Measure

Run log

You might say: job log, execution transcript, build output

The ordered record of a run's status changes, commands, tool results, warnings, and final outcome. It is the first account of what happened. An unattended agent run can also keep a decision log, with one row per step that names the decision, the reason, and the evidence.

What it does
Lets a human locate the failing step and decide whether to retry, change the task, or stop the factory.
Ask
Can someone reconstruct the run from trigger to final result without opening the runner?
Typical
Keep enough history for review and incident response. GitHub Actions retains workflow logs for 90 days by default, with repository limits from 1 to 90 or 400 days.
Trouble
The log ends before the failure, hides the command that changed state, contains a secret, or disappears when an ephemeral worker is deleted.

What to look for

  1. Timestamped steps with queued, running, and finished states
  2. Command output, warnings, exit codes, and artifact links
  3. A retention setting and a redaction marker

Connections

Sources

  1. GitHub, Managing GitHub Actions settings for a repository, Retention period for checks, workflow runs, artifacts, and logsBy default, checks, workflow runs, commit statuses, and the artifacts and log files generated by workflows are retained for 90 days before they are automatically deleted.
  2. GitHub, Self-hosted runners reference, Ephemeral runners for autoscalingThe runner application log files for ephemeral runners must be forwarded to an external log storage solution for troubleshooting and diagnostic purposes.
  3. Betsy Beyer et al., Site Reliability Engineering, Chapter 1, IntroductionNo one needs to look at this information, but it is recorded for diagnostic or forensic purposes. The expectation is that no one reads logs unless something else prompts them to do so.
  4. Lauren Tan, pstack, The morning auditEach row records the time, phase, decision, reason, an evidence pointer, and the result

Use it on your project

teardown-apply: hold "Run log" (run-log) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/software-factory/ against my project

Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.

An AI agent wrote this map with the teardown skill. It can contain errors: check the sources before you rely on a part. About and legal