[grafana-otel-advisor] OTel improvement: add github.run_attempt to resource attributes

[github-actions]

OTel Instrumentation Improvement: Add github.run_attempt to resource attributes

Analysis Date: 2026-05-06
Priority: Medium
Effort: Small (< 2h)

Problem

github.run_attempt is absent from the OTLP resource attributes emitted by all gh-aw spans. It exists only as a span-level attribute (gh-aw.run.attempt) but is never promoted to the resource block via buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes in send_otlp_span.cjs (line 300).

Because github.run_id is constant across all retry attempts of the same workflow run, a DevOps engineer watching retried workflows in Grafana Tempo cannot answer: "Which attempt is this trace from, and how does its outcome compare to the previous attempt?" Filtering or grouping by attempt number at the resource level is not possible — you must parse each span individually and look for gh-aw.run.attempt.

Why This Matters (DevOps Perspective)

GitHub Actions workflows are frequently re-run on transient failures. When a workflow is re-run:

• All attempts share the same github.run_id
• Only github.run_attempt distinguishes attempt 1 from attempt 2 or 3

Without github.run_attempt in the resource attributes, backends like Grafana Tempo, Datadog, and Honeycomb cannot group traces by retry attempt at the resource level. This means:

• No retry-rate dashboards: You can't build a panel counting "runs that required > 1 attempt" without a per-span scan
• Confusing trace search: Two attempts of the same run appear identical when filtering by github.run_id, with no resource-level differentiator
• Slower MTTR: An on-call engineer looking at a retried failure can't immediately confirm whether the trace is from the first or second attempt without inspecting individual span attributes

Adding github.run_attempt to the resource block (the standard home for static execution context) puts it alongside github.run_id, making the (run_id, run_attempt) pair — the canonical unique key for a workflow execution — fully present at the resource level.

Current Behavior

buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes in send_otlp_span.cjs accepts runId but not runAttempt:

// Current: actions/setup/js/send_otlp_span.cjs (lines 300–325)
function buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes({
  repository, runId, eventName = "", ref = "", refName = "",
  headRef = "", sha = "", workflowRef = "", staged
}) {
  const resourceAttributes = [
    buildAttr("github.repository", repository),
    buildAttr("github.run_id", runId),
    // ... github.event_name, github.ref, github.ref_name, etc.
    // github.run_attempt is never added here
  ];
  resourceAttributes.push(buildAttr("deployment.environment", staged ? "staging" : "production"));
  return resourceAttributes;
}

runAttempt is read by both callers (sendJobSetupSpan line 860, sendJobConclusionSpan line 1091) and correctly emitted as the span attribute gh-aw.run.attempt, but is not passed to buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes at line 909 or line 1209.

Proposed Change

Three surgical edits to actions/setup/js/send_otlp_span.cjs:

// 1. Add runAttempt parameter to buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes (line 300)
function buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes({
  repository, runId, runAttempt = "", eventName = "", ref = "", refName = "",
  headRef = "", sha = "", workflowRef = "", staged
}) {
  const resourceAttributes = [
    buildAttr("github.repository", repository),
    buildAttr("github.run_id", runId),
  ];
  if (runAttempt) {
    resourceAttributes.push(buildAttr("github.run_attempt", runAttempt));
  }
  // ... rest of function unchanged

// 2. Pass runAttempt in sendJobSetupSpan (line 909)
const resourceAttributes = buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes({
  repository, runId, runAttempt, eventName, ref, refName, headRef, sha, workflowRef, staged
});

// 3. Pass runAttempt in sendJobConclusionSpan (line 1209)
const resourceAttributes = buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes({
  repository, runId, runAttempt, eventName, ref, refName, headRef, sha, workflowRef, staged
});

Expected Outcome

After this change:

• In Grafana Tempo / Honeycomb / Datadog: Resource-level filtering by github.run_attempt becomes available. You can build dashboards grouping traces by attempt number, identify workflows that needed retries, and compare error rates between first and subsequent attempts.
• In the JSONL mirror: The resource block will include {"key":"github.run_attempt","value":{"stringValue":"1"}} for every span, making offline debugging artifacts self-describing.
• For on-call engineers: Opening a trace in Tempo immediately shows whether you're looking at attempt 1 or a retry attempt — no need to expand individual spans to find gh-aw.run.attempt.

Implementation Steps

• Add runAttempt = "" to the buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes destructured parameter list
• Add if (runAttempt) { resourceAttributes.push(buildAttr("github.run_attempt", runAttempt)); } after the github.run_id entry
• Pass runAttempt in the buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes call inside sendJobSetupSpan (~line 909)
• Pass runAttempt in the buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes call inside sendJobConclusionSpan (~line 1209)
• Update actions/setup/js/action_otlp.test.cjs to assert github.run_attempt is present in resource attributes
• Run cd actions/setup/js && npx vitest run to confirm tests pass
• Run make fmt to ensure formatting
• Open a PR referencing this issue

Evidence from Live Grafana Data

Sampled from the local OTLP JSONL mirror for workflow run §25418210458:

trace_id:  631a342fdd95f531a96ead6d14b185b6
span_name: gh-aw.agent.setup

Resource attributes actually present (11 attributes):

service.name, service.version, github.repository, github.run_id,
github.actions.run_url, github.event_name, github.ref, github.ref_name,
github.sha, github.workflow_ref, deployment.environment

github.run_attempt → ABSENT from resource

Span attributes (12 attributes) include gh-aw.run.attempt: "1" — confirming the value is available but only emitted at the span level, not promoted to the resource block.

Attribute checklist against resource block:

Attribute	Present
service.version	✅ 2.1.126
github.repository	✅ github/gh-aw
github.event_name	✅ schedule
github.run_id	✅ 25418210458
deployment.environment	✅ production
github.run_attempt	❌ missing

Related Files

• actions/setup/js/send_otlp_span.cjs — buildGitHubActionsResourceAttributes (line 300), sendJobSetupSpan (line 909), sendJobConclusionSpan (line 1209)
• actions/setup/js/action_otlp.test.cjs — resource attribute assertions to update

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