actions / actions/runner

Warn when someone uses ${{ steps.name.outputs.something }} instead of ${{ steps.id.outputs.something }}

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enhancement future Runner Feature
Dominant language
C#
Stars
6.3k
Forks
1.4k
Avg merge
1d 16h
Merged PRs (30d)
24

Description

Describe the enhancement
GitHub workflows/actions objects have name and id fields, and sometimes one needs to use one and sometimes one needs to use the other. I lost quite a bit of time because I had given a step a name instead of an id.

Note that the basic documentation is here:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#jobsjob_idoutputs

jobs.<job_id>.outputs

Code Snippet
One of the examples in the same document is wrong:
https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#example-7

environment:
  name: production_environment
  url: ${{ steps.step_name.outputs.url_output }}

Additional information

Expected behavior:
If there's a request for ${{ steps.step_name.outputs }} and there is no such id: step_name, check to see if there's a name: step_name and produce a warning suggesting that the workflow should be changed to assign that step_name to the id field.

Do not auto-correct for this botch (we don't need an IE-DOM-ism).

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the linked GitHub Actions workflow-syntax documentation, especially jobs.<job_id>.outputs and example 7, then trace where the runner resolves steps..outputs. Add coverage for the name-without-id case and confirm the runner emits a warning without rewriting the workflow.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp, github-actions
Domain
ci-cd, tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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