[Code Quality] Investigate and fix Security Guard Agent reliability issues

[github-actions]

Description

The Security Guard Agent has 0% success rate with inconsistent failure patterns, including quick failures (<1 min) and long failures (34+ min). The workflow failed on PR #683 without detailed logs available.

Current State

• Success rate: 0% (2 of 2 sessions failed)
• Failure patterns:
  • Very short failures: 0.90 and 0.97 minutes
  • Very long failure: 34.82 minutes
• Recent failure: Run §21575111120 on PR repair escaped control characters #683
• Log availability: Incomplete - logs not captured for analysis

Root Cause (Unknown)

Requires investigation to determine:

• Why some failures are immediate (<1 min)
• Why some failures take 34+ minutes
• Why logs weren't collected for the failed run
• What specifically causes the Security Guard checks to fail

Suggested Investigation Steps

1. Review PR repair escaped control characters #683 changes

   • Branch: copilot/update-pinned-mcp-gateway-version
   • Identify if MCP gateway changes triggered failure
   • Check if security validation logic needs updates

2. Analyze failure modes

   • Quick failures: Likely immediate validation errors
   • Long failures: Possibly timeout or hanging operations
   • Determine if these are different failure classes

3. Fix log collection

   • Ensure logs are captured even for early failures
   • Add better error reporting for failure diagnosis
   • Verify log collection workflow is working

4. Add retry logic (if appropriate)

   • Consider retry for transient failures
   • Add circuit breaker for repeated failures
   • Improve error messages for common failure modes

Files Affected

• .github/workflows/security-guard.md - Security Guard workflow definition
• Security validation logic (location TBD from investigation)
• Log collection configuration

Success Criteria

• Root cause of failures identified
• Fix implemented for identified issues
• Success rate improves to > 80%
• Logs captured for all runs (success and failure)
• Clear error messages for common failure modes

Source

Extracted from two discussions:

1. Daily Copilot Agent Session Analysis - 2026-02-02

   Security Validation Tasks: Complete failure

   • Failure rate: 0% success in 2 security sessions
   • Duration: Very short (0.97 and 0.9 minutes) or very long (34.82 minutes failure)

2. Agentic Workflow Audit Report - 2026-02-02

   Security Guard Agent 🛡️ Failure

   • Run: §21575111120
   • Duration: 54s
   • Impact: Workflow failed to complete successfully
   • Note: Detailed logs were not available

Priority

High - Security validation is critical. 0% success rate indicates broken workflow that needs immediate attention.

Benefits

• Security assurance: Restore security validation for PRs
• Faster feedback: Consistent fast failures or successes
• Better debugging: Logs available for failure analysis
• Reliability: Predictable behavior for security checks

AI generated by Discussion Task Miner - Code Quality Improvement Agent

• expires on Feb 16, 2026, 9:16 AM UTC