adaptive-enforcement-lab/work-avoidance-in-github-actions

Work Avoidance in GitHub Actions

When to Use This Skill

Apply work avoidance patterns to skip unnecessary CI/CD operations.

Skip Before Execute

Detect unchanged content, cached builds, and irrelevant paths before running expensive operations.

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When to Apply

Work avoidance is valuable in GitHub Actions when:

• Distribution workflows push files to many repositories
• Release automation bumps versions without content changes
• Scheduled jobs run regardless of whether work exists
• Monorepo builds trigger on any change but only need subset builds

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Implementation

| Pattern | Operator Manual | Engineering Pattern | | --------- | ----------------- | --------------------- | | Skip version-only changes | Content Comparison | Volatile Field Exclusion | | Skip unchanged paths | Path Filtering | N/A (native GitHub feature) | | Skip cached builds | Cache-Based Skip | Cache-Based Skip |

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Techniques

Implementation Patterns

| Pattern | Operator Manual | Engineering Pattern | | --------- | ----------------- | --------------------- | | Skip version-only changes | Content Comparison | Volatile Field Exclusion | | Skip unchanged paths | Path Filtering | N/A (native GitHub feature) | | Skip cached builds | Cache-Based Skip | Cache-Based Skip |

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Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Apply work avoidance patterns to skip unnecessary CI/CD operations.

Skip Before Execute

Detect unchanged content, cached builds, and irrelevant paths before running expensive operations.

---

When to Apply

Work avoidance is valuable in GitHub Actions when:

• Distribution workflows push files to many repositories
• Release automation bumps versions without content changes
• Scheduled jobs run regardless of whether work exists
• Monorepo builds trigger on any change but only need subset builds

---

Implementation Patterns

| Pattern | Operator Manual | Engineering Pattern | | --------- | ----------------- | --------------------- | | Skip version-only changes | Content Comparison | Volatile Field Exclusion | | Skip unchanged paths | Path Filtering | N/A (native GitHub feature) | | Skip cached builds | Cache-Based Skip | Cache-Based Skip |

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Quick Reference

Check for Meaningful Changes

See examples.md for detailed code examples.

Path-Based Filtering

on:
  push:
    paths:
      - 'src/**'
      - 'package.json'
    paths-ignore:
      - '**.md'
      - 'docs/**'

Cache-Based Skip

See examples.md for detailed code examples.

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Related

• Work Avoidance Pattern - Conceptual pattern and techniques
• File Distribution - Applies these patterns at scale
• Idempotency - Complementary pattern for safe reruns

When to Apply

Work avoidance is valuable in GitHub Actions when:

• Distribution workflows push files to many repositories
• Release automation bumps versions without content changes
• Scheduled jobs run regardless of whether work exists
• Monorepo builds trigger on any change but only need subset builds

---

Implementation Patterns

| Pattern | Operator Manual | Engineering Pattern | | --------- | ----------------- | --------------------- | | Skip version-only changes | Content Comparison | Volatile Field Exclusion | | Skip unchanged paths | Path Filtering | N/A (native GitHub feature) | | Skip cached builds | Cache-Based Skip | Cache-Based Skip |

---

Quick Reference

Check for Meaningful Changes

See examples.md for detailed code examples.

Path-Based Filtering

on:
  push:
    paths:
      - 'src/**'
      - 'package.json'
    paths-ignore:
      - '**.md'
      - 'docs/**'

Cache-Based Skip

See examples.md for detailed code examples.

---

Related

• Work Avoidance Pattern - Conceptual pattern and techniques
• File Distribution - Applies these patterns at scale
• Idempotency - Complementary pattern for safe reruns

Examples

See examples.md for code examples.

Related Patterns

• Work Avoidance Pattern
• File Distribution
• Idempotency

References

• Source Documentation
• AEL Patterns