payload-results-yaml

Agent Building

State management for agentic payload triage actions — you must use this skill whenever reading or writing the payload results YAML file

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/openshift-eng/ai-helpers/blob/HEAD/plugins/ci/skills/payload-results-yaml/SKILL.md

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Payload Results YAML

This skill defines the schema for the payload-results-{tag}.yaml file and provides the operations for reading and writing it. All skills in the payload triage pipeline must use this skill when interacting with the results file.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill whenever you need to:

Create a new results file (during payload-analysis)
Read candidates or their actions (during payload-revert, payload-experiment)
Append an action to a candidate (during stage-payload-reverts, payload-experimental-reverts)
Update an action's status (during payload-experimental-reverts Phase 2)

File Location

The file is always written to and read from the current working directory:

payload-results-{tag}.yaml

Where {tag} is the full payload tag with colons and slashes replaced by hyphens (e.g., payload-results-4.22.0-0.nightly-2026-02-25-152806.yaml).

Schema

metadata:
  payload_tag: "4.22.0-0.nightly-2026-02-25-152806"
  version: "4.22"
  stream: "nightly"
  architecture: "amd64"
  release_controller_url: "https://amd64.ocp.releases.ci.openshift.org/..."
  analyzed_at: "2026-02-26T10:30:00Z"
  force_accept_recommended: false

failing_jobs:
  - job_name: "periodic-ci-...-e2e-aws-ovn"
    prow_url: "https://prow.ci.openshift.org/..."
    is_aggregated: false
    underlying_job_name: ""
    failure_type: "test"
    root_cause_summary: "OVN gateway mode selection regression"
    streak_length: 5
    originating_payload_tag: "4.22.0-0.nightly-2026-02-20-150000"
    failure_pattern: "F F F F F S S"
  - job_name: "periodic-ci-...-e2e-gcp-ovn-techpreview"
    prow_url: "https://prow.ci.openshift.org/..."
    is_aggregated: false
    underlying_job_name: ""
    failure_type: "infra"
    root_cause_summary: "Pods deleted unexpectedly on build04 cluster"
    streak_length: 1
    originating_payload_tag: "4.22.0-0.nightly-2026-02-25-152806"
    failure_pattern: "F"

candidates:
  - pr_url: "https://github.com/openshift/cno/pull/2037"
    pr_number: 2037
    component: "cluster-network-operator"
    title: "Fix OVN gateway mode selection"
    confidence_score: 95
    rationale: "temporal match + component match + error references code changed"
    failing_jobs:
      - "periodic-ci-...-e2e-aws-ovn"
    actions:
      - type: "revert"
        status: "staged"
        revert_pr_url: "https://github.com/openshift/cno/pull/2038"
        revert_pr_state: "open"
        result_summary: "Revert PR opened and payload jobs triggered"
        jira_key: "TRT-1234"
        jira_url: "https://redhat.atlassian.net/browse/TRT-1234"
        payload_jobs:
          - command: "/payload-job periodic-ci-...-e2e-aws-ovn"
            test_url: "https://pr-payload-tests.ci.openshift.org/runs/ci/..."
            test_prow_url: "https://prow.ci.openshift.org/view/gs/..."

rhcos_suspects:
  - rhcos_tag: "rhel-coreos-10"
    rhcos_name: "Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS 10.2"
    package: "systemd"
    old_version: "257-23.el10"
    new_version: "257-23.el10_2.2"
    failing_jobs:
      - "periodic-ci-...-e2e-metal-ipi-ovn-ipv4"
    rationale: "systemd update correlates with variant-isolated boot timeout in RHCOS 10 jobs"

`metadata`

Written once by payload-analysis. Never modified by downstream skills.

Field	Type	Description
`payload_tag`	string	Full payload tag being analyzed
`version`	string	OCP version (e.g., `"4.22"`)
`stream`	string	`"nightly"` or `"ci"`
`architecture`	string	`"amd64"`, `"arm64"`, `"multi"`, etc.
`release_controller_url`	string	URL to the payload on the release controller
`analyzed_at`	string	ISO 8601 timestamp of when the analysis was performed
`force_accept_recommended`	bool	`true` when all failures are temporary infrastructure issues, no more than 2 blocking jobs failed, and no payload has been accepted in the stream for 18+ hours. Determined by `payload-analysis` Step 6.4.

`failing_jobs[]`

All failed blocking jobs in the payload. Written once by payload-analysis. Never modified by downstream skills. This is the authoritative list of failures — every failed blocking job appears here regardless of whether a candidate PR has been identified.

Field	Type	Description
`job_name`	string	Full periodic job name
`prow_url`	string	Prow URL for the failing run
`is_aggregated`	bool	Whether this is an aggregated job
`underlying_job_name`	string	For aggregated jobs, the underlying periodic job name; `""` otherwise
`failure_type`	string	`"test"`, `"install"`, `"upgrade"`, or `"infra"`
`root_cause_summary`	string	Brief description of the failure mode
`streak_length`	int	Consecutive payloads this job has been failing
`originating_payload_tag`	string	The payload where this job first started failing in the current streak
`failure_pattern`	string	Pass/fail history across the lookback window, most recent first (e.g., `"F F F S F F"`)

`candidates[]`

Each entry represents a PR identified as a candidate cause of payload failures. Top-level candidate fields are written once by payload-analysis and are read-only to downstream skills. The actions sub-array is mutable (see below).

