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name update-workflow-versions
description How to manually regenerate the compiled agentic workflow .lock.yml files when the gh-aw Version Check workflow reports version drift. All workflows track the newest github/gh-aw release or prerelease.

Updating Agentic Workflow Versions

Use this skill when the gh-aw Version Check workflow (.github/workflows/gh-aw-version-check.yml) opens a "Workflow version drift" issue, or whenever you need to bump the versions the compiled workflow .lock.yml files are pinned to.

There is no automation for the regeneration itself — it is a deliberate, human-reviewed step. Pushing changes under .github/workflows/ requires a token with the workflows permission, which the built-in GITHUB_TOKEN lacks, so a maintainer (or an agent with suitably-permissioned credentials) performs the recompile locally and opens a PR.

Background

Each agentic workflow source (.github/workflows/*.md) is compiled by the gh-aw compiler into a committed *.lock.yml. The version baked into a lock is whatever compiler produced it, and every workflow tracks the same gh-aw version: the newest github/gh-aw release or prerelease, whichever was published most recently. There are no per-workflow categories — a bump recompiles all the locks together.

Only the gh-aw version needs bumping. The detector version is not pinned in the locks: gh-aw emits the literal latest to install_threat_detect_binary.sh, which resolves it at runtime from GET /repos/github/gh-aw-threat-detection/releases/latest — the newest non-prerelease release. Promoting a detector release is therefore enough to put it into the smokes; no recompile is required.

1. Determine the target gh-aw version

The drift issue lists it. To confirm or resolve it yourself (any method works — gh, curl, or the GitHub Releases UI): newest github/gh-aw release or prerelease, i.e. the most recent by publish date whose tag looks like v<digit>...; ignore drafts.

For example, with gh available:

gh api repos/github/gh-aw/releases --paginate \
  --jq '.[] | select(.draft == false) | select(.tag_name | test("^v[0-9]")) | [.published_at, .tag_name] | @tsv' \
  | sort | tail -n1 | cut -f2

In the steps below, refer to this as <TARGET_GH_AW>.

2. Recompile the locks

Recompile every workflow with the same tag. The released gh aw extension is the simplest route:

gh extension install github/gh-aw --pin <TARGET_GH_AW> --force
gh aw compile --action-mode action --action-tag <TARGET_GH_AW> --no-check-update \
  .github/workflows/*.md

Building the compiler from source instead

If gh extension install is unavailable (no gh auth, offline, etc.), build gh-aw from source — but you must set both version ldflags:

git clone --depth 1 --branch <TAG> https://github.com/github/gh-aw /tmp/gh-aw-src
( cd /tmp/gh-aw-src && go build -ldflags "-X main.version=<TAG> -X main.isRelease=true" -o /tmp/gh-aw ./cmd/gh-aw )

Important

-X main.isRelease=true is not optional. cmd/gh-aw/main.go defaults isRelease to "false" and passes it to workflow.SetIsRelease(), which normalizes the emitted compiler_version / GH_AW_VERSION to dev and skips release-only generation. Locks compiled without it look superficially fine but carry dev at runtime.

Verify before compiling:

/tmp/gh-aw version   # must print the target tag, not "dev"

3. Verify and open a PR

  1. Sanity-check that only the intended version bumps changed: 
    git status --short -- .github/workflows
git diff -- .github/workflows
    Confirm each regenerated lock carries the target version in both places — they must not say dev: 
    grep -o '"compiler_version":"[^"]*"' .github/workflows/*.lock.yml
grep -n 'GH_AW_VERSION:' .github/workflows/*.lock.yml
    Re-running the gh-aw Version Check workflow after the PR merges should report no drift.
  2. Commit only the regenerated *.lock.yml files (and any intended .md changes). The compiler also refreshes .github/aw/actions-lock.json and may touch .gitattributes — that churn is expected. Open a PR describing the version bumps.
  3. Pushing workflow-file changes requires a token with the workflows permission. The built-in GITHUB_TOKEN (github-actions[bot]) is rejected for changes under .github/workflows/, so this regeneration is done by a maintainer / agent whose credentials carry that permission — not by an automated push in the version-check workflow.
  4. After merging, dispatch the top-level Smoke workflow to confirm the new versions run green.

Testing an unpromoted detector prerelease

The smokes only ever see promoted detector releases. To exercise a prerelease under AWF before promoting it, dispatch .github/workflows/replay-detection.yml with detector_source=release, detector_ref=<prerelease tag>, and use_awf=true. It downloads that exact release asset and runs it under AWF against a prior gh-aw run's artifacts.