ci(workflows): skip PR creation on release commits to prevent bogus major-version PRs

[WilliamBerryiii]

Description

Prevents release-please from creating bogus v3.0.0 PRs when it runs on release commits. The root cause is a timing issue with "draft": true in the release-please config: draft releases use lazy tag creation, so the git tag is not materialized until the release is published. Without the tag, release-please cannot locate the draft on subsequent runs, version anchoring fails, and the manifest falls back to scanning all commits — picking up an old BREAKING CHANGE footer and proposing un-warranted major bumps.

The fix adds skip-github-pull-request to the release-please action step, conditioned on startsWith(github.event.head_commit.message, 'chore(main)'). Release commits carry zero unreleased changes, so skipping PR creation loses nothing. The existing manual tag-creation step ensures subsequent runs find the tag regardless.

• ci(workflows): added skip-github-pull-request conditional to main.yml release-please step, gated on release-commit prefix detection
• ci(workflows): updated the workaround comment block to reference both the skip conditional and the manual tag creation as a paired mitigation
• docs(instructions): added "YAML Expression Quoting" section to workflows.instructions.md documenting the colon-space plain scalar parsing issue and two acceptable solutions in preference order

YAML Expression Quoting Investigation

During implementation, actionlint rejected the bare expression ${{ startsWith(value, 'chore(main): release') }} because the GitHub Actions single-quoted literal ': release' contains a colon followed by whitespace. The YAML parser interprets that as a mapping value indicator inside a plain scalar, which is invalid. Seven alternatives were tested:

#	Expression	YAML Quoting	actionlint	Notes
1	startsWith(msg, 'chore(main): release')	bare	FAIL	': release' has :
2	startsWith(msg, 'chore(main): release')	"${{ }}"	PASS	Only double-quoted with: input in repo
3	startsWith(msg, 'chore(main)')	bare	PASS	Selected — shorter prefix, no colon-space
4	format('{0}: release', 'chore(main)')	bare	FAIL	': release' still has :
5	format('{0}{1}{2}', 'chore(main)', ':', ' release')	bare	PASS	Over-engineered
6	startsWith(msg, 'chore(main):')	bare	PASS	Colon without space is fine
7	env.RELEASE_PREFIX + startsWith(msg, env.RELEASE_PREFIX)	bare	PASS	Adds indirection

Option 3 was selected: the shorter prefix 'chore(main)' avoids colon-space entirely, enabling bare ${{ }} which matches every other with: input in the repo. The specificity tradeoff is acceptable since all chore(main) commits are release-please-generated.

Related Issue(s)

Fixes #559

Type of Change

Select all that apply:

Code & Documentation:

• Bug fix (non-breaking change fixing an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change adding functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature causing existing functionality to change)
• Documentation update

Infrastructure & Configuration:

• GitHub Actions workflow
• Linting configuration (markdown, PowerShell, etc.)
• Security configuration
• DevContainer configuration
• Dependency update

AI Artifacts:

• Reviewed contribution with prompt-builder agent and addressed all feedback
• Copilot instructions (.github/instructions/*.instructions.md)
• Copilot prompt (.github/prompts/*.prompt.md)
• Copilot agent (.github/agents/*.agent.md)
• Copilot skill (.github/skills/*/SKILL.md)

Note for AI Artifact Contributors:

• Agents: Research, indexing/referencing other project (using standard VS Code GitHub Copilot/MCP tools), planning, and general implementation agents likely already exist. Review .github/agents/ before creating new ones.
• Skills: Must include both bash and PowerShell scripts. See Skills.
• Model Versions: Only contributions targeting the latest Anthropic and OpenAI models will be accepted. Older model versions (e.g., GPT-3.5, Claude 3) will be rejected.
• See Agents Not Accepted and Model Version Requirements.

Other:

• Script/automation (.ps1, .sh, .py)
• Other (please describe):

Sample Prompts (for AI Artifact Contributions)

Testing

• actionlint passed on main.yml with the final expression form
• npm run lint:all passed (all 8 validation stages: markdown, spell-check, frontmatter, link validation, PowerShell analysis, YAML linting, copyright headers, action version pinning)
• Seven YAML expression quoting alternatives were systematically tested with actionlint to identify the root cause and select the cleanest fix (see investigation table above)

Checklist

Required Checks

• Documentation is updated (if applicable)
• Files follow existing naming conventions
• Changes are backwards compatible (if applicable)
• Tests added for new functionality (if applicable)

AI Artifact Contributions

• Used /prompt-analyze to review contribution
• Addressed all feedback from prompt-builder review
• Verified contribution follows common standards and type-specific requirements

Required Automated Checks

The following validation commands must pass before merging:

• Markdown linting: npm run lint:md
• Spell checking: npm run spell-check
• Frontmatter validation: npm run lint:frontmatter
• Link validation: npm run lint:md-links
• PowerShell analysis: npm run lint:ps

Security Considerations

• This PR does not contain any sensitive or NDA information
• Any new dependencies have been reviewed for security issues
• Security-related scripts follow the principle of least privilege

Additional Notes

Upstream references:

• googleapis/release-please#2627 — force-tag-creation feature request that would eliminate both workarounds
• googleapis/release-please-action#962 — draft release tag timing discussion
• googleapis/release-please-action#906 — related version anchoring issue

Follow-up: Once release-please-action ships a version containing force-tag-creation support (release-please#2627), both the skip-github-pull-request conditional and the manual tag-creation step can be replaced with "force-tag-creation": true in release-please-config.json.

🛡️ - Generated by Copilot

[github-actions]

Dependency Review

✅ No vulnerabilities or license issues or OpenSSF Scorecard issues found.

Scanned Files

None

[codecov-commenter]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 85.34%. Comparing base (d3bdd7a) to head (60aa4ed).

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #560      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   85.36%   85.34%   -0.03%     
==========================================
  Files          23       23              
  Lines        4475     4475              
==========================================
- Hits         3820     3819       -1     
- Misses        655      656       +1     

Flag	Coverage Δ
pester	85.34% <ø> (-0.03%)	⬇️

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see 1 file with indirect coverage changes

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR updates the main branch CI workflow to avoid release-please creating spurious major-version release PRs when it runs on release commits (a draft-release tag timing/anchoring issue). It also documents a YAML parsing edge case encountered while implementing the fix so future workflow changes can avoid similar failures.

Changes:

• Add a skip-github-pull-request condition to the release-please-action step to skip PR creation on release commits.
• Update the existing workflow comment block to describe the paired mitigation (skip PR creation + manual tag creation).
• Document the YAML “colon-space in plain scalar” expression parsing issue and acceptable solutions in workflow authoring instructions.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
.github/workflows/main.yml	Skips release-please PR creation on release commits to prevent bogus major bump PRs, while keeping the manual tag-creation workaround.
.github/instructions/hve-core/workflows.instructions.md	Adds guidance on quoting GitHub Actions expressions in YAML when : appears inside ${{ }} literals.