Candidates reference failing jobs by job_name via the failing_jobs string array, linking back to the top-level failing_jobs[] entries.

Field	Type	Description
`pr_url`	string	GitHub PR URL
`pr_number`	int	PR number
`component`	string	OCP component name
`title`	string	PR title
`confidence_score`	int	0-100 confidence that this PR caused the failures
`rationale`	string	Explanation of why this PR is a candidate
`failing_jobs`	array of strings	Job names from the top-level `failing_jobs[]` that this candidate is blamed for
`actions`	array	Actions taken on this candidate (see below)

`candidates[].actions[]`

Actions taken on a candidate. New entries are appended by downstream skills. Existing entries may be updated in place (e.g., status, result_summary, payload_jobs) by the Update Action Status operation. An empty array means no action has been taken.

Field	Type	Description
`type`	string	`"revert"` or `"experiment"`
`status`	string	See status values below
`revert_pr_url`	string	URL of the revert PR (draft or real)
`revert_pr_state`	string	`"draft"`, `"open"`, `"merged"`, `"closed"`
`result_summary`	string	Brief description of the outcome
`jira_key`	string	TRT JIRA key (e.g., `"TRT-1234"`), or `""`
`jira_url`	string	TRT JIRA URL, or `""`
`payload_jobs`	array	Payload validation jobs triggered (see below)

Status values:

Status	Meaning
`"open"`	Pre-existing revert PR found open during analysis
`"merged"`	Pre-existing revert PR already merged
`"staged"`	Revert PR and JIRA created, payload jobs triggered (used by `type: "revert"`)
`"pending"`	Experiment dispatched, payload jobs running, results not yet collected
`"passed"`	Payload jobs passed with the revert — candidate confirmed as cause
`"failed"`	Payload jobs still fail with the revert — candidate is innocent
`"inconclusive"`	Mixed or unfinished results
`"skipped_conflict"`	Revert has merge conflicts, skipped
`"deferred"`	Jobs skipped due to triggering limits, or candidate exceeded max experiment count

`candidates[].actions[].payload_jobs[]`

Payload validation jobs triggered against the revert PR.

Field	Type	Description
`command`	string	The payload command posted on the PR (e.g., `/payload-job periodic-ci-...-e2e-aws-ovn`)
`test_url`	string	pr-payload-tests URL for the run
`test_prow_url`	string	Prow URL for the resulting test run

`rhcos_suspects[]` (optional)

RHCOS RPM package updates suspected of contributing to failures. Written once by payload-analysis when RHCOS RPM changes correlate with job failures (see Step 6.1b of the payload-analysis skill). This array is separate from candidates[] because RHCOS changes cannot be reverted through the PR revert mechanism — they are informational for manual investigation.

An empty array or absent key means no RHCOS RPM changes were suspected.

Field	Type	Description
`rhcos_tag`	string	RHCOS image stream tag (`rhel-coreos` or `rhel-coreos-10`)
`rhcos_name`	string	Human-readable RHCOS version name
`package`	string	RPM package name
`old_version`	string	Previous RPM version
`new_version`	string	New RPM version
`failing_jobs`	array of strings	Job names from `failing_jobs[]` where this package change may be relevant
`rationale`	string	Why this package is suspected

Operations

Create (used by `payload-analysis`)

Write a new payload-results-{tag}.yaml with metadata, failing_jobs, candidates, and optionally rhcos_suspects populated. All failed blocking jobs are recorded in failing_jobs. Candidates with no pre-existing revert start with actions: []. If a pre-existing revert PR is discovered during analysis, append an action with type: "revert" and status: "open" or "merged". If RHCOS RPM suspects were identified, include them in rhcos_suspects[].

Read Candidates (used by `payload-revert`, `payload-experiment`)

Read the file. Filter candidates by confidence_score range. Exclude candidates that already have an action with status of "open" or "merged" (pre-existing revert). Return matching candidates. Use the top-level failing_jobs[] to look up full job details for each candidate's failing_jobs references.

Append Action (used by `stage-payload-reverts`, `payload-experimental-reverts`)

For a given candidate (matched by pr_url), append a new entry to its actions array. Do not modify existing action entries.

Update Action Status (used by `payload-experimental-reverts` Phase 2)

For a given candidate's action entry (matched by pr_url and type), update its status, result_summary, revert_pr_state, jira_key, jira_url, and payload_jobs fields in place.

Resume Detection (used by `payload-experiment`)

Scan all candidates. If any candidate has an action with type: "experiment" and status: "pending", the file has in-progress experiments awaiting Phase 2 collection. Phase 2 processes only pending experiments — candidates with other statuses are left unchanged.

How to use this skill

Payload Results YAML

When to Use This Skill

File Location

Schema

metadata

failing_jobs[]

candidates[]

candidates[].actions[]

candidates[].actions[].payload_jobs[]

rhcos_suspects[] (optional)

Operations

Create (used by payload-analysis)

Read Candidates (used by payload-revert, payload-experiment)

Append Action (used by stage-payload-reverts, payload-experimental-reverts)

Update Action Status (used by payload-experimental-reverts Phase 2)

Resume Detection (used by payload-experiment)

See Also