Pattern quality: Show concrete YAML schema for skip-if-match/expires in generated prompts

[github-actions]

What was evaluated

Read /tmp/gh-aw/data/generated-patterns-and-prompts.json (6 archetype samples), patterns/manifest.json, patterns/workflow-generation.json, patterns/archetypes/*.json, and the generator (src/js/workflow.js, src/js/patterns.js). Cross-checked the generated status-report-daily and dependency-monitor-daily prompts against gh-aw's actual reference docs (workflow-patterns.md, report.md, triggers.md) fetched live from github/gh-aw.

Recurring quality issue found

Four archetypes (status-report, security-scanner, code-improvement, dependency-monitor, documentation-updater, code-health-auditor) carry a tip telling the downstream agent to add skip-if-match and expires to prevent duplicate scheduled findings. That tip already reaches the generated prompt (doNotConstraints/duplicatePreventionTips in workflow.js), but only as prose:

"Prevent duplicate scheduled findings, for example: Use skip-if-match and expires on create-issue so scheduled reports don't accumulate as duplicate open issues"

The prompt's own "Suggested workflow file" starter YAML never demonstrates this — its safe-outputs: block is a bare create-issue: with no skip-if-match/expires anywhere. Per gh-aw's actual syntax, skip-if-match is a sibling key of schedule: under on:, while expires/max nest under the specific safe-output key (e.g. create-issue:) inside safe-outputs:. With prose-only guidance and no example, a downstream agent generating the real workflow has no concrete model and is likely to misplace these fields (e.g. put skip-if-match under safe-outputs:) or drop the feature entirely — silently reintroducing the exact duplicate-issue-spam problem the tip exists to prevent.

What changed

In src/js/workflow.js, immediately after the existing "Prevent duplicate scheduled findings" bullet, the generated prompt now includes a concrete YAML snippet showing the correct schema:

on:
  schedule: every 30 minutes
  skip-if-match: 'is:issue is:open "gh-aw-workflow-id: <workflow-id>" in:body'
safe-outputs:
  create-issue:
    max: 1
    expires: 7

This only appears for archetypes whose pattern tips already mention skip-if-match/expires/tracker-id, so it doesn't add noise to prompts that don't need it.

Added a targeted test in test/workflow.test.js asserting the schema snippet appears with the correct key nesting for the status-report archetype.

Validation

• npm test — 205/205 passed (added 1 new test)
• npm run build — succeeded

Follow-ups deliberately left out

• Not adding a similar structured example for other duplicate-prevention primitives (tracker-id, close-older-issues) — scoping this fix to the specific ambiguity found in the sampled prompts.
• Not regenerating patterns/ from scan data, per task constraints.

Generated by Pattern Quality Eval · auto · 101.1 AIC · ⌖ 7.18 AIC · ⊞ 7.6K · ◷

[github-actions]

Reviewer kind: matt-pocock (JS-only change to prompt-generation logic).

Reviewed the diff in src/js/workflow.js and the added test in test/workflow.test.js. The change adds a concrete YAML schema example clarifying skip-if-match (sibling of schedule: under on:) vs expires/max (nested under the safe-output key). This is a template-string addition with no control-flow changes, guarded behind the existing duplicateTips.length check, and is covered by a new targeted test that asserts the exact string shape. No correctness, type-safety, or test-coverage issues found — no blocking feedback.

Generated by Specialist PR Review for #180 · auto · 15.2 AIC · ⌖ 1.94 AIC · ⊞ 7.9K