Side Quest 09-01e: Pattern

:dart: What You'll Do

You will diagnose successful runs that produce no write output and tighten instructions so expected writes happen reliably.

:clipboard: Before You Start

• Complete Side Quest: Diagnosing Common Agent Output Patterns

A run can finish with :white_check_mark: [done] and still create no comment or issue. That outcome is often correct: your condition may not have been met. The challenge is determining whether the skip was intentional or caused by ambiguous logic.

Start with three checks:

1. Confirm whether your condition was actually true at runtime.
2. Confirm a matching write action exists in safe-outputs:.
3. Confirm your instructions define what to do when no condition matches.

To avoid silent no-write outcomes, include explicit fallback behavior such as: "If no incidents are found, post one status comment saying no action is required." This still gives users a visible status indicator and proves the workflow ran.

If you are unsure how to phrase conditions, ask the agentic-workflows skill to rewrite the conditional language, or iterate with gh aw compile --watch.

Hands-On Exercise

Identify the pattern before opening the answer.

🤔 [plan] Repository checks passed; no escalation criteria met
✅ [done] Task complete

### Summary
Reviewed signals and took no action.

Show answer

Pattern: Summary says "done" but nothing was written. Clarify write conditions and add a fallback write rule when you need visible output every run.

✅ Checkpoint

• I can explain why a successful run might skip writing
• I can verify whether write conditions were truly met
• I can check that safe-outputs: includes the needed write action
• I can add a fallback output rule for no-action scenarios