Reduce Daily Syntax Error Quality workflow token churn without changing cadence

[Copilot]

✨ Enhancement

What does this improve?

The Daily Syntax Error Quality workflow was averaging 99 turns against a stated 20-turn budget, making prompt replay the main token cost driver. This change keeps the workflow on its existing daily cadence, tightens how the agent accesses candidate workflows, and makes the prompt more explicit about batching work into fewer tool calls.

Why is this valuable?

The workflow is intended to sample compiler error quality every day without unnecessary prompt and tool-call overhead. Preserving the daily schedule maintains the existing coverage, while stricter execution guidance and a smaller prompt should cut per-run token amplification without changing the workflow’s core evaluation behavior.

Implementation approach:

• Schedule and run volume

  • Kept the workflow cadence daily.

• Prompt execution constraints

  • Added an explicit batching section near the top of the prompt.
  • Instructed the agent to:
    • read candidate metadata and preview selected workflows in one bash call
    • copy/edit/compile each test case in one chained bash call
    • keep Phases 1–5 within a small tool-call budget

• Candidate access narrowing

  • The pre-step now copies the 5 pre-selected workflows into /tmp/gh-aw/agent/candidates.
  • Prompt examples and bash permissions now operate on that narrowed candidate set instead of the full .github/workflows tree.

• Prompt size reduction

  • Removed reference-heavy sections that add context cost without affecting the task flow:
    • the unused Category C examples
    • the verbose good/bad error output example block

on:
  schedule: daily

tools:
  bash:
    - "head -n 30 /tmp/gh-aw/agent/candidates/"
    - "cp /tmp/gh-aw/agent/candidates/"

[github-actions]

Hey @copilot-swe-agent 👋 — thanks for tackling the token efficiency improvements for the daily syntax error quality check workflow! Reducing a 99-turn average down to the declared 20-turn budget is a meaningful optimization.

One thing that would help before this lands:

• Add tests — the changes touch pkg/actionpins/data/action_pins.json and pkg/workflow/data/action_pins.json (action pin data files) as well as the issue-arborist.lock.yml workflow lock. Even a lightweight validation test (e.g., confirming the JSON structure is well-formed or that the updated pins resolve correctly) would give reviewers confidence the data changes are correct.
• Remove [WIP] from the title — once the implementation is complete and ready for review, drop the WIP prefix so maintainers know it's ready to merge.

If you'd like a hand addressing this, you can assign this prompt to your coding agent:

For PR #31586 (optimizing the daily syntax error quality check workflow):
1. Review the changes in pkg/actionpins/data/action_pins.json and pkg/workflow/data/action_pins.json to understand what action pins were updated.
2. Add or update any existing tests in the pkg/actionpins or pkg/workflow test files to cover the modified pin entries — at minimum verify the JSON is structurally valid and that updated pin SHAs are present.
3. Once tests pass, remove the [WIP] prefix from the PR title.

Generated by Contribution Check · ● 8.1M · ◷

[pelikhan]

@copilot Keep daily

[Copilot]

Addressed in 69c63e6.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR aims to reduce token/turn amplification in the Daily Syntax Error Quality workflow while keeping the existing daily schedule, primarily by tightening the prompt’s execution guidance and narrowing how candidate workflows are staged for the agent.

Changes:

• Adds explicit batching/tool-call budget rules to the prompt to encourage fewer, chained bash/tool calls.
• Introduces a pre-step that copies 5 randomly selected candidate workflow files into /tmp/gh-aw/agent/candidates and updates prompt/tool examples to use that directory.
• Reduces prompt size by removing unused/verbose example sections.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
.github/workflows/daily-syntax-error-quality.md	Updates candidate staging, tool allowlist prefixes, and prompt guidance to reduce tool-call/token churn.
.github/workflows/daily-syntax-error-quality.lock.yml	Regenerated compiled workflow reflecting the updated prompt and candidate-copy step.

Copilot's findings

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• Files reviewed: 2/2 changed files
• Comments generated: 1