[self-care:open-source-failures] Safe-output processing is failing across self-care workflows

Multiple workflows in `githubnext/gh-aw-cao` are failing in the shared `Process Safe Outputs` step after agent work completes, which is interrupting durable output publication across several workflow families. The bounded snapshot supports a shared post-processing fault, but not whether the root cause is payload generation, routing, or downstream safe-output handling.

**Action:** CAO maintainers should isolate the shared safe-outputs failure path and ship the smallest fix or guardrail; accept when fresh runs of the affected workflows complete `Process Safe Outputs` successfully.

Agent prompt
Investigate repeated `Process Safe Outputs` failures in githubnext/gh-aw-cao affecting pr-sous-chef, self-care-data-acquisition-audit, and software-development-practices-github-well-architected. Compare their generated safe-output payloads and routing, identify the shared failing condition, implement the smallest safe fix or validation guardrail, and confirm with fresh successful runs of each affected workflow family.

- Severity: P1
- Repository: `githubnext/gh-aw-cao`
- Normalized signature: `Process Safe Outputs`
- Affected workflows: `pr-sous-chef`, `self-care-data-acquisition-audit`, `software-development-practices-github-well-architected`
- Runs in bounded snapshot: 11
- Evidence-supported cause: Multiple workflows complete agent work but fail in the shared safe-outputs processing step; the bounded snapshot does not identify whether the fault is payload generation, routing, or downstream safe-output handling.
- Confidence: medium
- Representative runs:
- https://github.com/githubnext/gh-aw-cao/actions/runs/33971998496
- https://github.com/githubnext/gh-aw-cao/actions/runs/33971970796
- https://github.com/githubnext/gh-aw-cao/actions/runs/33971947313

Cluster evidence

The same enriched failure step appears across three workflow files in the same repository. Conclusion-only failures from those workflows were treated only as corroborating recurrence when timing was consistent with the enriched signature.

### Control Plane
- Correlation ID: `33974240536-228`
- Central repository: `githubnext/gh-aw-cao`
- Control-plane run: https://github.com/githubnext/gh-aw-cao/actions/runs/33974240536

> Generated by [SelfCare / Open Source Failures](https://github.com/githubnext/gh-aw-cao/actions/runs/33974407114) · pi · gpt54 · 20.1 AIC · ⌖ 8.55 AIC · ⊞ 8.3K · [◷](https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Agithubnext%2Fgh-aw-cao+is%3Aissue+%22gh-aw-workflow-call-id%3A+githubnext%2Fgh-aw-cao%2Fself-care-open-source-failures%22&type=issues)
> - [x] expires on Sep 19, 2026, 3:24 PM UTC

Start with the three affected workflow families: pr-sous-chef, self-care-data-acquisition-audit, and software-development-practices-github-well-architected. Compare their generated safe-output payloads and routing around the shared Process Safe Outputs step, using the representative runs as evidence. Done means the smallest safe fix or validation guardrail is in place and fresh runs of all affected workflow families complete that step successfully.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.