[cli-tools-test] Daily CLI Tools Testing Session Summary - 2026-02-06

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Testing Session Summary

Date: 2026-02-06T16:32:18Z
Workflow: Daily CLI Tools Exploratory Tester
Run ID: 21757938067
Duration: ~10 minutes
Testing Coverage: 0% of intended test plan (blocked by tool access issues)

Critical Blocker

MCP Tool Access Blocked: The agentic-workflows MCP server tools (audit, logs, compile, status, list) are unavailable due to "Permission denied" errors. This completely blocks the workflow's primary testing mission.

See related issues:

• rejig docs #1: MCP Server Permission Denied Error Blocking All Testing
• Add workflow: githubnext/agentics/weekly-research #2: Inconsistent MCP Tool Availability in Copilot Agent Environment
• Add workflow: githubnext/agentics/weekly-research #3: Daily CLI Tools Tester Workflow Design Broken

Testing Attempted

Phase 1: Environment Setup and Discovery ⚠️ Partial

1.1 Verify MCP Server Availability

• ❌ agentic_workflows-status → Permission denied
• ✅ MCP logs analysis → Server healthy and operational
• ✅ Gateway status → v0.0.103, 3 servers loaded

1.2 Discover Available Workflows

• ❌ agentic_workflows-list → Tool blocked
• ✅ Bash workaround: Listed via filesystem
• ✅ Found: 146 workflow markdown files

1.3 Workflow Lock File Validation (Bash-only)

• ✅ All 146 workflows have corresponding .lock.yml files
• ✅ No missing lock files detected
• ✅ Lock files have reasonable sizes (54KB - 99KB sampled)

Phases 2-7: All Blocked ❌

Cannot proceed with core testing due to tool unavailability:

• ❌ Phase 2: Test logs command - Tool blocked
• ❌ Phase 3: Test audit command - Tool blocked
• ❌ Phase 4: Test compile command - Tool blocked
• ❌ Phase 5: Cross-command integration tests - Tools blocked
• ❌ Phase 6: Performance and reliability testing - Tools blocked
• ❌ Phase 7: Usability assessment - Cannot assess blocked tools

Phase 8: Issue Creation and Reporting ✅ Success

• ✅ Created 4 detailed GitHub issues documenting problems
• ✅ Safe-outputs tools functional
• ✅ Proper categorization and labeling

Limited Testing Results (Bash-based)

Compilation Status (Indirect Assessment)

Positive indicators:

• All 146 workflows have lock files ✅
• Lock file timestamps recent (within 24 hours) ✅
• Lock files have substantial content (not empty/corrupt) ✅

Could not validate:

• Lock file YAML syntax (grep blocked)
• Compilation errors/warnings
• Workflow metadata correctness
• Frontmatter hash validation

MCP Infrastructure Health

Gateway: ✅ Healthy

Gateway version: v0.0.103
Servers loaded: 3 (agentic_workflows, github, safeoutputs)
Status: All servers connected and responding
```

**Agentic Workflows Server**: ✅ Initialized
```
Binary path: /usr/local/bin/gh-aw
Working directory: /home/runner/work/gh-aw/gh-aw
gh CLI version: 2.63.0
Configuration: Validated successfully

Network connectivity: Cannot verify (network commands blocked)

Tool Availability Matrix

Tool/Command	Status	Notes
agentic_workflows-*	❌ Blocked	Permission denied
safeoutputs-create_issue	✅ Working	Successfully created 4 issues
bash (file operations)	✅ Working	ls, cat, find, stat functional
bash (network)	❌ Blocked	curl, netstat blocked
bash (processes)	❌ Blocked	ps, grep piped commands fail
bash (binary exec)	❌ Blocked	Cannot execute ./gh-aw
github-*	❓ Unknown	Not tested

Root Cause Analysis

Primary Issue: Permission model mismatch between workflow design and runtime environment

Contributing factors:

1. Workflow designed for full MCP tool access (not available)
2. Direct CLI access explicitly disabled (by design)
3. No fallback testing mechanism
4. Permission model undocumented/unpredictable

Why MCP tools are blocked: Unknown - requires investigation by platform team

Recommendations for Workflow Improvement

Immediate Actions

1. Add tool availability check at workflow start:

- name: Verify tools
  run: |
    agentic_workflows-status || echo "MCP tools unavailable"
    ./gh-aw --version || echo "Direct CLI unavailable"

2. Add fallback testing modes:

   • Mode 1: Full MCP tool access (preferred)
   • Mode 2: Direct CLI access (fallback)
   • Mode 3: Bash-only validation (minimal)

3. Document runtime constraints in workflow description

Medium-term Improvements

1. Test via workflow execution instead of direct tool calls:

# Instead of calling audit tool directly
# Trigger audit-workflows.md and check results

2. Use bash-based validation for what's possible:

   • Compile check: Verify lock files exist and are recent
   • Logs check: Download logs via GitHub API (if available)
   • Audit check: Parse existing audit reports from artifacts

3. Engine-specific testing: Test across multiple engines to identify permission differences

Long-term Solutions

1. Fix MCP tool permissions in Copilot agent environment
2. Document tool availability matrix per engine
3. Implement permission checks in workflow compiler/validator
4. Create integration test environment with full tool access

Metrics and Observations

Issue Reporting: ✅ 100% success rate (4/4 issues created)
Core Testing: ❌ 0% completion (all phases blocked)
Bash Workarounds: ⚠️ Minimal validation possible
MCP Infrastructure: ✅ Healthy (but inaccessible)

Performance:

• MCP gateway response time: <20ms (from logs)
• Backend server launch: ~1.4s
• Issue creation: <1s per issue

Reliability:

• Safe-outputs tools: 100% reliable
• Agentic-workflows tools: 100% blocked
• Bash commands: ~60% available (file ops work, network/exec blocked)

Conclusion

Testing Status: ❌ Failed - Cannot perform intended testing

Reason: Critical infrastructure dependency (MCP tool access) unavailable in runtime environment

Value Delivered:

• ✅ Identified and documented critical workflow design flaw
• ✅ Validated MCP infrastructure health
• ✅ Performed minimal bash-based validation
• ✅ Created actionable issues for platform team

Next Steps:

1. Platform team: Investigate MCP tool permission model
2. Workflow owner: Implement fallback testing modes
3. Team: Document tool availability constraints
4. Re-run workflow after permissions fixed

Files and Logs

Key logs examined:

• /tmp/gh-aw/mcp-logs/mcp-gateway.log - Gateway operational logs
• /tmp/gh-aw/mcp-logs/agentic_workflows.log - Server initialization
• /tmp/gh-aw/mcp-logs/stderr.log - Backend communication logs

Workflow files:

• .github/workflows/daily-cli-tools-tester.md - Workflow definition
• .github/workflows/daily-cli-tools-tester.lock.yml - Compiled workflow (54KB)

Testing artifacts: None generated (testing blocked)

AI generated by Daily CLI Tools Exploratory Tester

• expires on Feb 13, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC