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History Repository Architecture

Actions Insights uses a three-part architecture for long-term test history:

Components​

  1. GitHub Action — Parses test results and optionally publishes JSON to a history repository. Existing artifact, cache, PR comment, job summary, and check outputs are unchanged when history is disabled.

  2. History Repository — A dedicated git repository containing JSON data and the React dashboard source. No HTML reports are committed.

  3. GitHub Pages — Hosts the built React SPA. The dashboard loads JSON at runtime; new workflow runs do not require rebuilding the app.

Data vs Presentation​

The history repository is a data store, not a report generator:

  • The action writes structured JSON only
  • The React application is solely responsible for presentation
  • Full run payloads live in runs/*.json
  • Index files (repositories.json, branches.json, history.json) contain summaries only

Concurrency​

Multiple source repositories may write simultaneously. To minimize merge conflicts:

  • Each run creates a unique file under runs/
  • Writers only update their owner.repo/ subtree plus their entry in repositories.json
  • The action retries push with rebase on conflict (up to 3 attempts)

Authentication​

History publishing requires a dedicated history-token (PAT or GitHub App token) with contents: write on the history repository. This is separate from github-token used for PR comments and checks.