Setting Up Test Repositories for gh-aw Agentic Workflows

Overview

Guide for setting up OSS repositories to test GitHub Agentic Workflows (gh-aw). Covers forking, initializing with gh-aw, creating workflows, and monitoring.

Workflow

1. Select and Clone Repositories

Choose small-to-medium repos with good test coverage:

•Go: fatih/color, gofrs/uuid, caarlos0/env
•Look for: existing CI, clear build commands, active maintenance

bash

mkdir -p /path/to/test-repos && cd /path/to/test-repos
gh repo clone owner/repo

2. Fork to Your Account

bash

cd repo-name
gh repo fork --remote=true
# Sets origin to your fork, upstream to original

3. Initialize with gh-aw

Known Issue: gh aw init requires TTY. If unavailable, manually create:

bash

# Create .gitattributes
echo "*.lock.yml linguist-generated=true" > .gitattributes

# Create logs gitignore
mkdir -p .github/aw/logs
echo "*" > .github/aw/logs/.gitignore
echo "!.gitignore" >> .github/aw/logs/.gitignore

# Copy actions folder from gh-aw repo (REQUIRED)
cp -r /path/to/gh-aw/actions ./actions

Critical: The actions/setup folder must exist for workflows to run.

4. Create Agentic Workflow

Create .github/workflows/build-test.md:

markdown

---
name: Build and Test
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
  workflow_dispatch:
permissions:
  contents: read
engine: copilot
network:
  allowed:
    - defaults
    - node
    - github
    - go  # or appropriate language
tools:
  bash:
    - "*"
  edit:
timeout-minutes: 10
---

# Build and Test

Instructions for building and testing the project...

Frontmatter fields:

•engine: copilot - Use Copilot as the AI engine
•network.allowed - AWF firewall domains (defaults, node, github, + language-specific)
•tools.bash - Allow all bash commands
•workflow_dispatch - Enable manual triggering

5. Compile Workflow

bash

gh aw compile .github/workflows/build-test.md
# Creates build-test.lock.yml

6. Commit and Push

bash

git add .
git commit -m "Add agentic workflow for build and test"
git push origin main

7. Add Secrets

bash

gh secret set COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN -b "your_token_here" --repo owner/repo

8. Trigger and Monitor

bash

# Manual trigger
gh workflow run build-test.lock.yml --repo owner/repo

# Monitor
gh run list --repo owner/repo --workflow=build-test.lock.yml
gh run watch --repo owner/repo <run-id>

Common Issues

Issue	Solution
`gh aw init` needs TTY	Manually create files (see Step 3)
Missing actions/setup	Copy from gh-aw repo
`pull_request: null` error	Add `types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]`
Workflow not found	Use `--repo owner/fork` flag explicitly
gh commands hit upstream	Set origin correctly with `gh repo fork --remote=true`

Go Project Workflow Example

markdown

---
name: Build and Test
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
  workflow_dispatch:
permissions:
  contents: read
engine: copilot
network:
  allowed:
    - defaults
    - node
    - github
    - go
tools:
  bash:
    - "*"
  edit:
timeout-minutes: 10
---

# Build and Test Go Project

## Instructions

1. Run `go version` to verify Go is available
2. Run `go mod download` to fetch dependencies
3. Run `go build ./...` to compile all packages
4. Run `go test -v ./...` to run all tests
5. Report build/test results