/finops:waste

Identify GitHub Actions waste patterns and provide actionable fix suggestions. Analyzes skipped runs, bot triggers, missing concurrency groups, and missing path filters.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when...	Use a sibling instead when...
You want actionable fixes for CI cost waste — concurrency, path filters, bot guards	You need a high-level billing and health snapshot — use `/finops:overview`
You need to add `cancel-in-progress` to PR workflows	You need workflow run frequency and duration stats — use `/finops:workflows`
You are auditing skipped runs and bot-triggered noise	You are auditing cache bloat or stale caches — use `/finops:caches`
You want to fix one repo's workflow config	You want to rank waste across many repos — use `/finops:compare`

Context

Current repo URL: !git remote -v
Workflow files: !find . -path '*/.github/workflows/*' -maxdepth 3 $ -name '*.yml' -o -name '*.yaml' $

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
`repo`	Repository in owner/name format	Current repository

Execution

1. Run API-based waste analysis:

bash "${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/waste-analysis.sh" "$REPO"

2. Workflow file analysis (requires local filesystem):

echo ""
echo "=== Workflow File Analysis ==="

for f in .github/workflows/*.yml .github/workflows/*.yaml 2>/dev/null; do
  [ -f "$f" ] || continue
  name=$(basename "$f")
  issues=""

  # Check for concurrency
  if ! grep -q "concurrency:" "$f"; then
    issues="${issues}missing-concurrency "
  fi

  # Check for path filters (on push/pull_request without paths)
  if grep -qE "^\s*(push|pull_request):" "$f" && ! grep -q "paths:" "$f"; then
    issues="${issues}no-path-filter "
  fi

  # Check for bot filter
  if ! grep -q "github.event.sender.type" "$f" && ! grep -q "github.actor" "$f"; then
    issues="${issues}no-bot-filter "
  fi

  # Check for cancel-in-progress
  if grep -q "pull_request:" "$f" && ! grep -q "cancel-in-progress:" "$f"; then
    issues="${issues}no-cancel-in-progress "
  fi

  if [ -n "$issues" ]; then
    echo "  $name: $issues"
  else
    echo "  $name: OK"
  fi
done

Fix Suggestions

After analysis, provide specific fixes based on findings:

Fix: Missing Concurrency Group

# Add to workflow file at top level or per-job
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true  # For PR workflows

Fix: Bot Trigger Filter

jobs:
  build:
    # Skip if triggered by a bot
    if: github.event.sender.type != 'Bot'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps: ...

Or for specific bots:

    if: github.actor != 'dependabot[bot]' && github.actor != 'renovate[bot]'

Fix: Add Path Filters

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - 'src/**'
      - 'package.json'
      - 'package-lock.json'
    paths-ignore:
      - '**.md'
      - 'docs/**'
      - '.github/**'
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - 'src/**'
      - 'package.json'

Fix: Cancel Duplicate PR Runs

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.head_ref || github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

Output Format

=== Waste Analysis: org/repo ===

=== Skipped Runs ===
Total runs: 100
Skipped: 15 (15%)

By workflow:
  CI: 10 skipped
  CodeQL: 5 skipped

=== Bot-Triggered Runs ===
Bot-triggered: 25/100 runs

By bot:
  dependabot[bot]: 15 runs
  renovate[bot]: 10 runs

=== Workflow File Analysis ===
  ci.yml: missing-concurrency no-path-filter
  deploy.yml: OK
  codeql.yml: no-bot-filter

=== Potential Duplicate Runs ===
  Commit abc1234: 3 runs (CI, CodeQL, Security)

=== High-Frequency Workflows ===
  CI: 67 runs in sample - review trigger conditions

Agentic Optimizations

Context	Command
Skipped runs count	`gh run list --limit 100 --json conclusion --jq '[.[]
Failed runs (compact)	`gh run list --limit 50 --status failure --json name,createdAt`
Workflow file check	`bash "${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/waste-analysis.sh" "$REPO"`
Check concurrency in file	`grep -l "concurrency:" .github/workflows/*.yml`
Bot-triggered runs	`gh run list --limit 100 --json actor,conclusion --jq '[.[]

Post-actions

Offer to apply fixes: For each issue found, offer to edit the workflow file directly
Prioritize by impact: Focus on high-frequency workflows first
Test recommendations: Suggest testing changes on a feature branch first
Create tracking issue: Optionally create a GitHub issue to track optimization work

finops-waste