6:')
error [1/2] 'Signed-off-by: Forge <forge@example.com>' trailer is missing
0/2 valid commits
make: *** [Makefile:47: check-commits] Error 1

Worker log

forge.workflow.nodes.ci_evaluator - ERROR - CI fix failed for OSPRH-32382: Git command failed: git commit -m [OSPRH-32382] fix: address CI failures (attempt 1) --author Forge <forge@example.com>
On branch forge/osprh-32382
nothing added to commit but untracked files present

Expected Behavior

attempt_ci_fix should be able to handle commit message formatting failures by:

• Amending the last commit with a corrected message (if safe to do so)
• Or squashing and rewriting commits with properly formatted messages
• Or at minimum, detecting that the failure is a commit message issue (not a code issue) and providing a clear actionable error message to the user instead of exhausting retry attempts

Suggested Approaches

1. Detect commit-message-only failures early: If CI log analysis determines the failure is purely about commit formatting (no code changes needed), use git commit --amend or git rebase to fix messages directly.

2. Teach the container agent commit conventions: Include the target repo's commit message rules (from CI config or .commitlintrc) in the implementation prompt so Forge generates compliant messages from the start.

3. Graceful degradation: If the fix requires commit amendment and the agent can't do it, immediately escalate with a specific message like "CI failed due to commit message format — please amend the commit message to match repository conventions" rather than exhausting all retry attempts with empty commits.

Context

Encountered while running the bug workflow on OSPRH-32382 against openstack-k8s-operators/openstack-network-exporter (PR #53). The repository's check-commits Makefile target enforces conventional commit format. Manual fix required squashing 2 commits into 1 with a compliant message and force-pushing.