Build diagnostics

Actions Insights can parse compiler and analyzer output from build logs or SARIF files and publish compact summaries to the history repository for the dashboard Build Insights tab.

Enable diagnostics

- uses: your-org/actions-insights@v1
  with:
    diagnostics-enabled: true
    diagnostics-files: '**/*.{sarif,log}'
    history-enabled: true
    history-repository: your-org/test-history
    history-token: ${{ secrets.HISTORY_TOKEN }}

Supported formats

Format	Typical files	Detection
SARIF 2.1	*.sarif, CodeQL, ESLint, Roslyn analyzers	JSON with "runs" array (recommended)
MSBuild / Roslyn	build.log, msbuild.log	path(line,col): warning CS1234: lines
gcc / clang	compiler stdout redirected to .log	file:line:col: warning: lines

Parser order is SARIF → MSBuild → gcc/clang. More specific formats are tried first.

.NET example

Capture MSBuild output to a log file, then point Actions Insights at it:

- name: Build
  run: dotnet build --no-restore 2>&1 | tee build.log

- name: Test report
  uses: your-org/actions-insights@v1
  if: always()
  with:
    test-results: '**/TestResults/*.trx'
    diagnostics-enabled: true
    diagnostics-files: 'build.log'
    history-enabled: true

For structured output, prefer SARIF from analyzers:

- name: Build with analyzers
  run: dotnet build /p:ErrorLog=build.sarif

diagnostics-files: 'build.sarif'

Workflow timing

When history-enabled and workflow-timing-enabled (default true) are set, the action fetches job and step durations from the current workflow run via the GitHub Actions API. No extra workflow configuration is required.

Ensure the job has permissions: actions: read if you use restricted GITHUB_TOKEN permissions.

Dashboard

• Repository → Build Insights: error/warning trends and workflow duration charts
• Run → Build: step timeline, diagnostic list grouped by file (lazy-loaded detail)

Diagnostics are capped at 500 items per run in storage; additional items are summarized in the truncated field.